My Story
Some of you may know my story, others might be complete strangers and have no idea who I am or what I am about. So I hope by sharing my story with you, it brings an understanding of my purpose behind Wholistic Roots, and sheds light on my genuine passion behind what I do.
It’s hard for me to pinpoint a specific time when I knew the health field was my calling. God instilled an interest in me for cooking, fitness, and overall health from a very young age. My love for these things kept me busy cooking with my mom, learning new recipes, playing sports my entire life, and eventually going on to study Kinesiology at California Baptist University. I absolutely loved learning about the human body. The more I learned about the body, the more in awe I was with the Creator. It reflects the systematic, organized, and mind-blowing God that He is. Seriously! There is not one thing created by Him without meaning, including YOU!
Throughout college, I struggled with learning how to care for myself in the best way. I always tried to eat foods that fueled me and exercised to gain strength and endurance. However, the relationship between food and exercise was not in balance. My mind would tell me I had to restrict certain foods and I could be obsessive about this, only leading to cravings (usually processed sugars of some sort). This led to the spiral of forcing myself to exercise harder to reconcile the food I ate. I didn’t realize how poor my relationship with food was until after I tore my ACL. For any athlete that has had an injury that takes them out for months, you can probably relate here. One of the first thoughts I had was not being able to work out. I thought I would gain weight and feel so unhealthy because I wouldn’t be able to maintain my fitness. I truly thank God for this trial in my life, because it forced me to slow down. I was very concerned about eating smaller portions and healthy foods while I wasn’t able to exercise. But through the process, I learned that slowing down was so much better for my health than any particular diet could have been. Recovering from that injury, I found the food and exercise relationship that made me thrive and I relearned how to intuitively eat for my body’s needs.
My ACL injury, which at the time, seemed like one of the biggest problems in the world, paled in comparison to what was about to happen in my life. All within a two week span, my family went through the trenches. My sister also tore her ACL (at least I had a surgery buddy), and my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer. This was a rainy season for my family. Praise be to God, He sustained the health of my mom who is now cancer free and still living the purpose that God has for her here on this earth. Although these trials tested me, they truly strengthened my faith and deepened my walk with the Lord. All to prepare me for probably the hardest season of all.
I met my wonderful husband, Ben, at CBU and we continued long-distance dating after he transferred schools. To any of you who are dating through the distance, if God wants you together, He will make a way! It was shortly after I graduated from my undergraduate, that I moved back where my family was, which happened to be only a 40 minute drive from Ben. The following fall, I got the call from Ben. He had been having back pain all summer and the pain was taking him out of his activities. During this call, he explained that the doctors had found a tumor in his spine, soon to find out it was cancerous. This news wrecked me. Through 6 months of chemo, a back surgery, and a bad car accident causing a broken leg thrown into the mix, this season was truly testing me. But the providence of God is SO REAL. He orchestrated events in our lives to prepare us for this challenge, He relocated both of us to be with family for support and care through this time, and He ultimately brought healing to Ben’s body. More importantly, going through this fire truly refined both of our walks with the Lord and brought us a deeper purpose.
We got married about a year after Ben was cleared and that is when I felt like I had time to really focus on figuring out how I wanted to use the gifts and passions the Lord has given me. I considered athletic training in the past, physical therapy, and nursing. But all of these came with hesitations. I remember having a talk with my husband about how I wanted to help people, and realized I was describing health coaching. I thought it just sounded like a dream, and that it was not realistic. But God closed doors on my other options and made clear the path towards creating my health coaching business. He continues to guide my steps and give me vision for how to create a health business to glorify Him.
All of my experiences in life to this point have broadened my perspective on what true health really looks like. It is not rooted in a diet, or a Vo2 max. It is not how great your skin is or how much you weigh. It starts from the inside out, and the body, mind, and spirit have to work together. If the foundation is weak, then any attempt to build a “healthy” life will eventually crumble. God cares about our bodies. I hope that is reflected in my life and in my teaching. We should in no way neglect to care for our bodies, but rather be in tune to the Creator, who will help us learn how to care for His creation. He has designed complicated, yet organized bodies that have an ideal way of functioning.
I want to break away from the cultural norms of this day and help women rediscover how our bodies were intended to thrive. There are biological processes that diets of today totally disregard. Women especially are put under so much pressure surrounding appearance, social stigmas, and motherhood. We pile on loads of unnecessary stressors which turns on our defense systems indefinitely and compromises our health. Why not learn the truth of how the body responds biologically to what we put in and on it, and create a lifestyle that best supports that? In reality, we need to simplify our approach. Let’s relearn and rediscover our healthy roots!
If you can relate in any way to my story or want to learn more about my approach, I’d love to chat with you! Schedule a meeting with me and we can talk more about what it might look like to build a wholistically rooted life for you!
Contact Me with comments or questions!
