I live by the motto, “My live didn’t turn out as I planned, and that’s what makes it so wonderful.”
Three years ago, when I graduated high school, I planned to go to a small college and pursue a business major and dance minor. But I couldn’t follow through with that plan when my autoimmune disease suddenly became unmanageable with the various medications prescribed by my doctors.
Most of you know the story: when I was told surgery to remove my colon was my only option, I was determined to find a different answer. That answer turned out to be food! I started a grain free, dairy free diet and my symptoms disappeared.
Since I discovered the healing power of nutrition, my life’s passion became empowering others with this information through Empowered Sustenance and my books.
My newfound passion for nutrition and mind-body medicine led me to recently change my education path. Although I’ve been doing online college courses for the past two years, I’m overjoyed to be healthy enough to return to a college campus. I’m going to get a Health Psychology degree (psychology with a mind-body focus) at the mecca for mind-body and naturopathic medicine: Bastyr University in Washington!
Wish me happy travels, because I will be flying out and moving to the campus this Saturday! I will be moving from Northern Virginia.
What’s changing?
Although I’ll probably have to cut back on my blogging time when I resume school full-time in a week, I will absolutely continue blogging! Some of my posts will reflect this new stage in my life. Here are some of the posts I’m looking forward to writing:
- What’s in my holistic dorm room?
- What do I cook and eat in a dorm setting?
- Tips for healthy living on a student budget
Also, you may have noticed a couple more advertisements on my blog. I would prefer not to run the ads because I don’t have control over the content of the ad (Google does). However, the revenue from the ads makes it possible for me to continue blogging and I needed to place a few more ads now that I’m juggling the increased expenses of college. Thank you for understanding.
Can you help me?
I have a favor to ask you. I’ve spent the last few years living in Northern Virginia, although I spent most of my life living about 2 hours north of Seattle.
I’m not familiar with the area within 30-40 minutes around Bastyr. Are you familiar with the Kenmore area or surrounding areas? I’m looking for practitioner recommendations for acupuncture, massage, craniosacral and other forms of body work.
I’m sad to leave my acupuncturist and BodyTalk practitioners here – they have helped me so much with my health – and it’s always tough to find a replacement for a good practitioner.
I would also love any recommendations for local real food resources such as stores, restaurants, family farms or CSAs. Are there nearby restaurants that have options (or flexible chefs!) for grain free, allergy-friendly meals? Or even allergy-friendly meal prep/delivery? If you are involved in any natural living or real food groups or anything like that, I would also love some recommendations to help me get plugged into a community.
Please leave your recommendations in the comments of this post. I may not be able to reply to each comment, but I read all of them and appreciate it greatly. Thank you so much!
I am going off to college next year, and I am so excited for some dorm-living related posts! I have been very apprehensive about dorm life and am so glad to be getting some recommendations from you. Thank you so much for all you do here.
Yay – well done for pursuing your dreams 🙂 so glad you are well enough to study – I am about to try the auto immune paleo 30 day reset as not having as much healing on GAPS as i wanted to and your blog is a great resources and pinterest page too! No recommendations I am afraid – I live in scotland:)
Congrats Lauren—I am SO happy for you!
Your blog is going to help so many college students (college is when I got really ill and I would have *loved* to have had your blog then!)
Take good care and have a wonderful adventure!-Julie
I would check out webber chiropractic in kirkland. They also have great massage staff. I would defiantly check out Pikes Place Market downtown Seattle. Best of luck to you.
I graduated from Bastyr with my MS in Nutrition and Clinical Health Psychology in 2008. I’d like to meet you and welcome you to Seattle. 🙂 I have a clinic to tell you about and want to talk to you about a project you might be able to help with while in school.
Hi Lauren!
Congratulations on moving out here and attending Bastyr!!! I imagine you’ll get to experience a wonderful community of like-minded folks on campus. I love the campus and can’t wait until I’m enrolled there next year! I’m currently completing my prerequisites at Edmonds Community College before I enroll into Bastyr’s Nutrition and Culinary Arts program. So I’ll see you there next year!
I currently live in Edmonds and I absolutely love the entire Pudget Sound area. It has so much to offer; I’m truly glad I moved here a few years ago.
So I quickly scrolled down the replies and haven’t read all of them, so if the information I provide is redundant, I apologize.
Firstly, if you have a car, I would highly recommend Bastyr’s health clinic in Seattle (unfortunately they don’t have one on campus). It’s an amazing health center; it’s large, very professional and they have a multitude of care professionals and their own dispensary. They would likely be a good place to start. I’m currently a patient there myself, and I have had a great experience so far!
Also, there is a naturopathic doctor in Redmond who specializes in digestive/gut health. I’ve heard him speak at a WAPF meeting a while back. He’s very much in line with NTA’s nutritional philosophy. His name is Dr. Tim Gerstmar and his website is: http://www.aspirenaturalhealth.com.
Also, I would recommend PCC market in Kirkland for most of your grocery shopping since it’s much closer than going to Capitol Hill in Seattle (although I have noticed that sometimes the smaller co-ops have a better selection of locally made foods). The PCC in Kirkland is older, smaller and not too impressive, but there are better, newer locations like the one in Redmond and Edmonds (they are my “mecca”). 🙂
By the way, I’ve also completed the Nutritional Therapy Association’s NTT course a few years back and absolutely loved it. It was AMAZING for me!
I wish you the best of luck with your new adventure. Since I live close by, if you have anymore questions about ANYTHING related to the area, I’d be happy to chat! Feel free to email me anytime!
Warmly,
Kristen 🙂
Welcome to Seattle Lauren! Let us know if you need anything!
The campus looks amazing, and I’ll bet the course work is, too. So excited for you, Lauren!
Hi Lauren, I am based in the UAE and have been looking to do an online masters in human nutrition. We don’t have any university in the UAE that offers that so my only option is to do it online with an accredited university or college in the US. i have done extensive research and came up with Huntington College for Health Sciences and University of Bridgeport that are both accredited and offer online masters in this field. They also offer a doctorate in naturopathy which is hopefully another one I’d like to do once i have completed my masters.
Have you heard of these universities? Do you have any recommendations for universities that offer the degree online, are affordable and have a decent reputation in the US?
very interesting