My Health Journey
I was interested in health from a young age. I remember reading “Laurel’s Kitchen” as a teenager, and being inspired to go vegetarian. It was good for me in some regards, and bad in others. I did stop eating fast food, which was good, but I ate a lot of carbohydrates and really low-fat, low-protein foods. With this diet, I just did not get the nutrients I needed to support a growing teenage athlete. I found myself constantly bloated, tired, and moody. My hair was thinning, and my skin was really dry, and I also battled some depression and eating disorders. I went to college to get my nursing degree, and continued to read about health, and just started thinking that maybe I need some more protein and fat. I slowly started to incorporate some more healthy fats, like avocados, nuts, olive oil, and also started eating some meat again. I did feel better, but not completely.
Fast forward 10 years, and I was now a mother with three young children. I was working part-time as an RN, and taking care of a 3 year old, 2 year old and 6-month-old. I was exhausted, and I really started looking at my diet again. I read Sally Fallon’s book “Nourishing Traditions” and was totally intrigued, but scared. It made a lot of sense (especially for the issues I was having), but I just could not wrap my mind around how you could eat all that fat and protein and be okay. I decided I would give it a try, on one condition: I would never give up my beloved cereal. I changed my diet over the next few months, and noticed it was the first time in my life that I actually felt nourished. My energy improved, my bloating significantly went down, my moods improved, and I was sleeping a lot better. I even gave up cereal, as I noticed that on the days I ate it, I got all my symptoms back. It was more work, planning, and cooking this way, but I felt that I had more energy to do it. And my family also benefited, as we stopped catching colds and other illnesses going around.
Later that year, I found a parotid gland tumor left under my cheek. It was benign, and I asked the surgeon if I could try some natural methods to get rid of it. He said I could, but that it would not work, and he recommended having it cut out. Otherwise it could cause facial paralysis, in his opinion, because it was on my facial nerve. I tried alternative supplements and diets to get rid of the tumor, but after a few months it was still there. So I opted for the surgery, and that is when my health really went downhill. It was a fairly long surgery, and it just tanked me. Afterwards I was so tired, I just could not function. My legs got swollen, I had no energy, I could have slept from 7pm to 11am everyday. I was extremely moody, and just felt like crying when driving to work at 3pm, thinking that I had to take care of people till midnight. Ugh, it was a dark time. I read about my symptoms, and thought I had adrenal fatigue. So I found a functional medicine doctor and felt better initially, but worse after a year. I went from herbalists, to naturopaths, to trying more stuff on my own. I did improve some and learned a lot along the way, but I still didn’t feel optimal.
When I went to my first Nutrition Response Testing workshop, I had just been diagnosed with Lyme disease via a urine test. The instructor muscle tested me during the conference, and said my weak organ was my adrenal and that I had a bacterial challenge stressing out that organ. Lyme is a bacteria, and I was amazed that he could get to the root of my issue so quickly. I had been on adrenal supplements for years, and also trying to detox heavy metals, but needed to deal with that immune challenge.
I found Nutrition Response Testing so intriguing, but could not really trust it fully at first. So I sabotaged my own program by adding supplements that I thought I needed based on what I was reading. Once I finally decided to trust my body, and that it would tell me what it needed, I stuck to my protocol and my health improved immensely. I had more energy, better digestion, improved sleep and moods, and my constant pain had subsided.
As my family and I were healing because of the Nutrition Response Testing, I began to also see the importance of working on the Nervous System to really bring the healing to the next level. My youngest son Micah, born in 2015, had significant health issues from the get go! He was constantly fussy, FULL of rashes, had multiple food sensitivities, and was not hitting his developmental milestones. He also had super low muscle tone, speech delays and vestibular issues. When he walked as a one-year-old, he would walk about 10 feet and fall over, and smash his face in the ground, unable to stop his fall with his hands, as a normal 1 year old would be able to. We had tried detox with Natropaths, and I felt stuck and frustrated like he was not improving and would therefore miss more developmental milestones. I switched him to Nutrition Response Testing, and felt there was a small improvement, but he still needed a lot more help. That was when I found my first therapy to help his Nervous System, The Listening Program! We noticed he had more energy, better posture and balance, and he was happier and interacted with more people, rather than being afraid and clinging to mom.
Then I learned about Primitive Reflex Integration and started training in that to help him. I was shocked at the improvements in his muscle tone, balance and speech! Soon after this, we found out that Micah also had Lyme disease, which was the root cause of his health issues, including the neurological ones. As I continued to work on him and saw his improvements, I decided others might need this work too, and Brain Fit Mama came to life!
I saw many wonderful improvements in the clients I saw; it was exciting to help others too. As I got more experience in my practice, I started to notice certain clients who would progress some, but not as much as I thought they could. They tended to be sensitive to food, and supplements, had multiple allergies, an inability to detox, and it seemed like we got stuck. I started to ask them if they had ever experienced trauma, especially early childhood. The answering was often a resounding yes in these kinds of cases and I knew something had to be done. More supplements were not the answer. That is when I found QNRT and was able to help these clients move forward and progress! Not only were they able to progress in their physical health goals, but their lives just seemed to change before my eyes. Their reactions subsided; their nervous system became balanced, and an overall feeling of happiness and calm came over them. They were finally able to let go of stressful issues that had a hold of them for so long and were affecting them on so many levels. It has been so rewarding to see this new found freedom and joy come into their lives as it had in my life when I experienced QNRT as a patient! QNRT was truly life changing for me as I too had experienced trauma in my childhood. It brought my health to a level that I did not even know was possible! I never knew what a healthy nervous system felt like and I see that in so many clients, running around from practitioner to practitioner, trying to regain health without addressing what is right behind their nose, their brain! I would love for EVERYONE to experience the joy and health of a healthy Nervous System! It's truly life changing.
Thank you for taking the time to hear my story, I look forward to helping you change your brain, and change your life!
- Addy Kinser, the Brainfit Mama
p.s. One week after my surgery for my parotid gland tumor, I saw the surgeon for a follow-up. He told me that this was the strangest tumor he had ever seen. I got a little worried when he said that. He told me that it was basically just a calcification, but when he had biopsied it before, he had an actual diagnosis of a type of benign tumor. I said, “Oh, then the natural things I did to take care of the tumor worked.” He did not think so, but it was a good learning experience for me.