Welcome to my Functional Health Coaching page! My name is Felice, and I am so excited you have found your way here. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been struggling with your health for a while and can’t seem to find the answers as to why.
Are you tired all the time? Lacking motivation to get out and do things you love? Can’t lose weight? Don’t know what to eat? Experiencing brain fog? Joints ache? Do you have unexplained skin issues? Are you doing all the “things” and still feel like crap?
I’m here for you! I help nature loving, active, determined folks who feel misled led by modern medicine find real answers to their health issues and get them back out on the trail feeling better than ever. I especially love working with people dealing with skin issues as I struggled with this for many years. Functional Diagnostic Nutrition helped me not only figure out the underlying causes of the rash on my face, but also what foods work best for MY body. At the age of 50 I feel more energized and healthier than ever before!
I can help you get back to long mountain bike rides with friends, sunrises on snow covered mountains, enjoyment of nourishing foods, enthusiasm for new adventures, a clear mind ready to learn new things, and an overall sense of wellbeing and happiness.
I do this by:
1. Creating a connection
between food and health outcomes so people can eat in alignment with how they want to feel.
2. Finding real answers
using functional lab testing to guide their personalized health-building plan.
3. Giving people the tools
to navigate the trails of health and wellbeing FOR LIFE.
So, what is Functional Diagnostic Nutrition?
FDN was developed to help folks out of the frustrating spiral of chasing symptoms and the “pill for an ill” model that we see so many health practitioners following today. I was trained to take a holistic approach to wellness by identifying healing opportunities in your metabolism, coaching up function, coaching down hidden stressors, all while respecting your individual needs. I do this through detailed assessments, well-chosen functional labs, and correlating test results with your main complaints. We test and don’t guess with very specific functional labs which help us identify HIDDEN (hormone, immune, digestion, detoxification, energy production and nervous system) stressors in your system which may be contributing to metabolic chaos®.
Next, I create a health re-building strategy that is drug free, all natural, and designed just for you. The protocol I use is called DRESS: diet, rest, exercise, stress reduction, and supplements. This program is designed to nourish, support, and cleanse the body so that it may heal and return to a balanced state of well-being. Utilizing detailed diet check record sheets to track how the food you eat makes you feel, education on ways to reduce stress internal and external, tools to help you say no to foods that are harmful to your body, and creating boundaries are all a part of the journey we will go on together.
It’s important to know that I am not a doctor and I do not diagnose or treat anything specifically. As an FDN-P I am trained to uncover hidden stressors both internal and external which may be creating an imbalance in your body. As I’ve learned from decades as a massage therapist, your hip may hurt, but the problem is not necessarily the hip itself, the root cause may be originating somewhere else in the body. A great example would be low hormones. While we may use bio-identical hormones in the beginning to help build you up, we will look for reasons as to why your hormones are off. This could be things like liver congestion, insulin resistance, digestive issues, and of course stress. All too often traditional medicine overlooks this concept and just focuses on the symptom. FDN on the other hand recognizes the fact that we need to look at the entire system if we want to heal and feel our best.
My story...
When I think back on my health journey, I know for certain my issues began when I was a child. I can recall at an early age not feeling well physically and emotionally. I’m a child of the 70s and 80s, we shoved sugar down our throats ALL the time! Captain Crunch for breakfast, pixie sticks, candy rings and necklaces, fun dip, candy stores everywhere. Food and early childhood trauma wreaked havoc on my body. As a teen I developed an eating disorder along with a strong thirst for alcohol. I was put on antidepressants in my 20s which truly didn’t do very much. My drinking kept getting worse and I spent more time alone.
I got pregnant in 2005, quit drinking, and told myself everything would be fine now that I had a husband, house, and baby on the way. While pregnant I developed a rash on my face that was itchy and unsightly. My doctor diagnosed it as peri oral dermatitis and put me on antibiotics. The rash went away for a while and then came back. I found myself in this cycle of antibiotic abuse, that’s the only answer they had for me. As someone who has always been interested in health and the outdoors, I knew excessive antibiotics was not the answer, so I started to do my own research.
Around this same time my fabulous chiropractor was beginning her journey in Functional Medicine. I opened up to her about my rash and how I felt so exhausted and unwell. She suggested I go to the Western Medicine doctor to get some blood work done so that insurance would pay for it. The PA called me with my results and told me everything was perfect; I don’t understand why you don’t feel well. This made me feel like I was insane! I sat on the bloodwork for a bit as I just figured the doc was correct and maybe it was all in my mind. Doc Julie asked me about my results, so I dropped the results off to her. She called me a few days later to tell me we should schedule an appointment as there was a lot to go over.
When I got there, my paperwork was all marked up with a red pen. She told me my blood work was not perfect and there was a lot to work on. I was severely deficient in many vitamins, my kidneys and liver were not functioning properly, I had anemia, the list goes on. How is this possible I asked? Julie explained to me that Functional Medicine uses different lab ranges than allopathic medicine which are based on optimal health. Lab ranges from places like labcorp are based on the population they are seeing, which tends to be unhealthy. I was flabbergasted, but ready to truly heal. At this point the rash on my face was full blown and I felt like utter crap. I had this huge road trip planned with my son which included a cruise to Alaska for my dad’s birthday. On the cruise I noticed my skin was yellow, I was super thin, and at one point my brother-in-law asked me if wanted to see a doctor. I was determined to heal this beautiful body naturally.
Before I began my work with Julie, my drinking had reached a whole new level and there was talk about having my son live with his dad fulltime. This was enough to realize I had a serious problem and things had to change. I managed to get through the process of detoxing and have stayed sober since. It was not easy. What I realized is that I used alcohol to feel better and escape the pain I’ve experienced in my life. Sobriety showed me that the booze was just covering up a multitude of symptoms and I needed to get serious about healing mind, body, and soul.
Since I was a child, nature has been my safe place. When I’m running through the woods everything is quiet and OK. Quitting drinking made me see things in nature I had been missing as I rushed through my hikes to get home for a drink. I remember after being sober for a bit I went skiing and found myself in some untouched sparkly powder surrounded by sunshine and a big blue sky. I just stood there and cried at the beauty and realization of how much I’d been truly missing! I became even more determined to not only heal, but to help others do the same.
I signed up for the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition program in 2021 to pursue my passion of helping people heal their bodies. To be honest, at this point in time, I was once again not well. I was running way too much, past trauma was catching up with me, the rash on my face was full blown, and I was in a relationship where I was walking on eggshells trying my best to not set off an explosion. I ran all the tests recommended by FDN and was shocked by the results. No hormones, multiple food sensitivities, leaky gut, h pylori, c diff, and inflammation. I had to stop running, my body was screaming at me to rest. I listened. I somehow managed to dig deep despite the exhaustion and graduate, found a therapist who specializes in trauma, and I moved out on my own. I DID THE FUCKING WORK. Was it hard? HELL YES. But I did it because I knew if I didn’t, I would end up in sick care and that is not a place anyone wants to find themself.
So that’s it, that’s my story. I turned 50 in the summer of 2022 and I feel better than ever.
Why should you work with me?
Because I’ve been there. I know how it feels to be let down by our medical system. I completely understand the frustration of not knowing what to eat. I know understand how you’re feeling, and I know how to help you dig deep to get the life you desire. Helping folks get back onto their beautiful trail of life healthy and happy makes my heart sing.
