Oh my I so love this time of year. The gatherings, the fun activities, the special dishes that are only created this time of year. But man the way I feel after enjoying or over enjoying the holidays is not the best. I usually feel tired, bloated, cranky, sometimes my skin starts breaking out or I develop a rash. When this happens I reach for my trusty plan of eating whole foods. I give up the easy, the simple carbs - think cake, bread, pancakes etc. After a month of eating this way my body thanks me with more energy, clearer skin, a happier me and a whole host of other positive experiences. 

Are you making a plan post holiday to support your body to be the best it can be? Have you thought about making such changes but they feel overwhelming. Join me and others on this journey. We will kick off with a prep week meeting on January 4th followed by weekly meetings where you can ask questions or present your concerns about the program. I will also offer a dedicated Facebook Group and yes, I will give you a suggested meal plan with links to the recipes. 

Tomorrow, October 9th, is the annual PANDAS/PANS awareness day. I really think we need more than a day of awareness, a month would be really nice. So many children are shuttled into programs or medications that do not get at the root cause of why they are having symptoms of anxiety, OCD, irritability, restrictive eating, anger and more. Young children, 1st grade get arrested for behavior they don't have control over. Their little brains are on fire and they can not think. When my daughter was young, she would have 45+ minute temper tantrums. No amount of redirection helped. Not even bargaining helped. She would just rage and rage on until she exhausted herself. She had social anxiety so much that when she was evaluated for a special needs program for preschoolers, she hide herself under my chair. Visibly afraid of the evaluator who was being so gentle, offering various toys to encourage her to come out. We tried play therapy only helped minimally. Occupational therapy helped with the sound sensitivities however there was so much more going on. 

Eventually we found a helpful chiropractor who started her on the path towards healing. She helped us uncover our daughters food allergies that was making it hard for her to think. Hello gluten! Did you know gluten allergy can cause a multitude of symptoms beside GI troubles. Gluten allergy can cause acne, headaches, migraines, joint pain, numbness, hyperactivity, weight-loss, bloating, gas, itchy skin, rashes, anemia, depression just to name a few.  However it wasn't just gluten that was her problem. I eventually deduced she had PANDAS, but I needed to find a practitioner to treat her. Thankfully our chiropractor found a functional neurologist who helped us get to the root cause of what was going on inside her.  My daughters body was still battling the streptococcus infection she had at age 2, the mycoplasma pneumonia infection she picked up someplace and a raging case of candida from the all the antibiotics I had in my last trimester, during labor and the dose they gave her a 6 weeks due to some mystery illness they felt was best to treat with an antibiotic versus finding out why she had a high fever.  The end result was her body was on fire from the gluten allergy, which for her is actually celiac, and fighting all those infections. Once we treated the infections, removed stressors like us fostering children. She began to thrive. 

 is going on for yourself or your child? I can help. I've been trained as a Function Nutrition Coach, to help you discover what is going on inside.  If you have been treating your symptoms with medications for months or years and it hasn't improved. Consider functional nutrition coaching. Schedule a FREE 15 minute strategy session.