While the gut healing I did worked wonders and I fully believe was a big part of my personal healing journey, the “perfect” “healthy” lifestyle of eating well and exercising was negated by the mental stress from focusing so much on discovering gut and acne triggers, as well as the off-plate stressors such as toxic relationships, career burnout, and not having the tools to manage emotional stress.

To be frank, on the outside I may have looked like I was fully engaged in a healthy lifestyle, but the reality was that my sock’s were falling off inside my shoes (you know, THAT feeling).

It wasn’t until I moved away from focusing so much on every bite I was eating and how much movement I was getting each day (those are controllable, right?) and started focusing on lowering stress by showing up and connecting to the things I felt were most important in my life — that my hormones started balancing, the cystic acne I was experiencing cleared up, my gut became much less sensitive, and I become a much happier, better version of myself.