My mom used to say I was full of piss and vinegar – which was her nice way of saying I was angry and moody ALL THE TIME. As a teenager, I suffered from debilitating periods, mood swings that were off the charts, and sugar-fueled blood sugar crashes that turned into epic shouting matches. Birth control solved the cramps but created a new problem: depression.
My twenties were a blur of manic episodes where I’d start projects and plan my whole future, followed by depressive crashes that left me sleeping away entire weekends. Mostly, I lived somewhere in the middle: exhausted, grouchy, and feeling like hot garbage. Different antidepressants and mood stabilizers made me feel… less. Which isn’t helpful when apathy keeps you stuck because nothing motivates you to seek better.
I remember one terrifying episode of hypoglycemia, though I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. I’d eaten an obscene amount of Boston Market, finishing with half a pie and whipped cream. Suddenly, I was dizzy, my legs were jello, and my brain felt like it was shutting down. I couldn’t think or stand. My boyfriend was understandably terrified, and all I could manage was “call my mom.” She knew exactly what to do, but the gravity of that situation only hit me recently when I started working with continuous glucose monitors. Low blood sugar can hospitalize or kill you. But I was young, and rather than this being a wake-up call, it became proof that I should carry a jar of Jiffy peanut butter everywhere.
I truly thought all of this, plus feeling cold constantly, cracked and bleeding skin, brittle hair and nails, zero sex drive, and weekly episodes that felt like food poisoning, was just life. What made it worse? I’d tell doctors I felt terrible, they’d run labs, and say “everything’s normal!” After enough dismissive responses, you start feeling like a crazy person.
Then my therapist said something that blew my mind: “It’s not normal to have food poisoning all the time.” Wait, everyone else doesn’t feel this way??
My doctor suggested it was either wheat or dairy and prescribed a three-day juice cleanse (this was 2012, before elimination diets were mainstream). Those three days were epically terrible – expensive, raw vegetable juices when I survived on pizza and pasta. I was in pain, grouchy, hungry, and going through major sugar withdrawal. But in the end, we discovered it was gluten.
Going gluten-free was challenging but simple – I’d never choose to eat something that poisoned me again. Learning to cook was harder (my mom didn’t teach me because she wanted me to have a career). This was before they made gluten-free everything, so you had to make almost everything from scratch. I eventually adopted a paleo approach, which solved many problems, but not all.
The real breakthrough came with a functional doctor who actually listened and validated my experience – a first! He gave me a detailed action plan, but what moved the needle most was a book about using food for depression and mood disorders. Super fringe at the time, but groundbreaking for me. The author didn’t talk about blood sugar specifically, but that’s what her plan provided: stable blood sugar, fewer mood swings, grounded energy. It focused on inflammation, environmental exposures, and gut health. It changed my life enough that I got off my mood stabilizers and antidepressants.
The final piece was working with a nutrition counselor who suggested getting off birth control. I had so many issues: no sex drive, painful sex, painful tampon use, never wanting to be touched without clothes, always dry, never orgasmed (I thought people were making this up). I couldn’t imagine how anyone would equate sex with fun or excitement.
She shared podcasts that absolutely blew my mind. I’d been complaining about sexual issues to my OB-GYN since my early twenties. They suggested therapy, sex therapy, and physical therapy – all things I tried. But no one ever mentioned that my symptoms could be related to birth control. Turns out, they all were. Not every woman experiences these side effects, but I got the whole package. Getting off birth control was like going through the puberty I never really had the sexual part. It was like having an entirely new body.
It was exciting and disconcerting to realize I’d lost twenty years of my life because I didn’t know these were symptoms with solutions. More importantly, I learned that sexuality is part of human life worth addressing for connection, relationships, and quality of life. It matters and isn’t a trivial afterthought.
This discovery process took over a decade and wasn’t linear. It was long, hard, isolating, and made me really angry. There weren’t many places to find help then (now there are probably too many). It’s hard to keep pushing forward when you’re exhausted and overwhelmed. I was desperate for answers and found incredible people along the way, but it took more than ten years to reach a place where I felt good.
Now I can connect the dots and see the patterns. Stabilizing my blood sugar, getting off medications I only needed because of incredibly poor sugar-fueled eating habits, cutting out gluten, and managing stress through mindfulness all played a role in making me no longer feel like a prisoner in my own body.
Here’s why I do this work: I don’t want you to waste YEARS of your life feeling like garbage, stuck in cycles of “your labs are fine,” offers for antidepressants, and survival mode. I want to offer you answers, solutions, and a manageable framework for putting your health back together within the context of your real life. I don’t want you to feel alone. I want you to have the energy and bandwidth to focus on what matters to you, without your health being an obstacle.
You are not alone, and you are not broken. Our go-go-go world wasn’t created for thriving. You deserve to feel good, to feel vibrant, and to have agency over your health.
Let’s find your path back to feeling strong, together.
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