August 4, 2021.

The day everything changed.

Two diagnoses landed at once: Lupus (SLE) and Scleroderma. My body was in rebellion, and I had two choices: surrender or rebuild. I chose to rebuild.

But getting there wasn't a straight line.

Months before the diagnosis, I was doing all the "right" things: eating well, staying active, trying every fitness challenge I could find. The weight wouldn't budge and the fatigue was relentless. Then I found the JJ Smith 10-Day Smoothie Cleanse. It wasn't a miracle, but it curbed my sugar cravings and reignited something important: belief.

From there I sought guidance from a doctor who specialized in nutrition. A low-fat macro diet felt like progress, until sudden gallbladder attacks stopped me cold.

That pain became my pivot point. I realized my body wasn't broken. It was speaking. And I needed to start listening.

When the rheumatologist's first response was medication, I made a decision on the spot: I was going a different route. I found energy medicine. And that first intake with a holistic health coach gave me more clarity about my own body in two hours than four years of doctor's appointments combined.

That's when it clicked. The traditional system wasn't designed to see the whole picture. I needed an approach that treated me as one connected system: mind, body, energy, all of it.

So I built one. That's The Build Method™.