The Wellness Word
I’m a faith-filled integrative health coach, RN, and holistic nutritionist who’s passionate about helping women break free from the overwhelm of the sick-care system. In my cozy corner of the internet, you’ll find bite-sized encouragement and practical tips on everything from nourishing your body and calming your nervous system to building healthy relationships and reducing toxins—always with grace, joy, and a whole lot of Jesus. Subscribe to join a community of women healing from the inside out and get a free guide to a Healthy Pantry Reset!
What if pushing through is what's keeping you stuck?
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Tara said she'd wake up on a morning and something would feel different. Good different! The joint pain dialed down to a 3 instead of a 7, the fog finally lifted, and she'd think, Okay. Today's the day. Get it all done. So, she'd scrub both bathrooms, run four loads of laundry, drive across town for groceries, meal prep for the week, and answer every email she'd been avoiding. By dinner she felt almost like her old self again. The woman...
The ingredient missing from your perfect diet
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Lauren opened our call by holding a spiral notebook up to the camera. It contained six weeks of food logs. Every meal, every ingredient and every symptom. She had cut out gluten, dairy, sugar and nightshades and she was sticking to it perfectly. She was still bloated by 3pm every single day, still exhausted and still waking up with a stomach that felt like a clenched fist. "I did everything right," she said, visibly emotional. "So either...
Still here. Still trying. Not sure if it's working.
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Monica sent me a message a few weeks ago. No new labs. No breakthrough symptom or anything dramatic. Just: "Day 1,142. Still here. Still trying. Not sure if any of this is working, but I'm not stopping either." She's been on this healing journey for over three years. New protocols, false starts, a few real wins, more plateaus than she can count, and a body that still doesn't feel fully like hers. "I don't know if I have another fresh...
Is your sleep tracker making your sleep worse?
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Kristen's eyes open before her alarm most mornings, and the first thing she does, before she stretches, before she prays, before her feet even hit the floor, is reach for her phone to check her sleep score. 72. Not the 85 she got Tuesday. She told me she felt disappointed, right there in bed, before the day had even started. "I know it's just a number," she said. "But it ruins my morning every single time." Kristen has an autoimmune...
Why some friendships don't survive chronic illness
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Michelle told me about her group chat. It was six women, best friends since their kids were in preschool, the kind that used to text daily and never went quiet. Until she got diagnosed with Hashimoto's, and slowly, without anyone saying it out loud, it did. She noticed it the night the group planned a dinner without asking if she could come. It wasn't out of unkindness, but because she'd canceled the last four in a row, and people...
I don't feel like I live in this body anymore.
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, I remember when I realized that I couldn't feel my toes. And it was almost a relief compared to the pain that had become my "normal". That was before fibromyalgia, vestibular migraines and neuropathy. I used to enjoy hiking and standing in worship. People used to ask me if I had more hours in my day because I was able to accomplish so much by always moving. Then came the realization that I didn't really feel like I lived in my body...
You're not sabotaging your healing. You're protecting yourself.
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Renee kept her printed protocol in a binder on the kitchen counter. Seventeen days in, she was doing beautifully. She was eating real food, getting real rest, and seeing real progress. Then she went to Sunday dinner and her mother-in-law made an offhand comment about her "diet phase," and by the time Renee got home she'd eaten an entire bag of chips. Something in her just... broke. She didn't text me for two weeks after that. When she...
I used to lie there praying for sleep that wouldn't come
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, It's 11:47 p.m. Your body is exhausted, bone-tired, can't-hold-your-eyes-open tired. But your mind won't stop. It's replaying tomorrow's to-do list, that email you forgot to answer, the ache in your joints that showed up out of nowhere, the symptom you're now too afraid to Google again. I think of a woman I coached. I'll call her Renee. She came to me convinced her body had simply forgotten how to sleep. She'd tried melatonin, magnesium,...
What being “the strong one” is doing to your immune system
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, I got a text last week that made me pause. It said: “I don’t even know how to ask for help anymore. I’ve been the strong one for so long, I forgot I’m allowed to not be.” I sat with that sentence for a long time because I’ve heard some version of it from almost every woman I’ve ever coached. Let me tell you about a client I’ll call Kristen. Kristen is the one everyone calls. She’s the friend who shows up with a casserole, the daughter who...
Your inflammation markers don't care what you spent
RESTORATION HEALTH COACHING WEEKLY WELLNESS Hi Reader, Rachel showed up to our call with full tote bag, packed with supplement bottles, and she tilted it toward her camera so I could see. "I just need to know what else I'm supposed to be buying," she said.She'd spent more than I spent on my first car in eight months. Testing. Probiotics. Organic everything. And she'd cut back to part-time because the fatigue made full days impossible so she was earning less and spending more, watching her...