Lost and Found
For decades, I ran on empty. I silenced my needs beneath the weight of everyone else's expectations. I believed that taking care of myself was selfish, that my worth was measured by how much I could give, how much I could carry, and how little I could ask for in return. I put myself last so consistently that I forgot I was even on the list.
Those years cost me. They taught me what it feels like to disconnect from yourself so completely that you no longer recognize the person staring back at you in the mirror. But they also taught me something else — what it takes to come back.
My healing didn't follow a straight line. There were false starts and setbacks, days I wanted to give up, moments I didn't think I had anything left. But at some point while at my rock bottom, I decided enough was enough and that if I didn't choose different and do different, I wasn't going to be around for much longer. So, after clawing my way out, I began to rebuild. I started learning how to trust my body again. I started to heal my relationship with food and with myself. I started creating a life that felt like home.
And that journey — from being lost to myself to finding my way back — became the foundation of everything I live and teach today.
Taking Back My Life
On September 26, 2021, after decades of not putting myself or my health first, I made a choice. That was the day I started on a path that would change my life forever.
My granddaughter had been born, and that changed everything. She saved my life in ways I'm still learning to put into words. I looked at her and knew — with a piercing certainty that cut through every excuse and every fear — that I had to choose to LIVE. Not just exist. Not just survive. But truly, fully live. She became my WHY. I promised her that I would keep choosing to live, because she deserves to have a MiMi who is here to make memories during her milestones and all the days in between. That promise became the catalyst for the work I was about to do.
I decided I was worth fighting for. I chose to stop waiting for permission and acceptance from others and start doing the work for the ME I knew I could be.
By August 2022, I had healed my body from the toxic ultra-processed foods I had been putting into it, and I had worked diligently to heal my mind and soul, too. I was at my healthiest self — feeling strong and capable and alive. I was hiking regularly. My body was thriving.
On September 25, 2023 — one day shy of the two-year anniversary of taking back my life — Chris and I stood at the summit of Quandary Peak. Standing there, at 14,271 feet above sea level, I felt the full weight of what I had accomplished. The mountain beneath my feet was proof that the work had been worth it. That I had been worth it.
When Everything Shifted
But then perimenopause hit.
And it hit me hard.
It started with my first frozen shoulder. Then came the heart palpitations. An EPI diagnosis. Joint pain. Oxygen hunger. Ocular migraines. Brain fog. Sleepless nights. Lethargy. Mood swings. Meno belly. Histamine reactions. My second frozen shoulder. One ailment after another, each one stealing a little more of the life I'd worked so hard to build. My body — the same body that had carried me to the summit of a 14,271-foot mountain and let me hike for miles and miles — felt like it was turning against me.
The slow fade was devastating. The frustration with my limitations sank me to depths I hadn't known in years, mentally and physically. It was unfathomable. I watched myself lose ground, unable to stop the backslide.
Then, in April 2025, I stepped in a divot in my yard and severely injured my back.
Everything changed in that moment.
The body that had been strong enough to climb Quandary Peak and hike for miles and miles became debilitated by even the slightest of movements. I went from trekking local trails multiple times a week — which was my way of fighting back against perimenopause — to going weeks without stepping on a trail.
My back became the deciding factor for every invitation, every activity, every plan. On my best days, I was scared to move wrong and make it angry. On my worst days, the pain was all-consuming.
Pain is such a tricky beast. It wants to take everything from you, and you have to fight for yourself and against it for it not to. It almost stole everything from me.
Thanks to physical therapy, an amazing chiropractic team, and the best massage therapist in the world, I've gotten a lot of my mobility and flexibility back. While I'm not where I was pre-injury, most days are low-pain now. I'm better. I'm healing. But the journey back has been slow and uncertain, and I've had to redefine what strength and stamina mean for this season of my life.
But here's what's been the life-changing difference — thankfully, I had done enough healing that the stinkin' thinkin' weeds didn't take over. The toxic thoughts that once would have consumed me — the shame, the guilt, the backwards belief that there's no hope and that my body had failed me and was doomed to be this way forever — those didn't get to win.
Because I had already planted something deeper.
ROOTED Was Born in the Weeds
ROOTED didn't start as a concept. It started as a lifeline.
It grew out of this season — out of the mess, the pain, the frustration, the fight to reclaim what felt lost. I was literally in the weeds, with choking vines wrapped tightly around my whole-self — mind, body, and soul. And in that place of struggle, something extraordinary began to take root.
On one of my darkest and most painful days, the seed of an idea was planted. As a nature-lover, who has always found peace, freedom, and joy outdoors, I knew where I felt most at home, most myself. As I fought to rebuild my body while protecting the mental and emotional healing I'd already done, I realized this is what healing really looks like. Healing is comprehensive. It includes every part of who we are. It's whole.
When I began to conceptualize what healing could look like — what it meant to rebuild trust with my body and create something that would last — the metaphor of a tree became impossible to ignore.
I pictured a tree. Not just any tree, but one that had weathered storms and withstood fierce winds. A tree that stretched toward the light and kept growing, no matter what tried to hold it back. One that bent but did not break. Through every season, it stood resilient.
That tree was me. My ROOTED Self. And I realized it could be anyone who is fighting to heal like I was.
The roots held my beliefs — the truths I was choosing to plant deep. The trunk represented my identity — the core of who I was becoming. The three main branches were my MIND, BODY, and SOUL. And from each branch grew the everyday limbs of nourishment that were shaping my well-being.
When any one of these parts was neglected, the others felt it. When each was nurtured, everything thrived.
This became the foundation of what I started calling the ROOTED System — a way to heal that was comprehensive, interconnected, and whole. And it was time to see if it could help others the way I knew it would help me.
From Idea to Community to Guidebook
In May of 2025, I introduced ROOTED as a 30-day challenge to my CORE4 Community members. Because we have all been through adversity, I was hoping it would resonate with them as much as it did with me. I didn't know if what I was learning in my own healing — what I was living through in real time — would translate into something others could use. But I needed to try.
My CORE4 Community showed up. They trusted me with their growth. They shared their courage and their openness. Together, we formed what this work would become. With their input, I refined the challenge and ran it again in June, and then once more in July. Their feedback changed everything. Their questions deepened the system. Their breakthroughs proved it worked. All of it formed what you'll find in the ROOTED Guidebook.
After the June challenge, I knew that I knew that I knew. ROOTED was ready for more. It needed to be something people could return to, again and again. So I began writing the book ROOTED: Your 30-Day Journey Toward Whole-Self Health.
Looking back now, it's amazing to me that this got written at all. Because of my back injury these days, it hurt to sit for long periods of time. And as the owner of a standing desk, it also hurt to stand. Even laying flat was an issue. The only time it didn't hurt — from April through August — was when I was moving.
There were days I would type a page or two, then get up and walk around my house and stretch before sitting back down. That pattern on repeat makes writing a book take a while. Other days, I would turn my walking pad on and walk while I typed, clocking 8-10 miles regularly just to keep the words flowing without the pain stopping me.
But hindsight is always so much clearer, isn't it? This — overcoming adversity to heal, grow, bloom, and flourish — IS what ROOTED is all about. It makes so much sense now. ROOTED wouldn't be what it is. It never would've been conceptualized had I not found myself tangled in the undergrowth, struggling against the weight of everything trying to pull me down and keep me stuck.
It took everything I had to write ROOTED. But it's been simple to live, because everything I've done to take back my health — in a very real and tangible way — is wrapped up in its pages.
Why ROOTED Is Different
Without the trauma and drama of my hard season and without my community, ROOTED wouldn't exist. I'm grateful to everyone who walked beside me through the process of bringing this from concept to reality — those who bolstered me, encouraged me, and believed in the work even when it was still taking form.
For too long, we've been sold a version of "healthy" that makes it seem like the answer for everyone is to "just diet and exercise." It's become about deprivation and restriction, built on rules that leave you feeling like you're never enough.
ROOTED offers something different.
Healing.
Whole-Self Health isn't about the food alone. There are so many aspects to what being healthy means and how it feels. If we only focus on the food — or only the exercise, or only one piece of the puzzle — whatever we choose to do will not last.
The ROOTED guidebook is interactive and will help you grow past toxic diet mentality and rebuild your relationship with food, your body, and yourself from the ground up. Over 30 days, you'll dive deeper into those three branches and twelve limbs of Whole-Self Health — mind, body, and soul — clearing the toxic weeds of shame, guilt, and SHOULDs while planting something real and lasting in their place.
Through the five PEP STEPS and rePLANT framework, you'll build a Purposeful Eating Plan that reflects who you are — not who diet culture says you need to be.
I don't hand you someone else's plan or program. I help you build your own. Because your healing is yours. Your journey is yours. And you deserve to walk it in a way that feels grounded, lasting, and deeply true.
Walking Arm-in-Arm
I'm a teacher at heart. I have a teaching degree and years of classroom experience, but my real education came from the lived experience of putting myself back together. Every chapter of my life has influenced the way I teach, and the heart behind it all remains unchanged — I want to LIVE, and I want you to LIVE fully, too.
I don't enjoy leading from a distance. Who I am wants to step into the mess with you and stay with you as you sort through what comes next. I want to be your biggest cheerleader, your confidence booster, your loudest encourager. I am the one who can remind you that YOU CAN when you forget. And I want you to know more than anything that if you don't believe in yourself yet, I will believe in you enough until you do.
Your Invitation to Heal
If you've been sold a version of "healthy" that makes you feel like you're never enough, this is your invitation to something different.
If you're tired of diets that demand deprivation and rules that steal your joy, this is your permission to stop chasing.
If you're ready to rebuild trust with your body and create a life ROOTED in what matters most to you — this is your beginning.
Healing is possible.
Peace, freedom, and joy aren't someday — they can be today. You can stop chasing diets and start choosing yourself. Your own wisdom can become your greatest guide. You can build a life ROOTED in what matters most to you.
I'm honored to be part of your journey. I believe in you and in your ability to #liveROOTED. And I'll be cheering you on every step of the way.
Because all of this is worth it. You are worth it. And you deserve to come home to yourself.
Choose ROOTED.
Choose healing.
Choose YOU.
I'm ROOTing for you!
❤️❤️❤️