Founder’s Story

When I was a teenager, I weighed nearly 200 pounds and wore a men’s 42” pant size (the equivalent of XXL or size 24 for all the women reading). I was tired of feeling unhealthy and being made fun of, so I started on my personal wellness journey. After decades of research, exercise, and various diets, I’m now down to a 32” pant size (M or size 10-12 for ladies reference). I noticed I felt better and lost the most body fat when I ate natural foods instead of processed or synthetic ones. That was my first bit of evidence that supporting your health naturally was better than trying to support my health synthetically.

For the past fifteen years, I’ve worked in the fields of research and business statistics and analytics. During that time, I’ve been interested in health and longevity. I’ve spent hundreds of hours outside of work researching what helps people get healthier and live longer. My research led me to develop a supplement program that had so many pills that I needed three of the large weekly pill organizers. I was probably taking upwards of thirty pills a day; virtually all of them were synthetic.

A few felt like they helped, some did not, and some felt like they helped only some of the time. I still felt like I was physically older than I really am despite my exercise, diet, and supplement programs.

Eventually, I discovered trail running. Instead of feeling miserable lifting weights or doing 45 minutes of high-intensity interval training at the gym almost every day, trail running gave me a burst of new energy and a feeling of being refreshed. While I still go to the gym throughout the week, my exercises of choice are ones that are outside.

This was more evidence for me that supporting my health naturally is better than doing it synthetically or artificially. Despite the trail running elevating my mood and energy while exercising, I still felt exhausted physically and mentally when I was at home or at work, especially as my family grew.

My research into natural wellness led me to herbalism. As I value self-reliance, the concept of herbalism and wild crafting (foraging for herbs in nature) to support my health was extremely appealing. While the journal or research articles I’ve read in biochemistry and health have their value, studying natural ways to support my health resonated with me more than other health books I’ve read.