Who Am I? · Kingdom Within

Who Am I?

I had someone reach out and ask why I started this community.

Hi, I'm Lisa!

Over the past 15 years of my personal health journey and my experience in helping clients and students through theirs, I've learned the hard way that stress is the cause of dis-ease.

how DID I GET HERE?

The vast majority of my life I would have classified myself as a type A, perfectionist, high achiever. I was the first person in my family to go to college, get a Masters Degree, do sports - you name it, I did it - many firsts! I became a fitness instructor and taught high intensity fitness classes. I taught students with special needs, got married, had two kids, started a photography business so I could stay home with them, etc. etc. etc. I never slowed down. I was constantly pushing myself to do more. I was always busy. I played hard. I lived hard. I rarely slept. Literally was the Energizer Bunny. I was always intense.

After years of seemingly unrelated (yet related) symptoms and some major stress events - I went legally blind in my right eye for 3 months and - in 2011 - I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

I was training for a 200-mile bike ride at the time, so it felt like it came out of nowhere - a serious shock, tremendous fear, intense confusion - a real slap in the face.

I was immediately thrust into an unfamiliar world of autoimmunity and into an autoimmune paradigm that never felt right from the start. Upon it being declared that I had a “disease,” I was presented with three notebooks at that neurologist’s office with three different pharmaceutical drugs. I was told that I had to pick one or I would become disabled or die quickly. I was told there were no other options. I was 33 and terrified. My kids were 4 and 2.

Based on that conversation and me in a tremendous fear state, I scoured the notebooks and chose the one that I thought was the least interfering in my family’s life, because I truly believed what the "specialists" told me - that pharmaceuticals for my "disease" were the only path and if I didn't follow it, I "wouldn't last long" - yes, that was an actual quote from a former neurologist.

Physical symptoms impacted me immensely for 6.5 years. I was a "model" patient. I listened to everything the doctors told me - I did the pHARMa drugs as recommended. My decline was gradual (but significant) for many years, slowly losing the ability to run, hike, bike, walk more than a ½ mile when I used to do Tough Mudders, run races, and be incredibly active. I was a teacher and a fitness instructor. I used to drag the right side of my body. My balance was horrendous. You could hug me and I would fall over if I didn’t catch myself. I had a difficult time lifting my right leg, experienced drop foot, and excessive weakness on the right side of my body. Invisibly, I fought severe fatigue, significant cognitive fog, impaired word retrieval, hot and cold temperature sensitivity, numbness, lack of feeling in my right foot, tingling, burning, and slurring of my words, especially as the severe fatigue crept in daily. I am/was a master compensator so I constantly tried to make it so no one knew how bad I was getting. In the Fall of 2017, the symptoms were so debilitating that I had to quit my teaching job.

For someone who was used to running up mountains for fun, all of it sucked, but the loss of physical function was an extreme blow for me.

Fast forward 8 years, I restored my health NATURALLY and you can too! I've been coaching for years. I'm just new to the Skool platform.

The same foundational principles I teach in here apply to every human. Even if you hear me refer to autoimmunity, it doesn't only pertain to that. And I only refer to the term "autoimmunity" as it provides common ground for conversation. I'll share what I think is actually going on in other posts or videos. It is incredibly important to me that everyone knows they CAN HEAL.

PRACTITIONER information

Masters in Education M.Ed

Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner FNTP®

Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition BCHN®

Wahls Protocol® Certified Health Practitioner

Guest on The Doctors TV Show with Dr. Terry Wahls - February 2020

Author - Seven Seasons: A Journal of Healing My Multiple Sclerosis

Photographer, fitness instructor, out of the box thinker, obsessive learner of all things self-healing

Recovering Type A perfectionist and high achiever

Healing doesn’t require permission. You can choose to take steps to restore health anytime.

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