Hi friends, welcome to my blog! I am so glad you are here and I hope that this page will provide you with useful takeaways on how to live a sustainable healthy lifestyle.
My name is Erin Cornia. I am a wife and mother of 2. I love traveling, being a homemaker and cooking up healthy meals for my family to enjoy. I am a certified holistic nutritionist and a clinical GAPS practitioner BUT for the past 20 years I have also been a hairdresser. I am a HUGE extrovert and have loved this career path for me as I describe my job as "getting paid to hang out with friends".
BUT
being a hairdresser has cost my health a lot. Back, neck and shoulder pain are complaints of many hairdressers but I also suffered for years with chronic migraines and fatigue. (I have basically sniffed chemicals all day long for years...)
To make a long story short, I became interested in nutrition after a divorce from a drug addict in 2007. After seeing what pharmaceuticals and addiction can do to people first hand, I realized that I wanted to learn more about the opposite of how the medical industry "heals" people. I started learning more about holistic approaches to healing and certified as a personal trainer with AFAA in 2008. I realized quickly that what I had learned about nutrition with my personal training certification was NOT it. This got me interested in eastern medicine approaches and in 2011 I went to a holistic school for nutrition and became certified with the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.
I slowly transitioned my kitchen and mindset to these new teachings. I felt better overall, but was still suffering heavily from migraines. In my holistic education, whole grains were taught as a valuable, nutritious food to be consumed. I started playing with my diet. More whole grains, less meat...more vegetarian and meat sometimes...vegan baking etc. No matter what I did with my diet I knew one thing. I always craved beef and I always had headaches.
I had been following quite a few carnivore influencers on instagram and podcasts since 2018. It always interested me but I just couldn't wrap my brain around the idea of only eating meat. In fall of 2020 I listened to a Mikhaila Peterson podcast. She had on Doctor Natasha Campbell who talked about the GAPS diet. Dr. Campbell is the creator of the GAPS diet and this diet is grain free and animal based. I was very intrigued about this diet and fixing the bodies issues by healing the gut.
I was scared to try the GAPS diet. One thing about me is that I am a go-getter. If I set my mind to something I never want to half-ass it. The GAPS diet was intimidating. I decided to make small (but big for me) changes prior, to help me feel less overwhelmed. In December, I went off of gluten and in January of 2021, I went off all added sugar. I already felt such an enormous difference in energy levels just by adjusting those two things. In February I went on the FULL GAPS diet. I am not exaggerating when I say that within 5 days I had extreme amounts of energy, sleep was phenomenal (no waking up to pee and easy to wake up early), and I had not had a headache. Within 3 months I had no fatigue. I started waking up in the 5 am hour, my sleep was incredible and I realized that I didn't really need that much sleep because it was so restful. My libido was higher than it had ever been, migraines were nearly all gone aside from maybe 1-2 with my cycle. My mood was great. Everything was feeling better except for the arthritis that I was developing in two of my left fingers from doing hair. I had had constant pain in those 2 fingers for about a year. They ached all the time, even when I was going to sleep. I would get trigger finger and drop my comb when doing hair and could no longer grip tightly with one of the fingers. After 4 months of the FULL GAPS diet I woke up one morning and the pain was gone.
I have stayed on a full GAPS diet since then. Yes, I am human and stray from time to time on vacations, holidays etc. I am a big believer of allowing yourself to be human... aka, imperfect. I travel often and always find a way to stay as close as I can to a GAPS lifestyle. I am obsessed with the GAPS way of life. I want to bring GAPS to as many people as I can, so I decided to train to become a clinical GAPS practitioner. This is my calling in life. I am passionate about it and LOVE to see people change their lives. The best part is that THEY make the changes themselves. The power is in YOUR hands. I know that everyone can feel better by making changes in their diet. Most people do not know how good they COULD feel!
If you are interested in feeling better and healing your gut, reach out to me! I would love to work with you and empower you to feel your best!
