Brittany Sale
Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and Restorative Wellness Practitioner-1
I was raised in a small town and a big family in Northern California where I learned that sunshine is medicine and summer food is the best food. When I was around junior high age, I began experiencing frequent headaches that escalated into migraines. Over the years, the migraines got so bad they would wipe me out and I could only lay in bed with the lights off during the pain and the nausea. After seeing specialists and eventually a neurologist, and after expensive MRIs, they couldn’t find any reason for what was “wrong”. I was prescribed some expensive brand name medications, with no available generics, that worked most of the time, but they weren’t a guarantee that I could escape the pain.
My doctors also recommend that I refrain from eating MSG or monosodium glutamate, a common additive in snack and other packaged food. At that point in my life, I also didn’t drink a lot of water and thought I didn’t like it that much. Although I was young, my pain was so bad that I would miss school days and even fun holiday events. My doctors said that migraines could be triggered by so many things, but I didn’t have a clear plan as to how to identify what my triggers could be. I had a gut feeling thought that pills weren’t the end solution. So I tried my best to avoid MSG, started drinking more water, and started finding more ways that I liked to move my body.
I had a gut feeling that pills weren’t the end solution
Even with those changes, I still experienced migraines. In high school, I joined the tennis team and got more into running to get in better condition for playing. During one summer, I would run for about 1.5 miles each morning, but by the afternoon, I would be so exhausted and have a headache. I felt like it didn’t matter how much water I drank, sleep I had, or food I ate, I still couldn’t predict when I would be totally wiped out.
When I was 16, I had my first glass of caffeinated soda with dinner before a school dance. I was so wired after it! I had never felt anything like it and was super silly the whole dance, all hyped up on caffeine. Fast forward to college, I discovered that caffeine helped my headaches the most, much better than my expensive pills. So I ditched the pills and would reach for a glass of soda when I had a bad headache. But deep down, I didn’t want to be dependent on caffeine, and I didn’t want to really drink soda. I also knew that you could become too dependent on caffeine and then experience withdrawal headaches and I didn’t want to mess with that.
My freshman year of high school, I also signed up to complete a half marathon. The weekend my first year of college ended, I ran my first half marathon. I was by no means fast, but it was fun! I had the goos and the gels and the electrolytes and the water and thought I was set. Afterwards though, I had a massive headache and was totally wiped out for the rest of the day, even napping for multiple hours. I was annoyed at the time that many of my friends seemed to run for miles on end and be just fine. Why couldn’t my body handle that as well?
Fast forward to my mid-twenties and other health problems began cropping up. It started with my own difficulty trying to conceive and expand my family and also losing my first pregnancy to miscarriage. It was a dark time in my life. I knew that something was wrong and sought out education and resources. I devoured books, podcasts, and everything I could get my hands on. That’s when I found the world of Nutritional Therapy. The knowledge that my Nutritional Therapy Practitioner shared with me for my individual situation helped me so immensely and I saw my health problems get better one by one. Better than that, I grew a deeper understanding of what my own body was telling me!
It started with my own difficulty trying to conceive and expand my family and also losing my first pregnancy to miscarriage.
Wiped out after intense exercise? I needed to support my adrenals and mineral balancing! Bloating and digestive issues? I needed to examine the foods I was eating and understand that some of them I was sensitive too. Shakiness and getting “hangry”? I needed to support better blood sugar balance by supporting the organs involved in that process. Autoimmune diagnosis? I needed to understand the role my gut and gut health was playing on the integrity of my immune system and the role of my environment on my overall health. Through Nutritional Therapy, I learned the way my body communicates to me and how I can continue to nourish it and optimize my health.
Through Nutritional Therapy, I learned the way my body communicates to me and how I can continue to nourish it and optimize my health
The changes I experienced took learning, practice, failure, mistakes, adjustments, continued learning, and more adjustments. Making deep, lasting impacts on our health isn’t an overnight solution. My NTP was a wealth of knowledge and inspired me to study to become an NTP myself so I can guide other people on their own journey to uncover their optimal health and get back to being in tune with their body.
As I was making changes in my own life, I found that my menstrual cycle health also improved. Pain diminished, regularity became more precise, and I found out that all these things that we consider “normal” about women’s health, aren’t actually normal at all. They may be common, like pain, moodiness, irritability, feeling cold, hormonal headaches, frustratingly easy weight gain or weight stagnation, being “hangry”, etc. but they are signs that our body needs more support in certain areas. This realization lit a fire within me to help other women understand what optimal health can do for them, their life, and their motherhood journey.
I found out that all these things that we consider “normal” about women’s health, aren’t actually normal at all.
To make a very nuanced and long fertility story short, I was able to implement much of what I’d learned and got pregnant and had a healthy baby girl in September 2021. I’m so passionate about helping women have the healthiest bodies, pregnancies, and babies that they possibly can! I now specialize in nutrition and lifestyle for fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, breastfeeding, women’s health, and hormones.
The health of mom, and even dad, has a direct link to the health of the next generation through epigenetics, nutrition in utero, and the environmental toxic exposure that mom does or doesn’t have. It’s a complete honor to walk side by side with women and couples on their parenthood journey whether they are struggling to conceive, struggling with loss, pregnant with a miracle (or 2!), or are healing and repairing after bringing life into this world. Even when conceiving is not yet on the horizon, optimizing health ultimately ties back to optimizing fertility and the natural ebb and flow of women’s cyclical hormones.
Now that you know a little more about me, please come visit me on instagram @fullandwhollynourished and say hi or drop me a line through the contact box on this website! I’d love to get to know you and I hope you find value in the recipes, education and information I share here so you can stay full and wholly nourished every step of your motherhood journey.
xo
Brittany