I grew up on a farm in Northern Michigan. It was a great childhood full of tons of fresh fruit and some vegetables. When I went to college my eating habits changed as I now had to pay for my food and the cheaper, the better. Maybe I lived the college life of having a couple of drinks. There, I met the love of my life, got married, and moved to Chicago shortly after. This is where we had our first child. Just before she turned one, we moved back to Michigan to work on the family farm again. This was harder than I remembered as a kid. I was the parent now and it was hard to get dinner on the table quickly after work so, pre-packaged and boxed foods were a staple. This is when I got my first case of shingles. I was in my 20’s. Shingles is a virus for people over 50. I also had shingles once more, in my 30s. Anyway, I rubbed the prescribed ointment on there and was told to lower my stress load. So, we had another kid. He was born and had colic like you wouldn’t believe. That’s when I experienced the pain of a lifetime known as a kidney stone. I have since had them twice more in my 30s. Fast-forward, we had some more kids and I was now a stay at home mom. Well, about a week before Halloween I started feeling sick when I’d eat. After a week of it, I noticed I couldn’t eat anything without pain in (what I thought was) my stomach. I’d fall to the ground because of the stomach pain and be down for at least an hour before I could walk again. When I had to pick my kids up from school, I could barely drive. When I went to the doctor I had my blood drawn-nothing, x-rays-nothing, some sort of dye injection where they watch it go through your system on a screen-nothing. They finally referred me to a gastroenterologist and after waiting months to get in, I was told they couldn’t really help me, they thought if I just took some proton pump inhibitors…it COULD help, but maybe not. At this point I was eating an only rice diet as it was all I could eat without pain. I could sprinkle cinnamon on top for a real treat! I weighed under 100lbs. Feeling drained of my usual cantankerous energy and was ready to give up when a friend had mentioned that she had a coupon to a Nutritional Response Testing practitioner that she thought I might like. She had found some answers and hoped I might as well. I went. I was interested, but confused why I’d never heard of this before. She pushed on my arm for a bit, took some notes and at the very next visit I was able to start on a program. I got well and over the course of 3 months I was able to introduce new foods into my diet…over the course of 3 years my body was well enough to have another full-term baby…and right to today. I’m now starting up my own Wellness practice doing this exact method of Nutritional Response Testing with others. My goal is to help as many people as I can. Brande Schiller