Staying Healthy, Living Longer - 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You!

By Mary DiCaro

What if what you've been told about aging is wrong? What if I told you pain, and sickness are not a normal consequence of aging? Do you realize you can avoid the factors that contribute to poor health and a shortened life span?  Do you believe you can restore health and youthful energy regardless of your age?

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Integrated Physical Therapy and Wellness
• Release date: Mar 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087950259

Book preview

Praises for

Staying Healthy, Living Longer!

7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You!

As a fellow PT and business owner, I am so grateful to Mary for writing this amazing resource. When working with clients to improve their health, success will be extremely limited if we don’t address multiple factors. Mary has provided such a thorough guide that discusses genetics, gut health, nutrition, sources of inflammation, stress, and my recent favorite, the extreme power we have to improve our mindset with awareness, gratitude, and going inward to find the strength we all possess inside. When you find someone who helps you tap into your own inner healer, never let them go!

—Amy Vander Linden, Owner, and Therapist at

Moment of Truth Physical Therapy

In her book Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You!, author and physical therapist Mary DiCaro, outlines seven timeless pillars of achieving perfect health. Her work is an indispensable exploration into what is needed for living with greater vitality that will be useful both for the general reader as well as any holistic health practitioner.

If you’ve ever wanted to understand how your mind, body and spirit actually work together, this book will help you make that connection.

By heeding the wisdom in this book, you can feel your best no matter what your age.

—Catherine Carrigan, medical intuitive healer,

author and host of the Natural Healing Show

for UK Health Radio

Is there a way to keep healthy, youthful vitality and purpose while warding off disease? In this inspiring book, Staying Healthy Living Longer, 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You!, Physical Therapist, Mary DiCaro challenges us to take back control of our health destiny and provides us with the time tested and evidence-based tools to do it. In this insightful and informative exploration, readers will learn how the physical body intimately connects with the mind and the spirit to create health and healing. The body has miraculous healing capabilities and our beliefs, habits and visions move us toward true health and wellness or away from it. Mary takes the reader on a journey through her own health challenges, illustrating what she considers the critical components of achieving wellness. Using Science, examples from clinical experience, and coaching principles, she lays the groundwork for effective and lasting change. True health is not merely the absence of disease. I cannot overstate this. Traditional approaches to managing sickness and chronic disease are incomplete and ineffective standing alone. When we finally understand the primary underlying causes of the chronic disease epidemic, we can arm ourselves with the tools for preventing, reversing, and managing the conditions that are ravaging our quality of life and shortening our life spans. Conditions like arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, chronic pain, and auto-immune conditions. Mary skillfully integrates nutrition, exercise-bodywork, stress management, mindfulness and emotional balance, and social engagement as essential components in the achievement of healthy aging. I highly recommend this book for anyone ready to make simple changes that will positively affect their health, longevity, peace, and purpose.

—Dr. Eric Kaplan, 4-time #1 best-selling Author, including Awaken The Wellness Within, CEO of Neurodoc Neurology Treatment Centers.

Inspiring and insightful! A practical guide to help people take their health and longevity into their own hands. I believe we all need to be proactive, and actively involved in our medical care, establish individual goals and be open to change. In Mary’s book, Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You! she offers tangible, realistic tools for implementing strategies to enhance well-being and for living a healthy, long, productive life. Continuing to cover up symptoms with medications and living in denial will not lead to healthy changes. I implore the reader to look within, utilize the tools and recommendations as you will be rewarded with health and happiness.

—Gretchen Post, MSPAS, PA-C,

Assistant Professor/Physician Assistant

This book is an all-encompassing, profound, and straightforward guide to help anyone on their path of healing. Mary has outlined an inspirational, visionary work that focuses on one of the most important aspects of our well-being; identifying and eliminating the obstacles that block us from achieving optimal health.

In her book, Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You!, Mary emphasizes that our body has an inherent ability to heal itself given the right environment and explains that medication, diet, and inflammation can create challenges to this. Exploring and addressing these factors, and the potential barriers to our emotional health, will help us heal in body, mind, and spirit. With the valuable tools, wisdom and Mary’s personal healing journey shared in this book, we are encouraged to look gently within and be the hero of our own health. This book is life changing!

—Cynthia Poppe LAC., CHTP, CMLDT

Red Poppy Healing & Acupuncture

www.redpoppyhealing.com

As people live longer and life stresses increase, we all need a whole-person approach to health and wellness that we can easily incorporate into our daily lives. In her book, Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You! Mary DiCaro offers actionable strategies to guide the reader to a healthier, happier life. She teaches the reader to consider their health in the context of their own life experiences. She writes in a comfortable, welcoming manner that is easily understood and can be used by medical providers to guide their patients’ approach to their health, and by people simply interested in improving their quality of life. I recommend this book for anyone interested in improving their health and quality of life.

—Sue Dahl-Popolizio, DBH,

OTR/L Clinical Associate Professor

Program Director

Integrated Behavioral Health Program,

Arizona State University

The body speaks to us in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Are we tuning in? In her book, Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You! Mary proposes a simple and straightforward plan to live a life of health, vitality, and purpose. She incorporates scientific findings, clinical experiences and the power of the mind, body, and spirit in healing and achieving optimal health. Healthier lifespans must be built intentionally, and we must incorporate a whole-body approach, digging deeper for root causes of abnormal function. She emphasizes the emotional and energetic components of dis-ease and how these aspects must be addressed for healing dis-ease and chronic pain. She presents the topics in an easy-to-read format that is suitable for the public and health practitioners alike. I highly recommend this book!

—Tony Liker, LMT, Owner and Manual Therapist at Transformative Body Therapeutics.

STAYING HEALTHY,

LIVING LONGER!

7 Powerful Principles

for A Healthier You!

Mary DiCaro, PT, CSCS

Copyright © 2021 Mary DiCaro, PT, CSCS

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher using subject line Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

ISBN: 9781087900346 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781087950266 (Hardback)

ISBN: 9781087950259 (Ebook)

Library of Congress No. 2021903474

Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

Front cover image by JETLAUNCH

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing edition 2021

Published by Sojourn Publishing LLC

Website: www.mdtherapyandwellness.com

Blog: madicaro.wordpress.com

Author photograph by Marisa Nicole DiCaro

In memory of my dear mom and dad. ♥

With dedication to Philip, my dad, who taught me many things but most of all, to smile through the clouds of life and keep the child-like spirit and hope alive. Keep smiling.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Integrating The Art and Science of Timeless Aging

Part 1: Listen, the Patient Reveals the Dis-ease

Part 2: Stay Strong, Wise, and Ahead of the Rising Tide

Part 3: Why You May Need to Pay Attention

Part 4: Change is Hard! Coaching 101: How Ready Are You for Change?

Chapter 2: Genetics and the Power of Self-Examination

Part 1: Genes and Epigenetics: What is driving your Health and Life Span?

Part 2: Do Not Fear, Just Seek Understanding

Part 3: When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Appears

Part 4: The Importance of a Timeline: Why Everything Matters

Chapter 3: What Does Stress Have To Do With Accelerated Aging?

Part 1: How the Stress Response Controls Our Physiology

Part 2: The Sympathetic Nervous System—Survival and Safety

Part 3: The Parasympathetic Nervous System: Thriving, Connecting, Repairing

Part 4: The Eye-Opening ACE Study: What We Must Understand to Get Well.

Part 5: Stress: The Impact on Inflammation and Our Immune System

Chapter 4: The Spirit Is Awakened—A Catalyst for Change

Part 1: My Sentinel Moment: The Time Had Come for An Awakening and Transformation

Part 2: The Eye of The Storm

Part 3: The Mind is Ground Zero. No Choice but to Start There

Chapter 5: The Willingness to Learn Is the Model for Success

Part 1: The Teacher Appears

Part 2: A New Model of Health Care Is Imminent

Part 3: Reaping What You Sow; Be Careful What You’re Planting

Part 4: Change Your Vision, Change Your Life

Chapter 6: Activating the Natural Healer Within

Part 1: Homeostasis and the Health Enhancing Life Protocol (HELP)

Part 2: Aging Gracefully Requires Seeking Grace as We Age

Part 3: Aging and the Wellness Continuum

Part 4: Understanding Aging is The Key to Doing it Well!

Chapter 7: The Seven Horseman of the Apocalypse: The Superhighway That Leads to Chronic Disease

Part 1: Fueling the Internal Fire of Inflammation

Part 2: The Alarm is Sounding: Chronic Disease is Stealing Your Future

Part 3: The Blue Zones: I’ll Have What She’s Having!

Chapter 8: The Battle Is On, and It Starts In Your Mind

Part 1: Can Our Beliefs Block Our Best Life?

Part 2: Motivations for Change

Chapter 9: Inflammation: The Canary in the Coal Mine: The Silent Internal Fire

Part 1: The Gut: The Gateway to Health or Disease

Part 2: The Standard American Diet (SAD) Fueling the Fire

Part 3: The Perils of Diet-driven Inflammation Diabetes—A Devastating Trend

Chapter 10: Food As Medicine

Part 1: Not All Calories are Created Equal—The Price of A High Sugar Diet

Part 2: Claim the Victory: The Impact of Diet on Weight and Hormones

Chapter 11: Inflammation: Chaos in the Making Fueling the Internal Fire of Inflammation

Part 1: Surrounded and Inundated With Toxins\

Part 2: Diet, The #1 Source of Inflammation, Pain, and Disease

Part 3: The Weapons of Mass Destruction Hiding in Your Kitchen. The Elimination Process.

Chapter 12: Outsmarting Chronic Disease and Pain One Disease, Many Faces

Part 1: Arthritis: The Inevitable Curse of Aging or Another Systemic Disease?

Part 2: Injury Today, Chronic Pain Tomorrow? Will Physical Injuries Increase Future Disability?

Part 3: Fibromyalgia—Why Does Everything Hurt?

Part 4: Hiding in the Shadows of Chronic Pain

Part 5: The Scourge of Back Pain—Getting Back in the Game

Part 6: Building Strong Bones for Life-Osteoporosis, Not Your Grandmother’s Disease

Part 7: The Magnificent Brain: Warding off Dementia

Chapter 13: Gratitude Breaks Open Grace

Chapter 14: Getting S.M.A.R.T—Setting Goals that Matter

Chapter 15: Seven Powerful Strategies of Aging Gracefully

Part 1: The First Pillar: Food As Medicine

Part 2: The Second Pillar: Successfully Detoxify Your Life

Part 3: The Third Pillar: Exercising Your Way to a Younger Biological Age!

Part 4: The Mind-Body Connection—Your Most Intimate Alliance

Part 5: Pillar 5: Sleep, the Ultimate Restore-and-Repair Elixir

Part 6: Pillar 6: Healthy Connections: Staying Engaged in Community and Purpose!

Part 7: Faith, Self-Love, And Our Soul Purpose—A Path to Wellness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Acknowledgements

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

—Jean Baptiste Massieu

My warmest thanks and heartfelt gratitude go out to John, my friend and husband of 32 years.

I could not imagine creating this book without your continual encouragement, dedication and unwavering support through the trials and time investment involved. Your steadfast and kind demeanor were a source of stability and sanity during the ups and downs. I am thankful that you believe in me and for your love and faith. Love you, always and forever.

I am thankful for my beautiful children, Michael in Medical School, and Marisa in Nursing School. You are a constant inspiration to me through your intellect, work ethic, compassion, faith, dedication, and determination. You have my steadfast love and support.

I would like to thank and acknowledge Tom Bird and the wonderful support at Sojourn Publishing. Tom has instilled the love of writing as an innate art form. It all began with a prompting from my soul to write a book, attending a Write to Heal workshop, and a weekend retreat in Sedona, Arizona. The rest is history. You have taught me to seek divine alignment and divine timing.

A special thanks to Denise Cassino, who has helped immensely to pull everything together, make sense of it all, while also making it thoroughly fun and enjoyable.

To the many friends and family that have encouraged and supported this journey, I am truly blessed to have you in my life.

To the Institute for Functional Medicine and the incredible work they are doing.

To my patients and many others I have met along the way, who have bestowed wisdom, opportunities to learn, and believed in me, I extend my warmest gratitude.

Foreword

When Mary DiCaro asked me to write this foreword for her book, it delighted me. In her book, Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You! Mary dives into the reasons behind the alarming increases of chronic disease, pain, frailty, depression, and loss of vitality as we get older. The paradigm of health outlined in this book reflects the very tradition that my practice has used successfully for decades.

Similar to Mary’s experience, I have also witnessed increasing states of chronic disease that are largely preventable conditions. Many of these conditions relate to a disconnection of the mind, body and spirit and an overreliance on external methods to fix a failing system.

If we are to remain disease free and enjoy longer health spans, we need to address factors within our control, taking responsibility for the choices that ultimately impact our health. We can no longer rely solely on medical doctors, pills, and procedures, as these avenues will not result in true wellness.

Our Health care system is primarily disease-focused and directed at suppressing symptoms without considering underlying or upstream causes. While this paradigm works well for acute, life-threatening conditions it is not as effective for chronic lifestyle diseases which are escalating at alarming rates. This disease care system has neglected to care for the entire person, each with their own unique set of experiences, trauma, emotional stressors, social conditions, nutritional status, environment, and genetic tendencies.

By the time someone receives a diagnosis, the body has attempted to correct and heal the energetic imbalances, deficiencies, and toxic burden, for many years. The changes in biology begin long before the body breaks down and falls ill.

Mary’s message is undeniable. We must understand the drivers of dis-ease and the mechanisms leading to declining health and dis-ease if we are to be successful. The body has amazing powers to heal if we remove the barriers to health and provide the proper conditions for healing.

Through her experiences as a Physical Therapist, wellness coach and through her study of Functional Medicine she weaves a compelling argument to prevent and manage the most damaging and life altering diseases such as Diabetes, Dementia, Heart disease, Osteoporosis, Obesity, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, and Chronic Pain. She has used the approaches in this book with her patients, and to overcome her own chronic health conditions and desires to help others do the same.

This book challenges us to look at health and wellness through a different lens and teaches us practical principles to live healthier for longer. We can all be successful at preventing common chronic diseases and re-setting our health trajectory with the tools outlined in this book. These are true prevention tools that I have used and believe in.

The first step is awareness of the beliefs, mindsets, habits, and daily decisions affecting our health and longevity. True lifestyle medicine encompasses shifts in lifestyle, stress management, sleep, dietary habits, exercise, and movement. It requires that we remain connected to divine Spirit and be active participants in the pursuit of our dreams and goals.

It requires more than willpower; we need a clear vision and plan for better health. Staying Healthy, Living Longer! 7 Powerful Principles for a Healthier You! Provides the roadmap that will set you on the path to a healthier life.

—Dr. Eric Kaplan, 4-time #1 best-selling Author, including Awaken The Wellness Within, CEO of Neurodoc Neurology Treatment Centers.

Introduction

The journey of self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination. Until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life.

—Iyanla Van Zant

THE AWAKENING

I am a Physical Therapist, Personal Trainer, Wellness Coach, and practitioner of Functional Medicine. In this book, I share my own story of struggling with complex, confusing symptoms that for years perplexed even the best of medical practitioners. Through my journey of pain and healing, I transitioned through some much-needed lifestyle and emotional insights. Through these experiences, I was led to help others heal on a deeper level. I felt called to write this book to share the clinical knowledge, wisdom, and personal insights I discovered. In a nutshell, I decided to write the book I desperately needed to read during this phase of my life.

What if I told you that pain and sickness are not a normal consequence of aging? What if there was a formula to increase your chances of having health, vitality, and a life of purpose right up until you take your last breath, would you want to hear about it? I know I would, and my guess is you might, too! In fact, I bet there’d be lines of anxious participants, extending for as far as the eye could see!

Before we embark on a journey of healing, how would you feel if someone asked you to put aside beliefs and practices that no longer serve you and are contributing to aging your body, mind, and spirit? Are you willing to challenge limiting attitudes and habits to embrace new ideas? What if I asked you to peer deeply within yourself to discover the underlying drivers of those habits and to shift how you think about food, exercise, aging, and wellness?

The very first step on any road to transformation begins with self-awareness. Self-awareness, and a willingness to journey inward, are two superpowers we all possess that fuel positive change. As a coach, I understand that even when the rationales and scientific evidence are explained, and we know exactly what we need to do, it is still a painful undertaking for any of us to make the changes we need to make. We know what works, yet we remain stuck in difficult to change patterns. We will explore why this so often the case.

A primary issue creating this difficulty is the fact that we live in a trance of thoughts and behaviors, most of which are conditioned, habitual responses borrowed from the past. Ideas we never question, even when they no longer contribute to the life we want. We live our day-to-day lives never examining the what and why of our human condition. We are no longer as curious, open-hearted, or imaginative as we once were. We need to break the trance of our beliefs and patterned responses to live the healthier life we all deserve.

If you are ready to control what you can and cooperate with simple, proven, and time-tested principles you can dramatically increase your chances of living with greater health, energy, and purpose. There is not a pill for this, but it is within your power to make changes that will benefit your health and well-being.

As long as you awoke this morning, you have a purpose for being here only you can fulfill. All of us need you to show up in your best form, to live the full life you were created to live.

It may seem odd but the first condition to having a truly healthy life is courage: the courage to face what is difficult, the courage to feel your feelings completely, courage to be present in your body, heeding its wisdom and its messages, and finally, courage to withstand the challenges inherent in the transformation. In other words, it takes courage to unleash the body’s innate healing power by doing the inner and outer work that is required. This is undoubtedly a hero’s journey. I believe we can all be the heroes of our story.

If you are not satisfied with your current state of being, if your health, energy levels, and health direction are no longer aligned with your highest good, it may be time to muster some courage and change course. If you are ready, the information contained within these pages will get you started in the right direction.

I realized as a physical therapist, that within the general population, there are far too many people awakening every day with a vague sense of un-wellness; a mixed bag of aches, pains, anxiety, fatigue, loss of passion, brain fog, and lethargy. If I were to take a poll, asking how many people awakened this morning with vitality, energy, and without pain, I am sure that the numbers would be shockingly low. Unfortunately, for those entering middle age and beyond, there is almost an expectation of declining health, energy, motivation, and increasing pain. The encouraging news is this is also the time when we can make the greatest impact on our health outcomes if we learn what works and develop an action plan. It is not enough to gain knowledge; we need to be intentional and take decisive action.

This is an invitation to begin right where you are.

We have heard it said before that knowledge is power, but I think a truer statement is knowledge is ‘potential power’. Knowledge becomes a powerful tool of transformation, but only when applied. If you were to read this book and not change a single thing you are doing, nothing will change for you, I can guarantee that. Any successful business venture requires a plan and inspired deliberate action, and likewise, a healthy life requires the same.

My health crisis and resulting quest for knowledge have given birth to a formula that I feel compelled to share. Learning new information provides us with the tools to look at our situation with a fresh lens, shifting us from feelings of fear and immobilization, to courage and hope.

Some say that the teacher, and likewise the writer, will communicate and teach what they most need to learn themselves. This was true for me.

This book was created to be a beacon of hope, and to create a blueprint for improved health. Most importantly it is to advance a critical conversation about healthy aging to a population caught in the cross-fires of multiple medical interventions, a medicine cabinet full of drugs, and an epidemic of escalating chronic disease, because of no fault of their own. So many of us are confused where to find answers, bewildered, and dismayed by the current state of healthcare and the various conflicting messages we receive. We realize we do not have a true health promotion system, but rather a disease care system designed to treat the body systems as separate silos, with a specialist for every organ system.

To an increasing degree, pharmaceutical drugs are emphasized for symptom management, with little attention given to root causes, risk reduction, and the natural healing capacity of the body. The practice of medicine in the United States has veered away from whole-person wellness, to controlling escalating disease states through pharmacological medications. While there is a necessity for life-saving medications for certain conditions, science has illustrated that most times, drug remedies are minimally helpful, and can often be harmful, creating additional problems in their wake.

The cure we seek is usually not in the latest pill, supplement, or dietary plan but lies in a deeper understanding of what is needed to restore and maintain a healthy functioning body and mind. In the practice of medicine, we need to always consider the ‘risk to benefit’ ratio of a recommendation and adhere to the Hippocratic Oath and golden rule of health care, "first do no harm."

I feel we need to shift the conversation, energy, and resources toward healing and wellness. This book is for those who wish to learn, grow, and commit to a few important life-changing principles that can impact their health span.

Health already exists in every cell of our body, and it is the body’s perfect design and natural inclination to move toward health once we eliminate the obstacles. Many obstacles relate to current choices, but also to past experiences and unacknowledged chronic emotional stressors. We will look specifically at what some of those obstacles are, so we can skillfully remove them.

In my practice, I have witnessed rising disease states, and an overburdened medical system that no longer treats the individual with their unique combination of genetic, physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional challenges.

I feel there is a remedy for this, but it will require upsetting the order of business as usual. It will require us to think outside the box of conventional medicine and be our own advocates. We will need to return to treating the whole person—body, mind, and spirit; a ‘whole health program’ that reunites the physical, mental, and spiritual entities and delivers a value-based true health care model for everyone.

This book is a labor of love for the seeker in me and to all those searching for a better way of living as they journey through life. It can serve as an educational tool to start a much needed conversation about prevention and health, for both the public and those in the field of health care.

Bringing a book into the world is an enlightening and yet painful experience. The process is both therapeutic and cathartic, and like giving birth, it changes you at your core. While completing this book it was common for me to experience varied, and intense emotions including frustration, confusion, tears, sadness, overwhelm, doubt, joy, and exhilaration.

I am blessed to receive continual inspiration from my patients and clients. I feel commissioned to deliver a message that would enlighten the hearts of those feeling helpless or confused, as they go from doctor to doctor with confusing symptoms, declining health, and pain.

I have found that listening to patients is a critical first step toward moving in this direction. Listening to the patient’s story sets the stage for an effective therapeutic encounter and for healing to unfold. Active listening is a lost art form but is the missing, invaluable key that unlocks the door behind which we can discover true solutions.

In the next chapter and beyond, we will explore the need to honor the story of the patient, your story, and I will present actionable advice and groundbreaking research in the field of health and wellness.

This book reflects a desire by the author to spread a message and is an educational tool only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional evaluation and care by a medical doctor or a licensed medical professional. Always seek the advice of a doctor or qualified health provider regarding concerns or questions regarding symptoms or a medical condition.

CHAPTER 1

Integrating The Art and Science of Timeless Aging

Part 1:

Listen, the Patient Reveals the Dis-ease

Listening without judgment as an empathetic, compassionate observer opens the door for patients to reveal a story about why they are hurting or experiencing an illness. We are uniquely and miraculously created, with a physical body, a mind and spirit. When we listen to the patient with an intent to learn, a rich interconnected story emerges. The patient, endowed with intuition and internal wisdom, expresses the key points we need to know that will help them heal. It may begin with the current complaint such as, where the symptoms are located, or when they occur, and eventually expands, providing valuable information on triggering mechanisms and underlying issues.

Listening to a patient’s story is at the heart of healing and caring for the patient and acknowledges the patient as an equal partner in the healing process. This is at the heart of the practice of Functional Medicine, and we refer to the critical parts of the patient’s story as Antecedents and Triggers.

My passion as a therapist and coach is educating and guiding people back to wholeness, true wellness, and a life that is deeply fulfilling, healthy, and engaging throughout the lifespan.

I have three primary objectives when I work with patients and for those who are reading this book. My first goal is to create a spark that ignites a deep desire within you to actively participate in your well-being, pursuing health intentionally and proactively. Second, to provide the proven tools to address modifiable lifestyle factors at the root of many chronic health conditions; focusing our energies on what is solvable and what we can control. Finally, to improve your awareness of the role of nutrition, exercise, the mind and spirit in creating positive health and longevity outcomes. Unlocking the superior healing power of food, simple lifestyle changes, and restoring the resiliency of the human spirit is true, lifesaving Functional Medicine. I feel the goal of any health program is to instill lifelong principles that promote living younger in mind, body, and spirit for as long and late as we can.

As a wellness coach, I believe there are two basic, yet particularly important premises that serve as guiding principles when forming a client-practitioner relationship. The first premise is that clients are naturally creative, resourceful, and lacking in nothing. They possess all they need to be successful within themselves. They desire healing, wholeness, and a sense of empowerment, yet, because of no fault of their own, have been led astray and are unsure how to get back on track. They may lack the tools and knowledge initially, but they can realize their full health potential if given proper guidance. For those with motivation to change, I aim to create a trusting client-coach relationship in which they can rediscover the connection to themselves that has been lost along the way.

The second premise is although we are different, we are also similar in that we are created to be active, energized, connected to our values and each other. We desire to be fully engaged in life and purposeful. However, how we achieve this is unique and individualized for every person.

I am encouraged by the untiring willingness of the human spirit to look for answers and remain hopeful. I believe the spirit within each of us already knows how to facilitate healing. Too often, we look outside ourselves for the answers when they are within us. I also know that you cannot simultaneously wear the hat of a victor and that of a victim; you must choose. In choosing self-responsibility and avoiding blame, it sets us free to become all we are meant to be. With personal responsibility comes glorious power, just as the reverse is true.

I learned this painful lesson myself, which is why I share my story. During the years of seeking answers through medical practices and searching for the one perfect solution to health, unwittingly I had neglected the internal work I needed to do. Our body sends us messages every day, but we need to tune in to the wisdom of these messages. I have found that the body will always truthfully reflect the subconscious or unconscious mind. We can think of the body as the ‘container’ of our emotions. Too often we wish to numb the vital, life-giving information the body is trying to share. Like ignoring a smoke detector, or disconnecting it and placing it in a drawer, we often hide from the uncomfortable, painful feelings with a ready arsenal of external props, rationalizations, busyness, numbing agents, and blame.

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er wrought heart and bids it break.

—William Shakespeare

What was most powerful for me to discover during my journey, was I could not heal my body without first respecting and honoring my Spirit. I needed to care more about feeling better and care less about the discomfort and fear of going inward. I believe this is true for all of us. Awareness, not avoidance, is the key to unraveling some of the physical or outward symptoms we are experiencing and living a life of health and authenticity. This is rarely a comfortable process, in fact, it can be downright painful, but carries lifesaving, true healing potential. Nothing changes on the outside until an internal shift occurs. We first have to recognize when we need an internal shift.

I understand as a coach and therapist that there is no one size fits all treatment, dietary plan, or program, and this means we need to understand the deeper needs and differences among people. To recall the words of Margaret Mead, Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

I want you to know that it is possible to move from fear to freedom, confusion to action, and from disease states to dynamic health—but we must act as willing, responsible advocates of our own well-being.

We are called to live with the curious mind and hope-filled heart of a child, understanding that our spirit and soul know the truth to aging gracefully, and we only need to unwrap the gifts they present. Awakening to the child within sets us on the journey back to wholeness, and our authentic self, which is love and light. From here we will discover empowerment and will manifest greater health, purpose, and achievement in our life.

Part 2:

Stay Strong, Wise, and Ahead of the Rising Tide

What if what youv’e been told about aging is wrong? While getting older is a natural part of life, it is also true that not everyone experiences aging in quite the same way. We will explore some of the reasons why this may be the case.

While conventional, allopathic medicine has brought advanced technologies and innovative diagnostic testing to the mainstream, we have also witnessed a rise in the dependency on pharmaceutical agents to control disease. While many of these advances are positive and save lives, conventional medicine has a less than favorable track record in addressing the root causes and prevention of chronic diseases, which have been steadily trending upward. More importantly, it has had little influence on promoting true health and wellness through the life span.

We find ourselves today in a novel situation from a health perspective. Previously, lifesaving medicine was directed at curing life-threatening infections and healing injuries. Most deaths were because of communicable, infectious diseases, accidents, or injuries.

Today,