About
Welcome to Never Say Never Wellness! I am Michaela, a mother, wife, physician, homemaker, health and wellness coach, self taught home chef, yoga instructor and lover of a good meal and a good bargain. The road to where I am today has at times felt long, winding and detoured, but all of it has brought me to this point, Here- devoting my life to inspiring others to live their best life through all things health and wellness. Since young adulthood I have been troubled by chronic medical symptoms of arthritis spinal disease and a plethora of gastrointestinal disease- SIBO, IBS, Malabsorption and Global Gut Dysmotility. After nearly 30 years of searching for an answer that would connect my symptoms and conditions I was diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in 2021.
Despite years of medical training and education, it was a bit of an accident that I disocvered the effect of lifestyle on disease. In 2012 my husband and I decided we would try to have a child. We knew that only one pregnancy would be possible due to my history of spinal disease. Inspired to make a change by Lent that year, we decided in order to give our future offspring their best shot we needed to start taking care of our health. At that point we were both working 60-80+ hours a week, eating out most meals, and filling our bodies with processed foods and sugar, all without thinking twice. I am a bit embarrassed as a physician to admit what we were doing to our bodies! That year for Lent we decided to take “desserts” out of our lives for 40 days. The change we felt was incredible! We both lost 15+ pounds, our energy level was amazing and I began to notice an improvement in my chronic symptoms.
Then it clicked with me- diet and disease, there must be a correlation. Inspired by our initial success, over the following years we moved to a hybrid diet of Paleo/ Whole 30 Mediterranean/low FODMAP, began cooking all meals at home and actually regretted when we would skip a home-cooked meal, as we often felt ill after we ate out. Since my husband and I both love a good meal, I had to teach myself to cook the way a chef would do it! Our lifestyle change would not have been sustainable in the long term if meals became “punishment” or “work”. I developed a love for cooking and realized I could use food as medicine! I started teaching my patients about diet changes in relation to their personal disease and I was amazed by the results.
Although my health was drastically improving with the diet changes, unfortunately it was still not enough. I was confused. My medical education had said that if I was eating right and exercising I should be healthy. But I wasn’t. I remained stressed, sleep deprived, often anxious and worried, and spent my energy taking care of everyone else but myself. Then life changed for me. In 2017, after returning to Houston, TX from California, my role in our family changed from working outside the home as a primary care doctor to a need to focus on being a mom/homemaker and move to a very part time practice of medicine. I took this opportunity to hit the books. I was driven to learn more in my own quest to self-treat and help others! Since then, I have focused on researching and learning about many different concepts in health and wellness, and also “collecting certificates” as I like to call it. I became certified in:
- Culinary medicine
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Health and Wellness Coaching
- The Low FODMAP diet
During this journey of “certificate collecting”, I finally began to find some balance in my own life through the combination of healthy eating, exercise, active lifestyle, yoga, meditation, stress relief, adequate sleep and self-care. I realized what “Wellness” meant and discovered the best way that I could impact the life of others is to share this knowledge, continue to study, collect even more certificates and develop a community focusing on all things health and wellness. 2020 arrived and Never Say Never Wellness was launched. I woke up one morning and I realized its time. I took the leap. With the amazing support of my family I moved my career focus solely to its development.
Through Never Say Never Wellness, my goal is to share what I have learned, inspire others to look at their overall health, happiness & balance and make the changes they need to “live their best lives.”
Come on in, join me on the journey!
It’s never too late to make a change!