For years, she took care of everyone else. Until she realized she had forgotten to take care of herself.

After years of caring for her family, building her career, and eventually caring for her mother through cancer, her own health had taken a back seat. Grief, exhaustion, weight struggles, and symptoms she had learned to live with finally made her realize something needed to change.

This is her story, in her own words.

“As a daughter, wife, mother, and teacher, I spent years putting the needs of my family and my career before my own. Taking care of everyone else came naturally to me. Taking care of myself always seemed to come last.

I come from a close-knit Italian family where food has always been at the center of everything. Family dinners meant gathering around the table surrounded by homemade breads, pasta, Sunday sauce, meatballs, cutlets, cheeses, desserts, and all the foods that represented home, tradition, and love.

When my husband and I moved our family from New York to Florida, my parents came with us. We had lived together in a mother-daughter home in New York, and as their only daughter, having them close was incredibly important to me and my children, whom they helped raise. They bought a home just five houses away from ours. My mom made sure a delicious Italian meal was on the table by 5:00, and almost every day my husband, our children, and I gathered around that table with my parents. Those dinners were simply part of our life.

Then, in 2023, my mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer that had metastasized to her stomach.

Without a second thought, our roles reversed. I became the caretaker. I went to appointments, worked, took my children to their activities and sports, managed both households, and handled everyday life while trying to help my mom and dad through the fight of her life.

After a year and a half of fighting, we lost her.

The heartache and grief were overwhelming. For so long, I had survived by putting up a guard, smiling, and telling everyone, “I’m okay.” After my mom passed away, that guard was gone.

I wasn’t okay.

I had spent so much time focused on everything my mom and our family had gone through that I hadn’t stopped to recognize what was happening to me. I was struggling with Hashimoto’s, constant fatigue, constipation, bloating, stomachaches, unexplained hives, my weight, and years of accumulated stress. So many of those symptoms had become part of my everyday life that I had almost accepted them as normal.

I finally realized I couldn’t continue putting myself at the bottom of the list.

A friend of mine, Alicia Kurzner, who was already a patient of Amanda’s, recommended that I meet with Amanda and give functional medicine a chance.

I am so grateful that I listened to her.

Meeting Amanda became a turning point in my life. For the first time in a very long time, it was time to take care of me.

From my very first meeting with Amanda, my guard came down. Years of stress, poor food choices, grief, frustration, and emotions came pouring out—and Amanda didn’t look away.

She listened.

She took the time to educate me without judging me while also holding me accountable for the choices I was making. That combination of compassion and accountability was exactly what I needed.

This journey hasn’t been about being perfect. I’ve had setbacks, difficult weeks, and choices I wasn’t proud of. But Amanda never made those moments feel like failures. Through our weekly check-ins and in-person visits, she helped me get back on track and reminded me why I started.

There is one moment with Amanda that I will never forget. On the one-year anniversary of my mom’s passing, a care package arrived in the mail from her. I wasn’t expecting it. It wasn’t part of an appointment or treatment plan. It was simply an act of kindness from someone who remembered that I was going through one of the hardest days of my life.

It moved me more than I can explain.

In that moment, I knew I wasn’t just another patient to Amanda. I was a real person navigating the hardest chapter of my life. She has listened to me, hugged me through tears, encouraged me, celebrated my progress, and made me feel heard and cared for. She didn’t give up on me, and I truly believe that’s the kind of practitioner she is. She doesn’t give up on her patients.

Today, I have reached weight-loss goals that once felt out of reach, but some of the most meaningful changes can’t be measured by the number on the scale.

My energy has improved, my digestion and constipation are significantly better, the bloating and stomach discomfort have eased, and the unexplained hives that once seemed to appear constantly are no longer something I’m battling every day. I’m also much more aware of how Hashimoto’s affects my body and how nutrition, stress, movement, and the choices I make each day can influence how I feel.

I’ve learned how to make healthier food choices while still enjoying the foods and traditions that are important to me. I’ve learned more about my body and what it needs. Most importantly, I’ve learned that taking care of myself isn’t selfish. Caring for everyone I love also has to include caring for myself.

Seeing these changes has reminded me that progress isn’t only measured by the number on the scale it’s also measured by how much better I feel living in my own body.

My journey isn’t over, and I don’t expect perfection. What I have now is knowledge, accountability, confidence, and a much healthier relationship with taking care of myself.

Amanda came into my life during a time when I desperately needed someone to see the person behind the symptoms. She did exactly that.

If you’re someone who has spent years taking care of everyone around you while continually putting yourself last, I hope my story encourages you to give yourself permission to become a priority too.

I will forever be grateful that my path crossed with Amanda’s. She helped me find my way back to taking care of myself during a time when I wasn’t sure how to do that on my own and that is something I will never forget.