#getting a clearer background on their relationship and seeing it firsthand would have been so so interesting

[tenshindon]

hihi! so do you think there was unused potential that could have been used for tien and the tao brothers or was it fine enough as it is in canon? imo the scene in the anime where tien is like a teen was super interesting but not really dwelled upon which kinda blows

hi :) I absolutely do think that the crane school dynamic was a severely under explored topic that should’ve at least been given an episode or ova to expand upon and really flesh out the crane school quartet and their relationships with each other

Like you can clearly tell both from goku initially telling tien he killed tao and tien’s defeat of tao that tien harbors conflicting feelings about him despite the clear cruelty he and shen put him (and chiaotzu) through. Not to mention that while shen explains that he and tao separated on ill terms, I personally really would have liked to see that relationship and not just have it explained to me; it’s one thing being told that tao was a prodigy that put shen to shame, but it’s another to actually show that and give a bit of humanity to these villains (and listen I’ll be the first in line to smack shen and tao they’re rancid people, but they’re still people: giving humanity to villains isn’t as much of a crime as it’s made out to be)

It would be Astoundin just to even really know how shen and tao even came into possession of tien and chiaotzu in the first place, let alone raising them to be assassins and if there are any other crane school students pardon yurin

#snap chats #congrats anon you asked the million dollar question 😫 #I’ve made a bunch of posts about this tbh #ok moreso I cried about the concept in tags of a lot of posts 👁💋👁 #but no frfr I’m stupid interested in the crane school and that quartet it’s painful <3 #like- the things with tien that interests me the most is his response to his abusers right #cause in the moment where he gets to see them out of his lives for good he’s not angry- he’s mournful if anything #and honestly that’s like. from a personal standpoint that’s a very like- I can’t explain it #his response just Made Sense; especially when it comes to people you love or raised you #you’re very conflicted when you realize their abuse and it’s hard to be angry or spiteful- you just kind of feel lost #those feelings were really well conveyed in the tien/tao fight and afterwards- it’s why it’s one of my favorite fights and moments #getting a clearer background on their relationship and seeing it firsthand would have been so so interesting #it’s a real shame that that concept will never be explored because even tao and shen’s relationship with each other is interested in #like they’re both cockheads sure but.. idk man it’s just like #maybe I’m putting too much thought into something thoughtless but there’s just so many interesting bits to expand upon #especially chiaotzu’s origins like Jesus Christ what the fuck happened There #ah well- a man can only dream right

[tigerlilynoh]

Job & Family DS: Aftermath - Playdate 2.0

Words: 2,954  Spoiler warning:  Contains spoilers for the end of Job & Family.

3/2/12

“Do you ever wonder what they say about us?”  Dean asked after he took a hit from his vaporizer.  

Sam gave his brother a sidelong glance, then turned his attention back to Kaylee, Anansi, & Malek.  Sam had asked Dean to help him watch the children since Malek was spending the day topside.  Two infants was a handful, three was an accident waiting to happen.  The brothers had settled on clearing the living room floor and piling some toy in the middle, creating a play area that they could flank.

Kaylee was a very curious & hands on two year old.  Whether it was everyone's imagination or not, the general impression was that she emulated Kay & Ruby’s leadership traits.  She liked to oversee random household procedures and helped enable Anansi & Malek as much as possible.  Her generosity toward the two younger relatives was shaping up to make her the leader of a very adorable gang- once all its members could walk.

At seven & six months old respectively, Anansi & Malek spent their time diligently learning through playing.  They could both crawl well enough to get around and babbled what might become first words before too long.  Despite not being able to talk, Anansi seemed to understand a few words & phrases beyond his own name and Malek could understand a speaker’s tone of voice.

“Kaylee can't put a whole sentence together and the others aren't even a year old.  I think you need to talk to your dealer.”  Sam teased.

“Not them.”  Dean gestured to the kids.

“Do I ever wondered what who says about us?”

“The people who know about us.”

“That's not making it any clearer.”  Sam extended his hand.  “Give me your vape.  You're way too high to be babysitting.”

“I'm not that high.”  Dean argued, but he tossed over the vaporizer.  “I mean- the angels, the demons, even nutjobs with their ear to the ground.  Weren't we supposed to destroy the world and instead nothing.  You disappeared.  I all but disappeared.”

“I don't like to think about it too much.”  Sam admitted.  “I wish more people thought I was dead.”

“You need a new persona, get you back in the world.  You might need a disguise spell or something- those things gotta exist, right?”

“I have no idea.”  Sam said as he leaned forward and repositioned Anansi’s leg so that he wasn't sitting on it awkwardly.  “I don't have time to sneak back into the world yet.”

“I guess you don't have to go very far to get a grateful mob.”  Dean acknowledged.

“You miss the glory days?”  Sam peeked over at Dean for signs that he might be growing restless in his newly quiet life.

“Do I miss the dislocated joints, having to pop two Vicodin just to survive sitting in the car for a few hours, watching you get beat up, worrying that someday-”  Dean stopped himself, then shook his head.  “I don't miss that at all, but helping people…”

“You help people.”

“I guess.”  Dean sighed.  “I haven't gone hunting in… well, since before Ani was born.  It's weird, like- I used to get this feeling from hunting, not the adrenaline, but the accomplishment.  I thought I'd lose that if I didn't hunt, and maybe I don't feel exactly proud of the mundane stuff, not in the same way… I don't know... maybe I don't need to do the big important things anymore.”

“We've still got important things, they're just small and lack fine motor skills.”  Sam smiled at his kids, then looked to Dean.  “You think you might ever have a kid?”

“Dyl would love that.”  Dean commented, then shrugged.  “Eh, maybe not- what's Michael's line matter with the asshole in prison and the apocalypse out of the way?”

“Putting aside the whole grace-vessel thing…”  Sam prodded.

Dean watched as Kaylee diligently dug through the toys trying to find the best ones to give Anansi & Malek.  After delivering the toys, she hugged Malek, carefully avoiding his horns & spikes in order to convey the affection.  Then she sat down to play with the toy tiger Dean had given her for her first birthday.  The fact that she played with it so much warmed his heart and somehow, in that moment, pained him a bit at the same time.

“I'm sure I'd like having a kid.  The other me- I could see how much Dyl meant to him.”  Dean rubbed the back of his neck.  “I don't really know if that's in the cards right now.  I'm guessing Jeremy doesn't have a female vessel he can just slip into.”

“Sounds like you two are getting pretty serious?”  

Sam decided not to pressed the kid angle and instead jumped at the opening to talk about Dean's boyfriend, who no one in the family had actually met.  As far as Sam knew, he was the only person in the family that hadn't done some sort of background check on the guy- granted that was partially because the results of everyone's efforts ended up finding their way to Sam over a few beers.  The consensus was that Jeremy was a diabetic, classic film nerd, who overwithheld on his taxes, and probably would've own a cat if not for Dean being allergic.  A pleasant, but not exciting man.

“We're slow moving.”  Dean answered ambiguously.  “But yeah, things seem pretty stable.”

“When are you going to tell him?”

“I'm not sure how to.”  Dean confessed.  “We’ve been dating for almost two years.  At first I wasn't telling him because I didn't know him.  Now I'm just like how do you tell someone you've been lying to them for two years?”

“Just start with the less crazy stuff and feel it out.”  Sam suggested.  “Maybe put the time travel at the end.  He knows what a hunter is-”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”  Sam stared at Dean in disbelief.  “How could he not know about hunters?”

“He's somewhere between skeptical & agnostic about a lot of this stuff.  He’s never seen any of it firsthand or had it effect him.  People like simple- it's easier to think it's all nutjob cults and horror movie publicity stunts.”  Dean's face dimmed subtly.  “He likes simple.”

“You think it'd be too much for him?”

“To believe or to put up with?”  Dean groaned.  “I'm not neck deep in the action anymore, but I've got a lot of strings attached.”

“All relationships have their issues.”  Sam offered.  “Anyway, I want to meet him, so get over your anxiety already.”

“Are you gonna ‘What are your intentions?’ him?”  Dean smiled at the mental image.

“If I don't who will?”  Sam joked.

“Dyl, 100% Dyl.”  Dean answered confidently.

“Oh God,”  Sam nodded.  “Dyl really might interrogate the guy.”

“Full on waterboarding.”

Malek very carefully picked up a soft plastic toy in the shape of a lion, then waved it around a little.  Sam & Dean both watched him nervously and Sam held up his hand, ready to telekinetically grab any potential projectile.  Instead of throwing the toy, Malek squeezed it.  There was a loud pop as the back of the lion’s head burst.  Kaylee & Anansi both stared in mild alarm, but Malek started whimpering.

“Shit, I thought we’d poked holes in all the hollow toys.”  Sam muttered as he scooped up Malek.  He started bouncing the infant on his knee as a distraction, then spoke to him in a soft reassuring voice.  “It’s okay, Mal.  Just try to be gentle.”

“Let me get that.”  Dean offered.  He picked up a turtle plushie and shook it in front of Malek.  “Come on, Mal.  Check out this awesome fuzzy turtle.”

Malek stared at the turtle for a few seconds before dropping the lion and accepting the replacement.  Dean picked up the lion, then ran his thumb over the broken edge of the rupture.

“Is it sharp?”

“Not really.”  Dean shrugged.  “Mark another one for his toy kill count.”

“Do you think you’d ever babysit Mal alone?”  Sam asked Dean while patting Malek’s head in reassurance.

Over the last few months, the family had noticed that Malek’s physical strength had increased beyond that of a normal baby- or even just a human.  The discovery was alarming, but not wholly unexpected considering who his father was.  They all strived to teach Malek finesse, which had had mixed results.  Sam & Kay had the easiest time handling him since they could use telekinesis to prevent him from breaking any of their bones.  Ruby didn't have a great way of preventing the damage, but she didn't have as much attachment to her meatsuit.  Similarly, Dylaniel had received several accidentally hits that he healed before they could start bruising.  Luckily, so far Malek had not manifested the Knight’s trait of inflicting damage that was immune to angelic healing, though they were all vigilant.  

Then there was Dean.  Despite genuinely adoring Malek, Dean had trouble getting hands on with him.  He didn't have a way of preventing or healing any injuries the kid might cause.  Whenever he held Malek, he tried to make sure the infant was clutching a toy and aimed away from him.  Everyone understood Dean's caution, though Malek was beginning to get to the age when he'd start internalizing subtle things like the fact that his uncle Dean was visibly uncomfortable interacting with him.

“Kaylee or Ani I could probably handle, but…”  Dean hesitated.  “I'm not sure how to stop a baby that can break all the bones in my hand.”

“He's actually getting pretty good about not hurting people.”  Sam assured as he released Malek back into the play area.  “It's just that objects don't say ‘ow’ before they snap.”

Malek crawled back over to Anansi & Kaylee.  Anansi picked up a fuzzy pink bunny toy and held it to the slightly younger Malek.  Malek looked between his turtle & the pink bunny, then dropped the turtle for the bunny.  He cooed a little as he hugged the bunny.

“Hell’s gonna be so pissed to find out their future king is such a softy.  You're a bad influence on him.”  Dean told Sam as he got up, then walked to the kitchen.  “You want a beer?”

“Sure.”  

“Dammit.”  Dean called from the kitchen a few seconds later.  “One foamed over.  Do you have a towel or something?”

“Check on the counter by the dishrack.”  Sam spared a glance at the kitchen to make sure Dean was on the right track.  “Yeah, those.”

When Sam looked back to the kids he saw that they were all still seated where they'd been, but Anansi was playing with Dean's cell phone.  With Malek being capable of snapping the metal & glass device in half, the phone was potentially dangerous in their hands.

“Sorry Ani, but that's not a toy.”  Sam said as he took the phone from his son, then moved it back to where Dean had been sitting, out of the baby's reach.

“Here's what's left of your beer.”  Dean said as he returned.

Sam turned to collect the bottle from Dean, but Dean was too distracted by something to complete the handoff.  Sam looked to what had caught his brother's attention.  The cell phone was slowly sliding across the floor in diminutive jerks toward Anansi, who had his arms extended, trying to grab it.  

“Ani?  Stop.”  Sam instructed.  Anansi looked up at his dad and the phone stopped moving.

“No fucking way.”  Dean exhaled.

“The kids aren't supposed to get powers like this until they're four or five years old.”  Sam muttered in disbelief.

“I think you need to invest in some heavier duty baby proofing.”

“Jesus Christ.  Hey, Tommy.”  Sam shouted to Tom, who was studying in his bedroom.

“What?”  The eight year old asked, while coming down the hall to see what was going on.

“Get your sister, take her to Belda’s.”

“What's wrong?”

“I'll explain later, just go.”

Tom shrugged, took Kaylee's hand and started walking her out the door.  Kaylee waved goodbye to her little brother & cousin as she was escorted out of the cabin.  With the infants no longer outnumbering him & Dean, Sam took out his phone and called Ruby.  He put the call on speaker phone, then watched Anansi like a hawk for the twenty seconds or so that it took for the call to go through to Hell.  

“Nobody's hurt, but Ani just used telekinesis.”  Sam said as soon as the line clicked over.

“But he’s a baby.”  Ruby replied uncertainly.

“I just saw it.”

“I don't understand… it just…”  Ruby almost growled.  “I'm gonna fucking kill Morrison.  One of the prenatal supplements I took was to reduce fatigue with powers.  It must've just made it easier for him in general.”

“Is there…”  Sam hesitated.  “is there a way to undo it?  Just temporarily make it so he can't pull everything off the walls?”

“That'd take impairing parts of his brain.”  Ruby warned.  “He could get serious developmental damage.”

Sam picked up Anansi, who hugged his dad back.  He wasn't sure how to handle a situation like this.  Malek had abilities that made him potentially dangerous, but at least the implications of physical strength were predictable.  With something like telekinesis, Anansi could do any number of things, including getting access to hazardous objects.  And that wasn't even counting the possibility that the infant could accidentally use the First Light.

“What about an anti-magic spell on the house?”  Sam suggested.

“Tommy’ll riot and we’ll end up with three kids under the age of five.”  Ruby replied.  “But it's a backup plan.”

Malek crawled toward Sam, trying to get to his playmate, but Dean picked him up before he could start climbing up Sam.  Dean held Malek in such a way as to keep the babies from looking at each other, lest they try to interact.  

“We need to figure out a way to deal with this before he hurts himself or someone else.”  Sam said while moving to prevent Anansi from seeing Dean & Malek.  He didn't know how well Anansi understood object permanence yet, but he hoped that out of sight still meant out of mind.

“Can you overpower him?”  Ruby asked.

“I haven't tried, but probably.  He was struggling to move Dean's cell.”

“Just keep an eye on him and I'll see what R&D comes up with.”

“Try to hurry, the number of infants capable of destroying the house just doubled.”

Sam hung up the phone, then simply held Anansi close for a long while.  He shared a silent, worried glance with Dean- neither of them knew what to say.  Anansi made a little sigh of contentment as he hugged Sam back.  Sam's stomach knotted at the juxtaposition of such an innocent child & such a problematic power.  He rocked his son gently while making soothing noises and patting Anansi’s back.

“Mal, gentle.”  Dean warned when Malek gripped his thumb & index finger.  “That's good.”

“You want to switch?”

“No, we’re okay.  Right, Mal?”  Malek looked up at him and smiled.  Dean stared at Sam with visible concern.  “You okay?”

“No.”

The brothers sat quietly for several seconds before Dean huffed a small laugh, causing Sam to raise an eyebrow.

“Just imagine when they start roughhousing.”  Dean explained what had amused him.

“You sure you don't want in on this parenthood thing?”  Sam smiled halfheartedly.

“Baby battle royale.”  Dean shook his head, then muttered.  “My baby would win.”

“Seriously?”  Sam’s voice was a bit lighter, pulling from the worried thoughts by the absurd distraction.  “Against telekinesis & super strength?”

“My baby could bless weapons.”

“You were a thirty year old man and you couldn't bless weapons.”

“Just think about Dyl, but tiny- a tiny, rosy cheeked killing machine.”

“I hate to break this to you, but I’m guessing Dyl gets a good amount of his gusto from being a nephilim.”  Sam countered.  “Unless you're planning on making some pretty big lifestyle changes, your baby's going to be human.”

“Batman’s human.”

“Yes, batman is human.”  Sam conceded the point.

Ruby & Kay appeared by the front door.  Both Sam & Dean let out sighs of relief at the sight of reinforcements.  Kay quickly took Malek off Dean's hands as Ruby rushed over to Sam & Anansi.

“Please tell me you've got something.”  Sam greeted her.

“Warded wristbands.”  Ruby held up two little strips of black fabric.  “These should work until he figures out how to undo buttons.”

“I guess they don't make handcuffs in infant sizes.”  Dean joked, earning a less than delighted expression from Sam.

Sam held Anansi while Ruby started putting the first wristband on their son.  As soon as both buttons on the inch wide strip of cloth had been buttoned Anansi started fidgeting & huffing.  He flailed his other arm, causing a pile of books several feet away to tip off the edge of a side table.

“You're okay, Ani.”  Sam reassured as Ruby finished putting on the second band.  Once it was on Anansi looked around the room, stretched his arms at various objects, then began crying.  Ruby picked him up and held him to her chest.

“Don't cry, sweetie.”  She said in a delicate voice while rocking gently from side to side.  “It's just for a little bit.  We just want you to be safe.”

“Alex would get uncomfortable if there was anti-magic warding.”  Kay suggested as a comparison.  “He said it made the colors dull & the Earth didn't hum- things like that.  He seemed less energetic, but I don't think it was actually painful- Whether this is like that, I don't know.”

“Does it feel weird, Ani?”  Ruby whispered, then kissed the top of his head.  After a minute his crying faded into huffing & pouting.  Before too long he started to blink slower & slower until he fell asleep in Ruby's arms.

“You two,”  Kay nodded to Sam & Ruby.  “are completely fucked.”

#job & family #Deleted Scenes #Deleted Scenes: Aftermath

[milenasanchezmk]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[fishermariawo]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[cristinajourdanqp]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[watsonrodriquezie]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

[cynthiamwashington]

I Thought I Was Cursed to Live a Sort of Half Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Lyme Disease. Fibromyalgia. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Multiple Sclerosis. Adrenal Fatigue. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

These are just a few of the diagnoses that I’ve received over the past 8 years. It was the summer of 2009 when I was hit with a mystery illness so severe that it forced me out of school and out of my job. To say I was terrified would be a gross understatement, and it was a long and winding road to recovery.

My triathlon training was put on permanent hiatus, along with my graduate education plans. My social life dried up in a matter of weeks. Everything in my life came to a grinding halt, and I had no idea how to get the gears going again.

Since my illness wasn’t, and still isn’t, well understood by the medical community, I was put in charge of my own treatment. Thankfully, my research background came in handy, and I scoured the Internet for anything and everything that I thought might help. I filled up my days with a regimen of pills and powders, and tried to use each second I had to read about potential explanations and cures for this mysterious disability I suddenly found myself with.

I considered myself lucky that I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in Health & Human Sciences, mere weeks before the illness hit. I drew on as much of this knowledge and training that I had tucked away in my brain, as I attempted to navigate this tricky new path. I withdrew from the world, living in a fog of complex and confusing symptoms, day after day. Many of my friends fell off the map. I had no ability to produce income. I lost touch with my passions. I could barely leave the house on most days. My life as I knew it, was over.

The medical community put me through the ringer during that first year of my illness, ordering every possible test that they could justify to my insurance company. And while I did get the occasional positive result, all in all, the dozens of pokes and prods gave us no helpful answers, and my future was still unclear. I was labeled with numerous syndromes and other “wastebasket diagnoses,” and told to go home and rest more. So that’s what I did.

Thankfully, I can say, things did get better, albeit at a snail’s pace. Slowly, my body regained some strength and I was able to return to work very part time after nearly a year of absence. A year or so after that, I began taking some gentle yoga classes again, and started having hope that I was finally on the road to recovery. But I was still struggling day after day with pain, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations, and inexplicable exhaustion. It was a struggle to make something out of my life, and I wondered if this was as good as it was ever gonna get. I thought I was cursed to live a sort of half life from then on. I was only 23 years old.

My mornings consisted of disgusting vitamin shakes, which I attempted to mask the taste of with ice cream and sugary syrups. I was choking down pills and injecting myself with B-12 on a weekly basis. Although, looking back, I can say that I got a lot of things right, my diet wasn’t one of those things. For some unknown reason, healing with food never really occurred to me, despite my background in health and nutrition. I somehow decided that being a vegan was a superior choice, and so I eschewed meat and eggs in favor of grains and processed foods. In my mind I was doing the “right thing,” but I know that my body was struggling under the weight of all of those chemicals, preservatives, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients. I officially became a “junk-food vegan,” and continued on my way, wondering why I wasn’t getting any better.

Fast forward another year or two to my major relapse of 2012. Just like they had in the very beginning, all my symptoms came flying at me full-force, and I was knocked back down to square one. I was once again, terrified, confused, angry, and housebound. Frustrated and determined to find the answers, I launched into another round of doctors and specialists, of more testing and treatments. I did manage to gather a few new leads, and I ran with those as far as I possibly could, exhausting every resource I had in a desperate clawing for the truth of my illness. But nothing surfaced. Instead, I pawed through pages and pages of negative and normal test results. I fell into a deep depression, which lasted for several months, dragging everything around me into a dark, black hole.

Looking back, I see that my relapse was my wake up call. I needed to change the way I was going about this whole thing, and really take a wide-angle approach to my healing. I needed to get serious about what I was putting into my body, and the kinds of thoughts I allowed to control my mind. The paleo diet had been circulating in the back of my awareness for some time (after all, I went to Colorado State University, home of Loren Cordain, a pioneer of the movement), and I decided to start incorporating some meat back into my diet.

I distinctly remember my first bite of meat. It was a grass fed ribeye steak, which I seared to medium-rare perfection in my cast iron pan. I cut off a hunk and chewed it with reverence. It tasted SO good. And I kid you not, within about 30 minutes of eating that steak, I felt a surge of energy in my body. My brain felt clearer. My cheeks regained their color. Even my pain level went down a few notches. In the end, it wasn’t research studies or articles that changed my mind- it was my own personal, visceral experience with food that brought me to the primal way of eating.

Over the next several years, I experimented with my diet, making changes here and there to find what helped me to feel my best. I did elimination diets and cleanses, and finally ditched dairy, which apparently had been the cause of my skin issues all along! I started incorporating supportive herbs and starting making veggies the star of every meal, instead of just the side dish. All of these changes didn’t cure me, but I believe that they were key pieces in my continued recovery. With each and every meal, I knew I was making a choice, and I was either helping or hindering my healing process.

As these things tend to do, this period of awakening extended into all the areas of my life, and I started investing in my growth in other arenas too. I got back in touch with my meditation practice, and regained my spiritual compass. I started becoming more mindful of my relationships and of spending more time in nature. I revamped my home environment, and switched to natural and non-toxic body products and cleaning supplies. I read up on the health effects of things like EMF radiation, endocrine disrupters, and too much screen time. I took my self-care to a whole new level, and stopped making excuses for treating myself like crap.

And as each month passed, I could feel a tiny bit more of my energy and clarity returning. I am eternally grateful that I had established all of these healthy routines and had a solid stress reduction practice by the time my next challenge arose. In 2015, my partner of eight years decided she wanted a divorce, and I was forced to move out of my beloved home, without a penny to my name. Those few months were some of the hardest I’ve ever had to endure, and I’m confident in saying that my nourishing diet, sleep hygiene, and meditation habit played important roles in helping me to cope. In the end, this horrible experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and offered me a new opportunity to grow and recommit to myself and my healing journey.

After sifting through so much information and from my personal experiences over the years, it became apparent that I had a wealth of wisdom and guidance that I could share with others. Friends and strangers began asking my advice on diet and supplementation. My itty bitty blog started seeing some traffic. I realized that I was becoming a valuable resource for others struggling with chronic and mystery illness, and that I should explore some kind of credential to help me make this into a career. I completed my Reiki Master/Teacher training, after seeing firsthand the power of energy work in activating the body’s inherent healing mechanisms. But I knew my education wasn’t going to stop there.

The Primal Health Coach program stood out to me for several reasons: First, I loved the laid-back philosophy and the emphasis on reconnecting with our natural state of joy and vitality. I don’t respond well to militant or restrictive ideologies, and I didn’t want to put that kind of energy onto my clients either! Second, it was well researched and well organized, making the process easy to navigate and the content was worth the investment. And lastly, I knew that the Primal Blueprint brand was a legitimate and respected one in the health community, and the support they could provide would be priceless.

I’m so thrilled to be a health coach now, and I know that my own experiences give me the passion I need to help others who are searching for answers, just like I did. I am confident that my own unique blend of nutrition, spirituality, and radical self-care can work wonders, because it has in my own life! The primal way of life is all about getting back in touch with our natural state of wellbeing, and I wake up grateful every day for this opportunity to share that wisdom with everyone around me. If you are looking for a way out of chronic illness and into a place of chronic wellness instead, I can be your guide. It is my dream that we all can make empowered decisions for our health, and feel as well as possible, each and every day!

Melani Schweder

ABrighterWild.com

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