This is my journey too. How to survive a flare.

I pride myself on my level of care and love I provide my body but even doing all the good that I possibly can, I am not immune to my autoimmune diseases (pun intended). This year has been hands down one of the best so far. Starting in January (or a little before) I decided to stop being so upset with the lot my life had provided for me and start living to the fullest potential that I can. I really have given it my best shot to stop trying to control everything and instead let the universe guide my path. It has been truly a remarkable journey. However, whenever you are trying to make these great changes in your life other things will get in the way as well. My year and world was rocked to the core this past February when I lost my grandmother and had to deal with family drama beyond any possibly imagination. It wasn't the loss exactly but everything that came with it that shook me.

When huge emotional shifts take place in your body it doesn't matter how clean your pantry is or how many vitamins you take or the fact that I get 8 hours of sleep every night...it still took a major toll. This past few days I have been too ashamed to admit it but I was hit with a massive flare. One that has taken me down for several days and kept me from doing the things I love. I am trying to find meaning in it all...but maybe, just maybe the whole point is for me to share this experience.

I am on this journey right alongside you all. I am working just as hard as you are to reverse my cell damage and repair what has been taken away. Along the way there are going to be bumps and pain but it is about getting back up and seeing what you can do next.

Monday evening I went home feeling a little off but I figured if I got a good night's sleep and took my vitamins I would feel better by Tuesday. Tuesday at 2am I woke up writhing in pain with a massive interstitial cystitis flare. One like I have never experienced in the past. Immediately I went through a mental catalog of everything I'd done that past weekend to see if I could pinpoint the culprit. I mentally scanned my food journal, sleep record, activity level, stress level etc., and yes I had worked a little too hard and on Sunday I had 2 glasses of wine instead of my usual 1 and I hadn't been getting the sleep I usually get...but overall it was the stress that brought me down. This flare brought me to my knees on Wednesday night in tears. I want to be there and encourage all of you that we can get through this. This isn't the flare that I won't recover from, this isn't the time to give up. So after I let myself release some of these emotions, I dried myself off, went to the kitchen and started the next treatment. I made a clay mask for my abdomen, took colloidal silver and an extra large dose of straight chamomile herbs to calm the muscles, put my infrared heating pack on and watched a movie. The point of all of this is to say that we can make it through anything we want. There is no problem that we cannot reverse if we work together and support each other. Trust me when I say, I want to help you too. I am on my own journey right here next to you and I want you to know that I won't be knocked down by these things and I won't let you get knocked down either.

Today, is a new day and I am feeling much better. I felt inspired to tell you my story as hard as it is. You all know by now that I have 4 autoimmune diseases and I am not immune to flares. I use them as a reminder to love my body and appreciate all the hard work it does for me and as a reminder to rest. We have too much to be healthy for, we have to be like the bobo doll and just keep getting back up!

Thank you for reading
Be well!

Sharissa Bradley

Impulsivity and Jumping in

"Hello, my name is Sharissa Bradley and I am impulsive"

"Hi Sharissa!!"

Almost every decision I have made I have made it impulsively: saying yes to my husbands proposal, having my first baby (and my second), taking jobs, buying a home, buying my car, starting projects etc. I am that person who can convince anyone of anything (maybe manipulative is a better word) and can convince myself of the next best thing like no ones business. But when it came to taking the plunge in my own health it took months of research and explaining and long periods of self doubt before I came to the conclusion that I had nothing else to lose.

Can anyone tell me why it is that when it comes to our health we can come up with one million excuses to not take the next step? Too expensive, cannot afford a coach, cannot afford to eat healthy, I am going to start on the first of the month, I need to start on a Monday but I keep messing up Monday morning so I have to wait a whole week to start again.

Why is this? Why isn't our health our number one priority. If you are sitting at home again spending another day too tired, too sick, or simply or not feeling well enough to be social or playing with your family then how come you cannot see it is time for change? Don't feel bad...I did the same thing. But why?

I want to tell you a little something about being an impulsive person that is so incredibly frustrating. I can be very easily convinced to try new things...next week I am jumping out of an airplane, this past Friday I walked a red carpet as a model (a 30 year old mom of 2 little kids...yes ME) because I am tired...truly sick and tired of letting my health control my life. I JUMPED and you should too.

For some reason we can be so easily convinced to buy the latest gadget, a new TV, remodel our house...but when it comes to spending money on changing your life it is so hard to make that leap. I know from experience. I spent most of my life satisfied with the fact that I was always going to be tired and weak and uncomfortable in my clothes because my doctor said that was a normal process of getting older. I was skeptical of the health trends and fads (or so I thought). When I finally hit my rock bottom I had no choice but to seek out alternative care. I went to acupuncture, chiropractic, integrative medicine doctors, and herbalists. I finally started to see some relief, that in combination with changing my diet I was able to reverse heal and become whole. It is hard to explain health to someone who has never felt well...I am selling you on a dream that you didn't know you could dream. When I was sick there was no one like me to help, I couldn't find someone who would hold my hand and teach me how to not only survive but thrive...so when I got well enough I became that person for everyone else. You do not have to suffer any more, you just have to determine what your health and life is worth to you. Do you want this to be your quality of life now? Or do you want the dream you didn't even know you could dream about?

Follow my pages, subscribe here, on facebook and on instagram and get some free tips every day, and when you are ready give me a call and I will show you the dream. You cannot afford to spend one more day missing your life, take a leap of faith and be impulsive for the right reasons.

Be well and thank you for reading,
Sharissa Bradley B.A., M.A., & C.N.C.

Come on body, get out of bed: Adrenal Fatigue

Come on body!! We push our precious bodies so far and they work so hard for us! Especially here in Southern California, I don't know about you, but I will push my body until it collapses (12-15 hour days sometimes). I am a typical overachiever, I was pregnant in grad school and had a 2 year old and still pushed myself to finish early. It is no surprise after giving everything else in my life 100% of my energy that at some point my body screamed out....STOP!

It is funny how it happens. We are going along, everything is fine, working hard and pushing ourselves. 4-6 hours of sleep is enough right? WRONG! Your body will figure out a way to knock you off your feet if you are not listening to it. Unfortunately, for some people that means their body stops working properly. This can show up in a variety of ways, you could be feeling slightly more tired than usual and no amount of sleep seems to help you catch up, you could be exhausted instead of exhilarated after a workout, you could be cranky for no apparent reason, or wake up feeling more tired than you were when you went to bed the night before, or maybe you are tired and cranky all day then around 6-7pm you get an enormous surge of energy and all of a sudden you could clean your whole house and do all your food prep. Everyone else is sleeping and even though you have been tired all day long (wishing you were in bed) yet now you couldn't go to bed no matter how hard you tried.

All of these symptoms and more are signs of adrenal fatigue. Adrenal Glands are tiny organs that live on top of your kidneys and help to regulate the HPA (Hypothalamus - Pituitary-Axis). They regulate hormones and are responsible for cortisol and adrenaline production. When you push your body too hard and don't give it proper food and rest these tiny organs can start misbehaving producing only tiny bits of cortisol in the morning leaving you sluggish and tired and higher amounts in the evening giving you that much needed surge of motivation at the WRONG time of day! Exercise will push these glands to produce adrenaline which will further tax them leaving you  more tired than when you started. Boy oh boy, what a complicated mess!!

So what do we do when we find it nearly impossible to get our heavy body out of bed every morning? How do we heal these precious organs and get out of our incredible bodies way of healing itself?

1. Make sleep your #1 priority!!
(Side note: I was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal fatigue 2 years ago and my doctor told me this and I literally laughed in her face. I told her, "you know I have 2 children under 3 years old and you want me to sleep 8-9 hours a night??").

This is the most important thing you can do for your body. Our bodies heal when they are at rest, if you are not sleeping, you are not healing.

2. Stop any physical exertion that you can. Walking is great but nothing too hard and do not push yourself! If at any point you are getting that adrenaline surge, you are further taxing those tiny organs.

3. EAT!! When you skip meals your blood sugar tanks too low, when your blood sugar gets too low your body over compensates by producing adrenaline. You are not running on your "stored fat" you are running on adrenaline. Excess adrenaline will get stored in your fat cells as toxins. You are not doing yourself any favors by skipping meals. Eat regular meals and keep your body running on glucose and fat not adrenaline! Give those puppies a rest.

4. Eat high quality foods and enough to keep you satisfied all day.

5. Practice some self love! You have pushed your body to it's breaking point, now it is time to give it some grace and for goodness sake #loveyourself

6. Get a coach: find someone (if it isn't me) that can help you through this process. It is a long road but one worth taking. Especially if you have someone leading you every step of the way!

If this sounds like you, please reach out, I would love to help you heal!

Be well my friends.

There is no such thing as a magic pill...

It is very rare that I will sit on the couch and watch TV. I am the type of person who needs to be constantly busy. If I sit down for any length of time when the sun is still up I start to think about all that needs to get done and I cannot relax. With that said, last week I got hit with the most horrible flu bug. Getting this flu, in part, was exciting (I'll explain this in a minute) but mostly it knocked me off my ass! I was stuck on the couch for a few days with such bad nausea that all I could do was chill (very unlike me) and I watch regular TV with commercials *gasp*. It is amazing how many drug commercials there are these days. One in particular struck a chord with me. 

There is a new weight loss drug out there called Contrave (clever name). The pill claims that it works on two areas of the brain to control your craving (pleasure center) and to make you feel fuller longer (hunger center). With possible side effects of depression and suicide. The commercial shows women working together to form a brain and shows women in restaurants refusing dessert. Why is this such a big deal? Why is this so frustrating for me?

There are a few key points this ad is leaving out about what exactly this pill is doing to your brain. Any time you take a medication there is going to be some effect. As long as you are taking this pill you will be stifling your pleasure center in your brain that area that makes you feel good and the area in your brain that tells you are hungry. By clogging those receptor sites in your brain you'll also be blocking your natural hormone production of the hormone leptin. As well as the hormone ghrelin. The "hunger hormones," leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is a hormone, made by fat cells, that decreases your appetite. Ghrelin is a hormone that increases appetite, and also plays a role in body weight. If you block your own bodies production of these two hormones you will never be able to control your cravings and therefore weight gain.

You cannot block these hormones without having some seriously negative repercussions. Not to mention blocking the pleasure center of your brain (the one this drug claims will help you stay away from French fries and ice cream) what other pleasures are you going to be blocking? It’s no wonder the two biggest side effects are depression and suicidal thoughts. Don’t mess with your brain people. Our body knows exactly how to heal itself, it knows exactly how much to eat and when to stop. There are other problems at play here and there is no magic pill to cure them. Especially not if you want long-term results. You cannot take a drug to cure cravings.

If you or someone you know is seriously struggling with an uncontrollable appetite or cravings and uncontrolled weight gain, please know there are bigger things at play and there is no one pill. Get yourself a coach, or call me and we can work on it together. Please let me know if I can be of any help to you. My goal is for lifetime success and longevity!

Be well friends!