About Me — Founder Story

I spent most of my life with IBS before I understood that my gut and my nervous system were never separate problems. Cleaning up my diet brought real relief — and then, pregnant with my third child, I was hit with something else entirely: strange skin reactions, eczema patches, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, histamine reactions that came out of nowhere. I didn't have a name for any of it yet. I just knew my body had stopped making sense to me.

I found a functional medicine doctor who suspected mold illness. She was honest with me, and I'll always respect that — but she also told me it would cost $8,000 to find out for certain, and she wasn't even sure she could treat me while I was pregnant. I left that appointment in tears. Not because of the diagnosis. Because I understood, in that moment, that real answers about my own body were priced out of reach, at the exact time I needed them most.

As a registered nurse, I started looking for a way to actually help patients the way I wished someone had helped me. I found a functional medicine course for nurses and applied for tuition assistance through the hospital system I worked for — they offered it, if you could show how the training would improve patient care. I was denied before I even reached the review pool. When I asked my department head why, she told me, plainly, that the skills I'd learn "could not be utilized across all areas" of radiology nursing, where I worked at the time. I asked again, certain she'd misunderstood — surely diet and lifestyle education applies everywhere? She repeated the same answer. That was the moment I understood I couldn't keep working inside a system that wouldn't let me teach patients how to heal with food and lifestyle, because it didn't fit a department's workflow.

So I paid for the training myself. I completed functional medicine for nurses, took a dedicated GI-MAP course, and joined Functional Medicine Academy, where I still draw on their core clinical program for complex cases. Then I ran a GI-MAP on my own body and used what it showed me — a short-term elimination diet, targeted supplements, blood sugar balance, and real food — to get my own health back. No $8,000 program. No department deciding whether this knowledge was worth approving. Just testing, a clear plan, and my own body finally making sense again.

Why I Do This Work

I built the Food First Method because I don't believe healing should require $8,000 you don't have, or a hospital department's permission. I test before I guess. I tell clients exactly what something costs and exactly what it can't fix, up front — no surprises, no gatekeeping. I built the program I wish had existed when I was the one crying in a doctor's office parking lot, pregnant and out of options.

If you've been told your labs are normal while your life keeps shrinking around your symptoms, I understand that completely — I've lived it twice, in two different ways. You don't have to find your own way through this alone, and you don't need $8,000 to start.

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A Note on Faith

I'm a Christian, and my faith shapes how I show up for every client I work with. I believe God is the ultimate healer — that the testing, the nutrition work, and the nervous system regulation in this program are tools, not the source of healing itself. I pray for my clients, and I pray with the ones who'd like that woven into our work together.

This program is built on real, rigorous functional medicine — the testing is thorough, the science is sound, and that never changes. But if you're someone who wants your faith to be part of your healing journey too, you won't have to leave that at the door here.