Why did I start Your Why Health?

I’ll take you back to a blazing hot day in July— and I was freezing cold.

I couldn’t stop shivering. Then I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t think clearly. I was losing the ability to stand. Something was very wrong.

My wife rushed me to the emergency room. After four agonizing hours, the ER doctor ran a blood test and then told my wife that I “just needed to eat something.” I was sent home.

The next day, I was even worse.

Trying to avoid being dismissed at the ER again, my wife did a virtual visit with a different doctor. That doctor pulled up my test results from the night before and said that I shouldn’t have been discharged (low potassium levels can be life threatening). I needed to get back to the hospital immediately.

We went back to the ER.

The same doctor from the night before tried to discharge me again. I was vomiting when they handed me the discharge paperwork. I couldn’t even hold the clipboard or pen.

Feeling helpless, my wife called a friend of ours in the medical field who said, “Hand the phone to the ER doctor, NOW.” My friend talked to the doctor directly. She insisted that I be taken seriously— that clearly, I was not okay.

This friend probably saved my life. I was finally admitted to the hospital.

Further testing showed that I was, in fact, super sick. I was hospitalized for two weeks, finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder.

My first COVID infection that I had gotten weeks before (despite having been vaccinated and still masking) had wreaked havoc on my body, permanently damaging it.

In the months after the hospitalization, I couldn’t “eat healthy.” I couldn’t exercise.

I was on steroids that bloated me for a long time.

I had that painful experience that many women go through— my neighbor asked me if I was pregnant (when I very much wasn’t).

I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. None of my clothes fit.

The old me would have collapsed into myself, panicking and going through cycles of shame…

I grew up around messages of guilt and helplessness around food and wellness.

I watched loved ones go through the debilitating cycle of unsustainable diets, “fall off the wagon,” and then be paralyzed with shame and depression.

It’s hard to put into words how terrified I was for a long time that this was going to happen to me.

So how did that girl who spent the first 30 years of her life running (literally running marathons) away from the fear of being fat and unhealthy, now look in the mirror and be ok?

Years before this hospitalization, I worked with a health coach.

Rather than pinging from one diet plan or fitness program to another, I learned research-based nutrition, movement, sleep, and de-stressing habits. Most importantly, I learned how to ingrain these habits into my daily life. I had an evidence-based understanding of motivation, joy, and wellness.

Thanks to the health coaching I had invested in years before, when I got out of the hospital, I had a toolbox full of ways to be ok and feel better. No matter what.

It was a lifesaver, literally.

So I didn’t collapse into myself.

I recovered.

Slowly – and at my own pace.

I rested a lot (which is a concept my dog Luna does not understand).

I found movements that relieved pain while not over-exerting myself into relapse.

I found new foods that could still provide the nutrients I needed.

I stuck with my sleep routine.

Today, I enjoy movement most days of the week (Yes, I actually enjoy it. And yes, walking counts as exercise).

I’m now savoring all the foods I did before the diagnosis.

I sleep great.

I get stressed, but then I actively de-stress.

I know there will be bumps along the way, but I know I have resilient, deeply rooted health.

That’s why I started Your Why Health.

I want to give others the same gift that was given to me— a lifetime of sustained peace and wellness— knowing that you can nurture and care for your body even when sh*t happens.

So that’s how I got here. And that’s why I do what I do.