‍It All Started With a Jaw Wired Shut

In 2014, I had undergone jaw surgery, having my jaw wired shut as I returned to Ithaca for my senior year of college. At the time, I didn’t recognize the importance of optimizing nutrition for post-op healing, and to slow the loss of muscle mass. I was given extremely poor and antiquated advice for post-operative nutrition, but we did what we could with what little we knew. Post-jaw surgery, I ended up losing weight that was not beneficial to lose, and experienced a cascade of symptoms that had compounded over the years of suboptimal nutrition, underfueling, and overexercising.

Nutrient Depleted

I didn’t know how to replete properly coming off of this surgery, and was a vegetarian at the time, often trying to eat as little as necessary, to fit the skewed beauty mold that my college self blindly followed. I was not a picture of health! I was eating fake meat substitutes in an effort to save the environment to avoid harmful factory farmed industrial practices, however, these fake meats are highly processed and lab grown, a far cry from whole foods, and certainly not recognized as adequate fuel for the body. I was fairly stressed with schoolwork and often went out on weekends. Layered together, the incoming supply of nutrients did not meet the demand of my body.

Just Because It’s Normalized, Doesn’t Mean It’s Normal

I normalized symptoms such as being hangry (blood sugar swings), having extreme fatigue, and poor recovery. When I started working as a PT in 2018, I thought that being an adult just meant being tired all the time. I used to crash hard in the afternoons at work, and I relied on caffeine to limp through the afternoons. When I got home from work I’d have to take a nap the minute I got home, because I was so tired. I would peel myself out of bed in the mornings to workout early before work, but had minimal energy to put toward that even so.

I was also having digestive symptoms that I had completely normalized and overlooked because I was ”healthy”. I had undigested food in my stool, which is a sign of poor nutrient absorption and gut dysfunction, but I paid it zero attention. I also had symptoms of SIBO and multiple food sensitivities, but since they were in response to healthy foods, I didn’t think to eliminate them, or to dig deeper into why my gut was inflamed.

Initiating Change

Over time, I became ever curious about learning how to better myself and my patients through nutrition, but was simultaneously so confused with all the conflicting information in the wellness space. I decided to go back to school to get my masters in nutrition and functional medicine, to find out what the science and evidence showed.

And yet for the next two years, while working as a PT and going back to school, I was stressed, unbalanced, work driven, not socializing or taking time for enjoying life, and eating the same foods day to day and week to week. I was still relying on caffeine, and was getting frequent tension headaches, my neck completely locked up a few times, and would get headaches in the afternoons. I was unknowingly in a chronic fight or flight, heightened state.

Very luckily, I truly loved my master’s program and learning about deep nutrition, and functional medicine principles, hearing story after story of how this paradigm heals chronic diseases and even unraveling subclinical symptoms that were undiagnosed, similar to what I was experiencing. I started to realize that I needed these interventions myself, as did my patients and clients. I slowly started implementing changes in my own life, based on what I was learning. Read on for those changes.

Small Changes, Huge Difference

• My protein intake significantly increased as I learned about regenerative farms and decided to start eating high quality meat, which contains complete amino acid profiles, and serves as an optimal protein source.
• I started sleeping and waking at the same time most days of the week, great for regulating my circadian rhythm.
• I started getting morning light by getting outside with my dog, which supported my cortisol awakening response. I walked daily with my dog, and was forced to take breaks to go on walks with her. I was exposed to hormetic (aka beneficial) stressors in all weather conditions- running in the snow, or in the hottest heat.
• I started doing more strength training during the pandemic, and building muscle.
• I largely stopped drinking alcohol, because I couldn’t afford to lose a day of work or studying on weekends.
• I did a few rounds of targeted detoxification (hello, my 6-week Not Your Average Detox), and felt better after each one, despite thinking I felt good before!
• I stopped taking oral birth control, since oral contraceptives deplete magnesium and B-vitamins in the body over time, nothing that I had ever been warned of.
• I reassessed the relationships in my life, and adjusted those to maintaining only the ones that were supportive and nurturing.
• I learned how to prioritize and regulate my nervous system, and shift into rest and digest, parasympathetic mode.
• I started following my heart and my purpose and everything moved into alignment.

Nutrient Repleted

Slowly, very slowly, not even noticeably- I started feeling better! I started feeling more energy waking up, more stable energy and less brain fog in afternoons. I gained muscle mass, and my hair got significantly thicker and more full, my nails were growing strong and quickly, and my skin looked fairly good unless I had too much dairy, which caused pimples to surface.

I started to regulate my nervous system, slow down, and my digestion improved. I also started really prioritizing variety in my diet, and that improved digestion/reduction in symptoms. I stopped eating the foods that I had eaten so much of, that I had unknowingly created food sensitivities, and they weren’t good for me any longer.  

To recap; it was only after changing a variety of things, over the months and years, that I completely changed my energy around, and today, I’m so grateful that most of the time, I’m full of energy all day long. I don’t get the afternoon slump, and can work 11 hour days at the clinic without total exhaustion. But it was a process, and I can’t emphasize enough, that there is no magic bullet.

My view of health shifted drastically from that of what it “looks” like on the outside, to health as not an image, but an embodiment of energy and strength, which is built from the inside out. This is now what I help my clients do, in their own lives. If you’re feeling depleted, and want to learn how to replete your body and and feel like yourself again, I’d love to be your personal health detective. Click below for a free 15-minute discovery call.

Be Well,

Sara

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