I Was Featured on Positive Talk Radio

From Chronic Pain to Hope: My Journey to Healing Naturally

If you’ve been following my journey, you know I’m all about helping people feel better naturally. So when Kevin and Brichelle invited me onto Positive Talk Radio for a full hour, I jumped at the chance to share what I’ve learned and a little about my own journey. It was a fun and real conversation, once I got over my nervousness. We covered quite a bit, so I am sharing some of the episode’s highlights.

Real Healing Starts in the Gut

One of the first things we talked about during the Positive Talk Radio Podcast was gut health and why it matters more than most people think. Your gut isn’t just about digestion. It’s connected to your immune system, mood, pain levels, hormones, and brain. When I was dealing with CRPS for 11 years, I realized no one was looking at the whole picture of my health; they were treating symptoms. Once I began focusing on what I was putting into my body, on my body, and into my daily habits, everything started to shift.

As I told Kevin and Brichelle: “Feed yourself like a million-dollar racehorse.” When you start thinking that way, a lot of things you used to eat just don’t make sense to keep eating.

Inflammation Isn’t the Enemy — Chronic Inflammation Is

We talked a lot about inflammation, because it’s something almost everyone deals with to some degree. Here’s the truth: Inflammation itself is actually good. It’s your body protecting itself. The problem is when it doesn’t turn off and becomes chronic. That’s when it starts affecting the rest of the body, and symptoms begin showing up in ways you may not even connect to inflammation at first.

In case you’re wondering what fuels chronic inflammation? Culprits include processed foods, sugar, poor sleep, stress, toxins in your environment, sedentary lifestyle, and dehydration. It all accumulates. The good news is that you have more control over it than you think and possibly have been told.

Catch the full hour below. We discussed a lot more than I could cover in this post.

Where Do You Even Start?

Brichelle from Positive Talk Radio Podcast asked me the question I get all the time: “This all sounds like so much, so where does someone even begin?”

My answer is always these same three things:

• Drink more water. Start your morning with 8–10 ounces before anything else. Your cells have been without hydration for hours. Wake them up.
• Eat in a way that doesn’t feed the inflammation. Less processed food, less sugar, more whole foods. Progress over perfection, always.
• Move your body. Even if it’s just a block. Even if it’s in a pool. Movement matters.

These are the foundation of my book, The Healthy Habits Challenge, and they’re habits, it isn’t a diet. Diets end. Habits stick.

The Emotional Side Nobody Talks About

This was one of my favorite parts of the conversation. We talked about how fear, negative self-talk, and chronic stress literally fuel the fight-or-flight response in your body. It’s like adding gasoline to the fire (inflammation). I truly believe you cannot separate the emotional from the physical when it comes to chronic illness.

I always tell people to talk to themselves like they’d talk to their best friend. It’s more than feel-good advice; it’s part of the healing process.

Progress Over Perfection

I want to be really clear about something: I’m not here to tell you to eat perfectly all the time. I eat pizza occasionally. I live my life. My approach is built around making progress. Creating one habit at a time so it’s sustainable for YOUR life. This works whether you’re retired, an empty-nester, or a busy 45-year-old working full-time.

The book walks you through eight steps and includes a full bonus resource section covering gut health, meal plans, sleep guides, stress tools, herbs, supplements, and more. Everything you need in one place.

Listen to the Full Episode