In 2010, my life looked like a checklist of ambition:
✔️ Training for an Ironman
✔️ Raising two little ones
✔️ Running full speed in a corporate career
From the outside, I had it together. But inside? I was running on fumes. Despite being in peak physical training mode, I felt anything but well. My sleep was scattered. I was catching every cold that floated through my house. I was hungry yet unable to consume the quantities of food necessary to restore and also strangely disconnected from what my body actually needed. And emotionally? Let’s just say I was white-knuckling it through a lot of days.
A Chiropractor’s Observation Changed Everything
It was a chiropractor, of all people, who first nudged me in a new direction. I was seeing him for Active Release Technique (ART) to keep my muscles in check through training. But after a few sessions, he noticed something deeper.
“You’re not recovering like you should be,” he said. “You look drained—and not just physically.”
He wasn’t wrong.
He suspected something systemic was going on, and referred me to a functional medicine practitioner (a rare gem back then). Fortunately, I lived in a big city and was able to find one—a former family physician who had transitioned into functional medicine. And that’s where things began to change.
What Is Functional Medicine, Anyway?
Before I go further, let’s pause for a quick definition—because functional medicine isn’t just a buzzword. It’s often called root-cause medicine.
Functional medicine looks at the systems of the body—the gut, the endocrine system, the immune system, the nervous system—and how they interconnect. Instead of masking symptoms, it asks, “Why is this happening in the first place?” and then works upstream to find answers.
It’s the opposite of a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s deeply personalized, and that’s what makes it so powerful. And it isn't "oh this is your symptom? here's a pill for that."
The Turning Point
When I started working with my practitioner, she ran a full panel of bloodwork—far more than I’d ever seen before. We looked at everything:
- Sex hormones
- Thyroid function
- A1C (blood sugar)
- CRP (inflammation marker)
- Electrolyte balance
She connected the dots between my physical depletion, emotional stress, and what was showing up on paper. I was overtrained, undernourished, and way out of sync with my body’s natural rhythm.
She taught me the foundations of clean eating—not as a restriction, but as nourishment. She helped me understand how my body was communicating with me, and that ignoring hunger cues or overriding fatigue with caffeine was doing more harm than good. I started taking targeted supplements, changed my fueling strategy, and learned to listen to my body instead of pushing through the pain.
The Results? Nothing Short of Transformational
Since then, I’ve rarely been sick. I sleep better. I fuel more intuitively. And most importantly—I feel connected to my body in a way I never did before.
Functional medicine helped me tune back into my InnerPace—that quiet wisdom inside each of us that knows when to push, when to pause, and when to nourish.
It didn’t just change how I trained or how I ate. It changed how I lived.
Why I Became a Functional Medicine Health Coach
That experience planted the seed for what eventually became PaceWell. I wanted other women—especially women navigating midlife, motherhood, careers, and everything in between—to have access to the kind of care and knowledge I had to stumble upon.
That’s why I became a certified Functional Medicine Health Coach. Because I believe:
- You deserve to understand what your bloodwork is telling you.
- You deserve to know how your body works.
- You deserve to live at a pace that sustains you—not drains you.
If you’re feeling off, depleted, or just “not yourself,” I encourage you to start asking better questions—not just “How can I fix this?” but “What’s really going on under the surface?”
Functional medicine may not be the loudest voice in the wellness world, but for many of us, it’s the one that finally makes sense.
Want to Learn More?
This is just the beginning. At PaceWell, we’re here to help you learn, fuel, recover, move, and experience life in a way that works with your rhythm—not against it.
And if you’re curious about functional medicine? Stay tuned—we’ve got resources, interviews, and programs coming your way to help you find your own InnerPace.
Pace yourself. Live well.
Have a happy healthy day!
—Lauren
