About Me

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Hello, 

My name is Gabi and for my whole life I have struggled with weight. I grew up in a large family with my mom, dad and 3 brothers. Basically, everyone in my family and my genetic line has struggled with weight. My mom did what she could but with having such a large family but we really did not eat healthy. I really cannot blame my mom because she did not know any better. All she knew was calories in versus calories out and followed all the diets that were out there. That is what I knew and that is what I thought worked.

In high school I gained a lot of weight due to depression and stress. Now this is the point of my life where I should be at the peak health and have all this energy. For me that was not the case because ever since I was little I was always tired. My mom thought oh well its just because I stayed up late but I always wanted to take a nap. Getting out of bed was a struggle and I would throw clothes on and run to the bus. When I went off to college I ended up loosing 20 pounds just by eating healthier, walking everywhere and going to the gym. Then when I failed my one class by one point I spiraled into depression. 

When I got home I went to my doctor and found out I had anxiety and was in counseling so that helped a little bit. I took classes at the local community college and worked at the same time until I went to nursing school. Let me just say when everyone says that nursing school is stressful it is absolutely true. I was in a program that there was no break but went straight through for spring, summer and fall semester until I graduated. Every test I stressed so much because I could not fail again. 

Trying to juggle school, work and life was extremely tough. Through nursing school I basically survived off of Monster Energy drinks and naps because I was so tired and needed to stay awake to study or for clinicals.  At the beginning of nursing school I started dating my boyfriend who I thought I would marry. I was very wrong about that  because a couple months into dating he broke up with me. So of course I gained more weight and I went into a depression thinking that I would never find someone. Everything works for a reason because then I met my husband a couple weeks after. 

Good news is that I did graduate nursing school and started working at the hospital on night shift. I thought oh great night shift will be fantastic because I have so much energy at night. Spoiler alert that was not the case. I could barely stay awake and was barely functioning at work. Plus on top of that I was trying to plan a wedding with my mom and that was so stressful. About 1 month before my wedding I went on a crash diet to fit into my dress and it worked. After the wedding my husband and I started going to the gym together and eating healthier. I was restricting calories and watching what I ate. It did not matter because I was still not losing weight so I went to a nutritionist.  

While seeing the nutritionist I was able to get down to below 200lbs which I have not seen since high school and I was doing great. During this time I also got blood work done to see why I was so tired all the time. I was still peeling myself out of bed in the morning and relying on caffeine during the day. All day I would be exhausted and then by night I could not fall asleep or woke up multiple times during the night.  My doctor ran blood work and said everything looked fine so I was sent to the sleep specialist. I ended up doing a sleep study and found out I had narcolepsy and did not go into REM sleep for long enough so I went on medication which did help. 

Then I became pregnant with my daughter and I got all the way up to 255 pounds. Even though I was working out 3 times a day for 30 minutes each time and not “eating for 2” like everyone does. I did not even have cravings. When I gave birth I ended up going down to 230lbs and started back exercising at the 6 week mark which I was cleared by my doctor. Everyone told me oh just breastfeed and the weight would melt right off but the scale was not moving. Also, my mood was completely off and I was constantly snapping at everyone around me. 

I felt so stressed that I was doing everything for my daughter, the house and working on top of all that. Not a lot of people know but my husband was very close to divorcing me because he could never do anything right and was walking on egg shells around me. He even said that he was hesitant to be around me because he never knew how I would be. Those words felt like someone just punched me in the gut. When the person you love with all your heart says that they didn’t want to be around me because of my mood I felt like a piece of crap. He is such an amazing husband, father and does so much for me and this is how I was treating him. 

I was snapping at him, my daughter, my mom and everyone around me. This time is supposed to be the happiest and I felt like I was drowning. I was on anxiety medication but something was not right. At this point I saw how people would breakup or divorce after having a baby. My husband even said to me that maybe I should go back to the doctor and get medicine because of how bad I was. He usually never suggests medicine so it must have been bad. 

So, I went back to my doctor and told her how I was feeling and I thought I had ADHD due to the symptoms I was experiencing and my family history of ADHD. In my head I thought this was the solution and was put on Adderall. Honestly, it did help a little bit but things still felt wrong. I was tired of everyone telling me I was fine and nothing was wrong with me. I got so desperate that I even tried all the diets from keto, carb cycling, calorie restrictions and nothing worked. My daughter was about to be 2 years old and I still was 230lbs where other moms  had lost the weight and were having another baby. I don’t think I could survive another baby let alone my marriage survive. I was dependent on coffee to get through my day to the point my coworker brought in a Keurig machine for just me!  

I felt that something was still wrong because as a nurse practitioner the blood work was not correlating to the symptoms that I was experiencing. I stood in the shower and cried because I felt so broken and so disconnected to my body. Everyone around me hated me and I was failing. I felt that I hit rock bottom and something needed change. So I did more research. 

For so long I put my faith in modern medicine and was getting nowhere. The doctors told me nothing was wrong and kept sending me to specialists. Even as a young girl  they gave me birth control and anxiety medication for my moods and heavy periods. Modern medicine is wonderful I mean I am a medical provider now so I think it has its time and place but sometimes looking at other pathways can have the answer. 

Now I do have a medical background considering that I have a masters in nursing so all the data was not pointing to one diagnosis or another. Then I found a hormone nutritionist and my life changed forever! She was running a sale on a test and I wanted to invest in my health because something had to change. I figured why not because I’ve wasted time and money on everything else that did not work. 

When I met with the hormone nutritionist  and we went over the test  it literally gave me all the answers. Why I was so tired, the reason I was so moody, anxious, experiencing migraines, not loosing weight and everything else. I cried on the call with her because I felt that I was finally getting answers and was not crazy like I thought. I just needed one person to have answers and I felt so much relief because I finally found out the why. I felt like she was pulling back the curtain that was hiding so much. She told me that I was in burnout mode where my thyroid was not working properly, my adrenals were in crisis, my cortisol was not existent  and my body was just trying to survive day to day. 

When I started implementing the techniques, suggestions and supplements I started to see a change. My energy was getting better, my mood was improving and the weight finally started to fall off. Each week the scale was moving and I felt better than ever. I could not say I was 100% better but at least 70% or so. The mornings were still hard in getting out of bed but I was doing better. 

Fast forward to today and I sleep through the night and wake up feeling ready for the day. I now am the girl that wakes up at 5am and does a workout and gets ready before my daughter wakes up. I don’t rush to the coffee pot or need caffeine to function through the day. Even my coworkers and my boss have asked me why I wasn’t needing coffee all day. My mood is so much better and I’m not snapping at everyone around me. Even my weight is going down now but I still have more to loose.  I have come off the Adderall for both narcolepsy and ADHD. Still working on coming off my anxiety medication and birth control but it’s a work in progress. Nothing can be fixed over night because it didn’t break in a day. 

Many people have asked why did I share everything about my life including all the messy stuff. Well because I know that there are other women who can relate to my story. Who have said the same things to themselves and tried to find answers but were unsuccessful. The ones who have tried all the diets and the pills. So I decided to become a certified hormone coach to help people like me. To look deeper into their hormones instead of just on the surface. I want to help you and if you are willing to make a change and invest in your health then contact me and I can help you hack your hormones!