I’ve written a version of this story at least 23 times now. As any good marketer turned nutritionist knows, it’s important to share your “why.” But how do you summarize 15 years of health issues, a decade more of watching others suffer, and my lack of alignment professionally into a nice digestible blog post?

I think the answer is, you don’t.

But I’ll try! Here’s a little bit about me and why I’m so passionate about food and lifestyle as medicine, why I have completely pivoted my career and how I hope to help others that might be suffering in silence as well.

Flashback to 2014ish

If you’re like me and black out most traumatic life events, you’ll understand the -ish. I cannot for the life of my remember when this started. But I know it was when I was working at the advertising agency that I kicked off my career at. I was hustling, working a lot, having a lot of fun in my mid-20’s in downtown Chicago and I was very into my diet because, #dietculture.

I thought I was doing everything right. I was eating well (remember when Whole30 was all the rage?) and I was doing yoga daily. I was also in my mid 20’s so I was drinking almost daily, staying up too late, working myself to the bone, etc. etc. But I digress.

2013 Lauren and Brad on vacation - would not surprise me if I had to run off this boat to find a bathroom shortly after ;)

One symptom morphed into another into another…

It was around this time that my nervous stomach started to rebel against me. I had to abruptly leave meetings, rush to public restrooms after lunch meetings and was going to the restroom urgently multiple times per day.

I knew intuitively this wasn’t normal and I went to an integrative MD (always the alternative medicine seeker!) They did a stool and blood test, but everything looked “normal.” I was told it was likely stress and that I should incorporate meditation more and maybe consider going gluten free.

I got a little more serious about my diet - opting for cleaner options 80% of the time - and started meditating and doing calmer yoga (no more yoga sculpt for this stressed out chick). And wouldn’t you know it, my digestive issues were more or less manageable!

I was thrilled! I had so much control!

Until I started having panic attacks. It was like my issues couldn’t manifest in my gut anymore because of my diet, but they showed up in my nervous system.

I did stress tests and more but nothing looked “abnormal.”

Every time I’d get one condition under control, a different system would flare up.

Hormonal issues and miscarriages - check.

Anxiety and depression - check.

More gut issues - check.

Flash forward to 2022

I had reached an actual breaking point. Everything was flaring at once. My IBS had gotten so bad that I could hardly trust that I could make it to school drop off and back (queue the worst mom guilt you can imagine). I was having so many other unexplained health issues as well (eye ulcers, skin rashes, horrible PMS). All I wanted to know was why.

At this point, I had gotten certifications in Functional Nutrition and Health Coaching because I truly believed in food as medicine and wanted to set my kids up for better health than me if anything else.

I felt like I was doing all the “right things” and making all the changes, but not seeing any improvements. If anything, things were getting worse.

actual footage of my hanging on by a thread on Christmas Day 2022 after 2 hours of cumulative sleep from a horrible concoction of "herbal" remedies from someone who didn't know the body as well as they claimed

I was determined to find a way to manage this outside of IBS medication

I finally started Googling ferociously to find something or someone that could help. And I found a doctor here in Colorado that finally listened to my symptoms and immediately ordered me two tests that pointed to what was actually going on.

I had 3 gut infections that were literally ravaging my system: a parasitic infection, h. pylori, and candida overgrowth. Why this had been missed for the last 10 years is a story for another day…

But, I was so happy to have validation in how I was feeling and answers to why everything triggered me.

The doctor gave me some supplements to start taking to tackle the infections holistically…

…and I got sicker.

It was actually Christmas Eve 2022. I was up ALL night sick from these supplements.

The doctor had missed one very important step in clearing infections holistically: optimizing the body for detoxification.

We were essentially killing the pathogens which released a bunch of toxins into my body and made me feel like my body was revolting against me. This sounds insane as I type it out, but you can check out the science here!

So what happened?

Integrated Health with a focus on detoxification pathways

I found practitioners who had been trained in detoxing the body and then I sought that training myself. I incorporated their protocols and added in some additional healing that I learned through the Integrative Health Practitioner Institute and I have been without IBS symptoms now for over 1 year.

I became even more passionate about learning everything I could about this and helping others get answers and heal from the chronic challenges that they suffer from too.

Long story short, I decided to go all in on this passion after a layoff impacted my full-time position at a tech company. After a brief moment of financial panic and a short time at another corporation, I realized I hated spending any amount of energy on things that were outside of this wellness sphere.

So here we are!

Finding true health and healing is a journey. I created Calibrate to help shorten that journey for women seeking answers to and solutions for their chronic health challenges.

We believe that data and detox is the only way to truly heal. But the type of data and the detox needed varies person by person. So we personalize all of our plans using that data to develop simple, yet comprehensive whole-body wellness programs that allow you to take control of your health.

We don’t niche into an area of health because that’s not how the body works. It’s interconnected. If my journey taught me one thing, it’s that treating only one system of the body (i.e. your hormones) will only treat the symptom. The root cause will find other ways to manifest (your gut, your nervous system, etc.) until you rebalance your body as a whole.

That said, we know that everyone’s entry point is different based on their health goal and our recommended paths will vary based on those goals. So we will be launching the following programs to help your specific challenges:

Gut Balance
Hormone Balance
Thyroid Balance

Check out our website or join our email list below to be the first to hear about new program waitlists and launches.

In the meantime, go eat something nourishing and take care of yourself.

xx, Lauren

Breaking free from IBS