My Journey

My Story: From Chronic Illness to Vibrant Health—A Journey of Healing and Discovery

In my final year and a half of university, my health collapsed in ways I never could have imagined. This breakdown would ultimately become the foundation for everything I now know about true healing—and the driving force behind my mission to help others thrive in health and vitality, in alignment with the natural world.

When Everything Changed

I had never been a star athlete, but I'd maintained an active lifestyle throughout my youth—little league baseball, soccer, and later, backpacking in the pristine beauty of the High Sierra. Those mountain experiences sparked my passion for the natural world and guided me toward a degree in hydrology, where I could combine my love of mathematics and science with stewardship of Earth's most fundamental resource: water.

As a university student, I explored intramural sports, rock climbing, and tai chi. For two to three years leading up to my health crisis, I couldn't recall having even a bad cold. My body felt reliable, strong, and resilient.

That foundation shattered during my junior year. What began as an overenthusiastic run through the Davis green belt—pushing myself farther than wisdom dictated—resulted in a stubborn adductor injury near my hip. Despite diagnostic MRI scans (which revealed nothing serious) and consistent physical therapy, the injury refused to heal. This was my first hint that something deeper was amiss.

The Descent into Chronic Illness

That summer, working as an intern at the Castle Lake Limnology Lab beneath the stunning vista of Mount Shasta, I should have been in paradise. The work was gentle—rowing to the center of an alpine lake, taking measurements from our anchored research raft. Our off-grid cabin provided everything we needed, and evenings were spent around campfires under starlit skies.

Yet I found myself watching helplessly as my colleagues organized scenic wilderness hikes and climbed Shasta, activities that my persistent injury made impossible. The isolation was beginning.

During finals that winter, my immune system sent up a red flag I didn't yet know how to read: a shingles outbreak. For years afterward, I would spend days each month feeling as though I had a viral infection—the same systemic malaise, but without the telltale blisters. Repeated doctor visits and tests, including screenings for Epstein-Barr virus, revealed nothing.

Through graduation and into my early career, I lived with regular sick days and severely limited physical mobility, watching my vibrant life narrow to an increasingly small circle of what I could manage.

The Diagnosis That Changed Everything

Eventually, gastrointestinal symptoms led to a diagnosis that gave a name to my suffering: Crohn's Disease, an inflammatory autoimmune condition affecting the small intestine. Having a clear diagnosis brought relief—finally, validation that my experience was real.

But the conventional wisdom that followed left me deeply unsettled. I was told this was an "incurable" condition requiring lifelong medication. The standard treatment protocol seemed profoundly pessimistic: progressively more powerful immune suppression, with surgical removal of affected bowel segments as the expected long-term outcome.

Still in my mid-twenties, I refused to accept this as my life's trajectory. The diagnosis itself was merely a description of symptoms and location—but what was the underlying cause? And if that cause remained unknown, how could there be certainty about the impossibility of healing?

Discovering the Possibility of Healing

I was fortunate to receive a small library of resources on Crohn's Disease and healing in general, which opened my eyes to other possibilities. Despite the pessimism of conventional medicine, I discovered numerous books by individuals who had found their own unique healing solutions and put the disease permanently behind them.

Their stories were remarkably diverse—from predominantly raw vegan diets to early paleolithic approaches, from Traditional Chinese Medicine to various holistic modalities. The lack of commonality between their methods was initially puzzling, but two core messages emerged that would shape my entire approach to healing.

From Jordan Rubin, I learned that "the process of overcoming an incurable illness is much the same as training for and winning the Olympics. The true heroes of today are the individuals who have the courage to take charge of their own health, and have the unending determination to make the necessary sacrifices to overcome illness and choose life."

From Andrew Weil, I embraced the understanding that "our bodies are constantly in a state of healing, if only we give them the tools and support they need"—and that some form of deep-rooted faith or belief often unlocks the body's innate healing capacity through the profound mind-body connection.

The Path to Transformation

Armed with conviction that healing would require both heroic effort and newfound belief, I embarked on a complete life transformation. Though I'd never had Olympic aspirations and was generally skeptical of religious approaches, the hope for meaningful healing provided powerful motivation.

I purified every aspect of my life that I could manage: healing diets, fasting, yoga, fly fishing, African drumming, Zen Buddhism, gardening, renewed tai chi practice—until there was no space for anything that didn't serve my healing.

Initially, I had very limited success. The breakthrough came when I found an integrative practitioner skilled enough to guide me through the complex landscape of health interventions, and when I began experiencing a significant deepening of my meditation practice.

The Healing Breakthrough

After about a year on the most restrictive diet I'd ever encountered, extensive supplementation, and numerous therapeutic protocols supported by comprehensive lab testing, my health, energy, and fitness improved remarkably. The frequent sick days became a memory, my old injury receded as my body strengthened, and I was able to push myself harder in yoga, tai chi, climbing, and general fitness than I had in years.

But the most profound moment came after what seemed like a setback. Following one relatively minor dietary mistake, strong inflammatory symptoms returned. Feeling despair at ever achieving a "normal" existence, I took to my meditation cushion and gently explored the pain flaring within me with the whole of my attention.

What happened next changed everything I understood about healing. As my awareness entered and merged with the pain, it resolved and dissipated in a timeframe that would have been unthinkable based on past experience. This wasn't just physical improvement—it was a fundamental shift in my relationship with my body and with pain itself.

Reclaiming Life and Purpose

Moving forward, I was able to successfully reintroduce the majority of foods I had eliminated, phase out the heavy supplementation and protocol cycling, and push myself harder both physically and mentally without significant setbacks. I had truly reclaimed my life.

In subsequent years, I was able to relax my obsessive health focus and pursue more conventional goals. I found my soulmate, Lateefah, and together we're raising two exceptional daughters. I excelled in my hydrology career, advancing our understanding of watershed dynamics in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley and helping build a team of talented experts whose work continues to inform critical water resource planning and infrastructure investment.

Living the Integration

Lateefah and I have always sought meaning in our lifestyle and impact, wanting to contribute to healthier ecosystems and culture through how we live. We began with urban homesteading, maximizing every square foot of our small lot with fruit trees, vegetable beds, composting, vermiculture, and aquaponics.

When the opportunity arose to take on an established goat dairy and farm-to-body business, we embraced the leap. The learning curve has been endless, but we strive to live in right relationship with our land and animals. This work has been extraordinarily fulfilling and has deepened our understanding of the interconnection between personal health and ecological health.

The Call to Service

My story feels incomplete without the opportunity to share what I've learned about health—to inspire and motivate others, and help shift our culture toward one where chronic illness is neither statistically expected nor passively accepted.

In the fifteen years since my transformative healing experience, I've continued learning, understanding, and reinterpreting what I know. I've discovered simpler, more efficient, and more powerful systems to build resilience and support the busy, intensive life I now live.

Through Herd2Health, I'm launching my career as a health coach integrating mindfulness and functional fitness. My primary goal is helping people establish strong health foundations to prevent the level of struggle I endured. For those already struggling, I seek to live my life as proof that healing is possible, and I stand ready to serve as part of the team supporting your own successful journey.

The Deeper Understanding

What I've learned through my journey is that true healing happens when we align ourselves with natural principles—both within our bodies and in our relationship with the world around us. Individual health cannot be separated from the health of our communities and ecosystems. The same principles that create vitality in our bodies—diversity, resilience, natural cycles, and interdependence—are the principles that create thriving ecosystems and sustainable communities.

This understanding has become the foundation of everything I offer through Herd2Health: not just individual behavior change, but a recognition that our health is shaped by systems much larger than ourselves. We cannot achieve optimal health in isolation from our environment, our community, or our sense of purpose.

My transformation from chronic illness to vibrant health isn't the end of the story—it's the foundation for a life of service. If you're ready to explore what's possible for your own health journey, I'm here to support you in discovering the healing that's already within you, waiting to emerge.