ABOUT ALEXA

My story.

Growing up, I always struggled with irregular menstrual cycles, PMS, ovarian cysts, anxiety, and issues concentrating. Ovarian cysts were a HUGE issue for me, and they would often burst leaving me in excruciating pain. There was one point where I would revolve my exercise routine around them so they wouldn’t explode in public places. When I discussed these issues with doctors, the answer was always the same: hormonal birth control. No thanks!

 When the pandemic happened I was a brand new floor nurse working overnights. I remember watching countless people die, being exhausted, and extremely overwhelmed. Personalities would get admitted, and bodies would leave. The busyness of my shifts in a sense protected me, however, I became extremely jaded and dissociated during this time period of my life. The trauma eventually took its toll and my physical health declined. This was when I stumbled upon functional medicine. I had this feeling that I never wanted to be in these people’s position. I wanted to have resilience against disease.

My grandma got hit hard by covid. Her poorly controlled diabetes, coupled with loneliness and a lack of social interaction, ravaged her brain. Mentally, she was no longer with us. It was because of this that I became fascinated with blood sugar dysregulation and insulin resistance. I started doing continuous glucose monitoring and conducting my own research on how food affected my energy. I switched jobs and began working in the operating room with a normal schedule at this point. My physical body completely changed with these simple blood sugar balancing hacks I learned via trial and error.

Cut to *of course* a breakup, and I landed myself into a depression. My ovarian cysts that I thought I healed through my diet, randomly returned. I distracted myself from my emotional pain by diving deep into learning functional medicine. Education and work has always been a well paved avenue I would use to siphon my anxiety and emotions into. I got both of my certifications during this time and was able to do functional lab work on myself which was VERY eye opening. I had low sex hormones, an H. pylori infection, low cortisol, candida overgrowth, and a gluten sensitivity all with a “perfect” diet. I looked great, my blood sugar was steady, but I felt like total shit and I was so lonely and sad. This was when I realized how important lifestyle factors are in conjunction to nutrition, especially socializing and having fun. The body is such an intertwined complex web, and we need to look at the entire person.

As I finally healed my physical body, I began to wake up from this depression and I realized that I had been running away from anxiety that I struggled with since I was a teenager, and it was taking a toll on my health. I remember I would be scared of my own brain, constantly distracting myself. This was one of the most pivotal moments of my life when I decided I couldn’t run anymore and I had to face it. I started meditating and it changed my life. It felt like someone gave me keys into my subconscious and I turned over these “anxiety” stones, looking underneath to the root. This gave me the opportunity to heal deeply rooted wounds that I’m still working on to this day. 

That in all of its essence is my story, and my story embodies The Metabolic Maven’s core values. My soul is deeply rooted in this company, but I can only match YOUR intensity. We can’t even touch our emotions or our spirit if our physical bodies are unwell. I believe that one can truly never heal unless you hold yourself accountable and deal with your own shit, your past negative experiences, the false narratives you tell yourself, your dysfunctional behaviors, your loose boundaries, etc. You are the hero of your own life, I can only lead you to the water, but you have to drink it.