What Healing Chronic Illness Actually Looks Like (Nobody Shows You This Part)
I don't know about you, but when I started my healing journey, I thought the goal was to feel good ALL the time. No pain. No fatigue. No flares. Ever again. That was the dream, right?
Here's what nobody tells you. That's not how it works. And honestly? That's OK!
I still have fibromyalgia. I still flare. After 30+ years of living with this and over a decade of doing the deep work, nutrition, supplements, gut healing, nervous system regulation, sleep protocols, reducing my toxic load, ALL of it, I still have hard days.
But here's what changed. And this is the part I really want you to hear.
Most of the time, I feel HEALTHY
Like, genuinely healthy. I have energy. I can work full-time as an EA AND run my nutrition business. I can parent. I can ski. I can do hot yoga. I can go for nature walks and actually enjoy them instead of counting the minutes until I can lie down.
I feel better at 42 than I did at 20. That is not an exaggeration. That is my actual life!
I've been medication-free for nearly 10 years. No prescriptions. Largely no over-the-counter stuff either. My pain is manageable. My sleep is solid most nights. My brain fog is mostly gone. My digestion is good (I poop great, thanks for asking lol). My mood is stable. My energy is real.
That was NOT my reality 15 years ago. Not even close.
But I still flare. That's the kicker.
And I want to be really honest about what triggers it because I think this is the part most wellness people leave out.
The weather. Canadian winters are rough on a fibro body. Cold, damp days increase my stiffness and pain every single time.
Stress. And I mean any kind. Work stress, parenting stress, emotional stress, even GOOD stress like excitement or big life changes. My nervous system still reacts.
My job. I work as an EA full-time PLUS I run The Nutritionist Mama. That's a lot. Some weeks my body lets me know I've done too much.
Food. If I stray too far from my whole foods foundation for too long, I feel it. Every time. My body does NOT let me forget what it needs (lol).
Parenting. Being a solo mama is the most rewarding and most exhausting thing I've ever done. Some weeks the fatigue stacks and my body says SLOW DOWN.
Poor sleep. If I get a few bad nights in a row, I feel it everywhere. Pain increases. Brain fog comes back. Energy drops.
Sometimes it's a combination of all of these at once. And THAT is when a flare hits hard.
Here's the difference now
Before I did the work, a flare would take me out for weeks. Sometimes months. I didn't know why it was happening. I didn't know what to do about it. I would panic, which made it worse. I would push through, which made it EVEN worse. And I had zero tools to help myself.
Now? A flare looks completely different.
I know WHY it's happening. I can usually trace it back to the trigger within 24 hours.
I know WHAT to do. Go back to basics. Clean up my food. Prioritize sleep. Increase my magnesium. Hydrate. Rest. Regulate my nervous system.
I know it's TEMPORARY. That alone changes everything. When you understand your body, you stop panicking. You start navigating.
Most of my flares now last days, not weeks. Some just last a day or two. I recover FASTER because my body has a foundation to fall back on. All those years of building the foundation, the food, the supplements, the gut work, the sleep protocols, the nervous system healing, THAT is what catches me when I fall.
This is what's possible for you
I'm not promising you a cure. I'm not promising you'll never have a bad day again. Anyone who promises that is lying to you!
What I AM promising is this: if you do the work, module by module, step by step, your baseline SHIFTS. The good days become more frequent. The bad days become less severe. You recover faster. And most importantly, you UNDERSTAND your body in a way that gives you power instead of fear.
That is what healing actually looks like. Not perfection. Not a straight line. A rollercoaster that gradually, over time, trends upward.
Slow and steady wins the race. Always has!
This is exactly what my course teaches
Becoming Yourself Again is 12 modules covering the full picture. Food, supplements, digestion, gut health, toxic load, sleep, hormones, labs, genetics, nervous system healing, and integration. It's everything I spent 30+ years and over $100,000 figuring out, in one place.
It won't make you perfect. It will give you the foundation that makes the good days possible and the hard days manageable. That is what I wish someone had given me at 13!
Download my free guide: What Nobody Has Told You About Your Chronic Illness
Join the course waitlist for Becoming Yourself Again
I am living proof. And you can be too!
Cheers to finally feeling good!
xo, Alexis
Registered Holistic Nutritionist | The Nutritionist Mama | thenutritionistmama.com