EP 2 | Welcome to The Healing Chronicles Podcast

Welcome to the heart of The Healing Chronicles Podcast, where it all began! In this episode, we’re sharing why we—Katie and Amanda—joined forces to create this space for real, raw conversations about healing. Together, we’re sharing the real reason this podcast exists—because we know exactly how isolating and overwhelming the healing process can be.

We’re pulling back the curtain on our own journeys, the ups and downs, and what led us to create a space where you can feel seen, heard and supported. Whether you’re navigating gut issues, chronic illness, or simply searching for balance, this podcast is here to remind you that you’re never doing it alone. We both come from different healing journeys but share the same mission: to give you a space where you feel supported, empowered and understood. We’ll be talking about our personal struggles, what we’ve learned along the way and why we believe healing is a community effort.

Expect laughter, raw honesty, a few tears and plenty of insight into what you can expect from us in future episodes.

Grab your headphones, let’s get personal.

Takeaways:
→ Why community is the missing link in your healing
→ How our journeys inspired the mission of this podcast
→ What to expect from upcoming episodes

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

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📩 thehealingchroniclespodcast@gmail.com

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:52 Katie's Story
• 16:37 Amanda's Story
• 24:31 Adopting a Healing Mindset
• 30:24 Taking Radical Responsibility For Your Health

Transcript

Amanda: we are pulling back the curtain on our own journeys, the ups and downs and what led us to create a space where you can feel seen, heard and supported. Whether you're navigating gut issues, chronic illness, or simply searching for balance.

This podcast is here to remind you that you're never doing it alone.

Katie: We both come from different healing journeys, but share the same mission, and that is to give you a space where you feel supported, empowered, and understood. So we'll be talking about our personal struggles, we've learned along the way, and why we believe healing is a community effort.

Amanda: I'm excited to dive in. maybe it's just the curiosity in me, but I'm excited to hear more detail about your story. And I know that we have so much in common, so many parallels with our healing journeys, but I'm really looking forward to dig into the details of your [00:01:00] story from diagnosis to

where you are now, which is in remission, long term, and yeah, all the parts in between.

Katie: I mean, your story is equally as amazing, 

Amanda: Yeah, but I already know my story. 

Katie: Well, I want to know about yours.

Uh, so yeah, basically I, um, I was pretty young actually. I was in school when I started having, symptoms, although never spoke about it. I was about 16 when I started having real gut problems and I was super embarrassed, I was at school. I was like, I'm never going to speak about this to anyone. I started to get super sick where I was bed bound. When I turned, 17, 18, I actually was first diagnosed with celiac disease. I was diagnosed with celiac before I was diagnosed with Crohn's. they failed to diagnose me with celiac disease. 

Amanda: Okay. 

Katie: My mom who asked them to test [00:02:00] me For celiac disease and my mom is not in the medical world or anything like that But thank God she Yeah, ask them to do so, because it enabled me to eat appropriately for my condition. and back then there was no gluten free stuff, like gluten free just didn't exist. So it was hard to come to terms with that at such a young age. so my symptoms got a little bit better, but didn't heal completely. I just kind of had. ups and downs. and then it got to a point where I, had a corporate job.

I got my first corporate job when I was 17, 18 and things were getting quite stressful. It was a performance based job in sales. So the pressure was on. I was Training hard at the gym at this point started bodybuilding when I was 16. [00:03:00] I was just constantly ill and nothing was. helping. Nothing was getting better. My symptoms would like smack me in the face and I would be like crying under my desk. And that went on for a while. I moved back to the UK when I was 21 I'd basically been living with Crohn's unmedicated for period of time.

So once I received the diagnosis through an MRI of my small bowel, at that point I had three stretches. I was like doubled over every day. It was, yeah, it was rough. So I got admitted into hospital and then put on intravenous steroids. They told me I had to have my gallbladder out.

I refused, [00:04:00] thank God. pancreatitis. I didn't. I had Crohn's. So, yeah, I was just getting, like, misdiagnosed left, right, and center. Um, they picked up on the stretches and the Crohn's disease through the MRI. So, they didn't pick it up through any endoscopies. any double balloon endoscopies, anything like that. and then it was a case of just being put on steroids for years, which led to liver failure, kidney failure.

So yeah, it was, it was rough. I felt like I'd kind of just completely abused my body through. Medication when it, I didn't, I never wanted it to be that way. yeah, I studied, started to study in nutrition I already had the love for it through the bodybuilding and was competing in bodybuilding, which wasn't helping either. 

Amanda: Let's talk about the steroids a little [00:05:00] bit before you move on.

Katie: Yeah.

Amanda: I'm curious to hear, because I, for me, it was kind of like this thing that, they're like, oh, you know, you got to get on these medications. And they never really made me feel good. They just. dampened things brought the inflammation down so that I could function a little better in my day, but they never really made me feel like myself or like I was, healing. It was just this thing that brought the inflammation down to a level where I could manage in my day.

Katie: It's so interesting you say that because I didn't feel any different being on them at all. I was still every single day, 2 p. m. in the afternoon, I was still getting smacked in the face with doubled over pain and they just were not even touching the surface. and. other drugs that they were telling me to take as [00:06:00] well, which, naively you do, they don't work, and then they continue to take them, well why, why would I do that, would I continue to take something that wasn't I don't know. Helping in any way, shape or form. And then it comes back around to, well, you need to look at your lifestyle and you need to change your lifestyle. where do you start with that? it's a lot when you're trying to keep on top of life in general, and then having this extra layer of information shoved in your face that you don't know, you don't know what that looks like. It's just adding to the stress levels, which are then to the symptoms. And it's almost like a bit of a vicious circle because you're never baselining. You're always just redlining constantly

Amanda: Yeah,

Katie: because you don't know where your baseline is at that point.

you're just existing. You're not even living at that point.

Amanda: yeah, when every bite of food creates [00:07:00] stress because you don't know how your body is going to react, it's like that, that borderline level of stress that is existing in your life from day to day, is so high. And then someone comes in and says, well, you need to manage your stress levels.

Like, what does that mean? 

Katie: Yeah,

Amanda: eating food and moving through my day is stressful because I feel like I'm planning out, where the closest washrooms are in case I need to run to the washroom and you know, when I'm doing my groceries 

Katie: yeah, even going out with your friends, it's like, you're just horrendously uncomfortable the whole time, but you have to put on a brave face and, you know, you don't want to be that person who's like, Oh, guys, look, I will come, but I feel ill, like if I need to leave, what, like, you don't even want to identify with that.

I didn't anyway. So I just used to it. Like [00:08:00] bear it and just kind of go along with things when ultimately I was in absolute pain, like trying to enjoy a girl's day out or night out and just thinking like, all I want to do is just curl up in a ball and be at

Amanda: Yeah.

Katie: So it's, and then that also adds like a level of depression to everything.

And it just feels like you're getting swamped by emotions and physical symptoms. When you don't know how to heal, it's really hard to pick yourself up and draw yourself out of that hole.

Amanda: Yeah. And how long did you do the medications, steroids before you started to find something else?

Katie: it was about 11 years. I was on steroids for a long time. And then I was on biologics for six years. But I would still flare up on biologics and then they'd put me on steroids again. it was almost like it got to a [00:09:00] point where my GI said, you know, you have, you've run out of options.

You have to have a bag fitted. And I know people who have stoma bags, it gives them a new lease of life... but I never wanted to let it get that far. And coming from like a health background of being healthy and you know, wanting to train and it just, it wasn't, it wasn't running the way I, my life just wasn't running in the trajectory I wanted it to.

Amanda: hmm.

Katie: that in itself was really hard to come to terms with and accept. It's just constant decline in health, and, and also experiencing all the side effects as well. What comes with the medication was, was hard.

Amanda: Right, yeah, because they are not without [00:10:00] their side effects for sure. And it's almost like that was where I got to the point where the side effects started to outweigh the improvement. Cause like I said, I never really felt better. It felt like they were just kind of taking the inflammation down a little bit and I would Try to wean off of them.

And then as soon as I would decrease the dose, the inflammation would come back again. And, then I remember after about two years of doing that, getting to that point where all of the side effects that were happening started to become worse. And I was questioning, like, why am I even taking these?

You know, like, I feel like I'm going backwards.

Katie: yeah. Why am I signing this waiver before, before I start this new medication? Like, what am I actually doing with my life? and it's not until you, zoom out and just take a whole new perspective on everything. It's like the most horrifically [00:11:00] uncomfortable situation to go through because you literally have to change life the way that you've lived it for however many years and almost relearn how to live.

in a way because you can't heal in the same environment that made you sick. So you, need to do something different and changing your environment is the first step behavior change.

Amanda: Yeah, and that's the biggest difference between the type of approach that we, start off with. The, medication approach is just targeting the inflammation. And when we start to learn more and ask more questions and educate ourselves in different approaches.

We start to ask the question, okay, if this inflammation is causing all the problems, what's causing the inflammation And then that's when the shift happens, like you said, because then now we're looking at, the inflammation is a symptom. It's not the [00:12:00] problem. And it's addressing the environment that created the inflammation that really, it's a whole paradigm shift.

This journey for me has completely Changed the way I look at health and the way our bodies function and the way that, like I said, that, 

Katie: yeah,

Amanda: We treat the illness with a medication. it's turning that completely on its head and realizing that we have it backwards the only way to truly make a difference is by continuing to ask why and back up, and ask why the symptoms are happening in the first place.

Katie: and almost like reverse engineering it, but instead of having to go through that whole process, actually living for disease prevention is. It's just so much better because then you don't have to go through any of [00:13:00] this

Amanda: Yeah. 

Katie: and I think it's a real sticking point when it comes to like, people investing in their actual well being. Because, I mean, we don't even want to go to the dentist, right? And it's like, only see value in their health when it gets bad and there's a problem. But it's like, what are you doing in your day to day that's actually preventing disease, and that's actually keeping you healthy? and they're not huge things, but all the little things add up into the big picture, and that big picture is how long you're going to live for.

Amanda: Mm.

Katie: I think it's just a massive area that's not spoken about enough. 

Amanda: Yeah, but I feel like the tables are starting to turn. I feel like there's a shift happening. I feel like people are rejecting that form of reactionary medicine if we look at our situations, [00:14:00] 10, 15 years ago, this was kind of all we were given. This was our only option. This was all we had, but now there's more information out there and people are starting to understand that they have a choice.

And I think a lot of people are starting to reject that and saying like, no, I don't want something that is just going to artificially manage. these symptoms. I want something that is going to address the root cause of this issue. And people are starting to push for more 

 And, you know, in my situation, I'm so glad that I went.

And sought out a second opinion. And it was actually my mom that pushed me to, go and consult with a naturopathic doctor. And she basically said like, what do you have to lose? You spend a couple hundred dollars and if it doesn't help, Oh, well, you know,

Katie: Yeah.

Amanda: you can't keep going the way you're going. you need to look for answers.

and that decision ultimately changed My life so it's great to see that these [00:15:00] conversations are happening more and that people are starting to consider other options and look at different perspectives when it comes to health.

Katie: Yeah. And I love that quote, you're only one decision away from changing your life forever. And it's so true. And more people. Speak about this and create the awareness around it. I think hopefully there'll be a massive movement and a shift in healthcare in general, because our bodies are designed to heal themselves.

Amanda: Your body is designed to heal itself. I was afraid to say that because even though that was my experience, it was so far from the, you know, regular script It was such a departure from that, that I was afraid to say that out loud, because I thought, people would think I was a witch or something.

Katie: You are...

Amanda: Like, you can't say that. 

Katie: if only.

Amanda: And so I love that the conversation that this is happening now that we're able to say that with [00:16:00] like personal conviction because of what we've gone through 

Katie: Yeah, it's beautiful. And I suppose your journey was slightly different because you had a traumatic time before you were diagnosed, didn't you?

Amanda: Yeah, it's interesting because, I joined the military when I was 19 years old and, I dove into this life of. wanting to travel and see the world and push myself in a way that I hadn't before. So I was in training for several years, all around the country and Then started training to deploy overseas and, did a tour in Afghanistan for nine months.

And I think that I'm a mentally strong person and I always have been. So I very much had this idea that as long as I was mentally tough, I could withstand anything.

Katie: [00:17:00] Yeah,

Amanda: collapsed on a bathroom floor crying and then realized no one was going to come and save me.

So I had to pick myself up off the floor and keep going. There's this funny balancing act when we talk about resilience. So, you know, you talk about your training, for bodybuilding and being in the gym and that form of stress, it does prime your body for being more resilient. But there's a fine line between and destruction.

And I didn't realize that I was on the side of destruction. I was on the side of,

pushing myself hard physically, mentally, emotionally,

not fully understanding yet how to support my body with sleep and nutrition and Just lifestyle choices in [00:18:00] general. We would train hard all day and then go and drink beer in the evening and, I was just acting as if I was bulletproof as if nothing could touch me but I also had an idea at the time that what I was doing was healthy.

Amanda: Like, I remember distinctly thinking when I received my diagnosis, Well, this isn't right. Like, I don't deserve this. I've been doing everything right. I exercise. You know, like, I eat vegetables occasionally.

I don't understand. I don't deserve this. And, I just had, I had no, understanding of what chronic stress, and trauma can do to a person's body.

I had no understanding of how the nervous system works and how years of chronic stress and dysregulation in our nervous system adds up and affects all of our systems in our [00:19:00] body. I had zero concept of any of this.

Actually wasn't until a few years later, a few years post diagnosis after trying the medications and like I said, just not getting the relief and continuing to suffer.

And I remember I got to the point where I was avoiding eating entirely because I would rather just feel hungry than feel those excruciating cramps and pains that came with digesting my food. and that was my strategy for probably the better part of a year. and you can imagine what that ends up doing to your energy and vitality and, you know, mental acuity, all of the things,

Katie: and your immune function too.

Amanda: Yeah, pretty much everything. If we're not, if we're not, actually supporting the body nutritionally and giving it what it needs, you know, you can't just, you [00:20:00] can't just avoid food for eight months. It doesn't work that way.

Katie: No.

Amanda: But that was my strategy. That was my coping strategy at the time. And I remember.

So when I did seek out that second opinion, when I went to consult with the naturopathic doctor, one of the things that she asked me was to make a timeline of my, significant life events for the past five to 10 years. I had, graduated high school, joined the military, moved all over the country for training, went overseas.

To a war zone, came back to Canada, got married, had a child, moved across the country again, got a divorce, moved across the country again, started a business. This was all within a 10 year span of time, and she's the first person that, really made that connection for me that. Stress on your body and chronic [00:21:00] stress, what it actually does to your system.

And then up until that moment, I had no, not even an inkling of thought that all of these crazy chaotic things that had happened in my life could be having an impact on my health,

Katie: like so like no awareness, no awareness whatsoever because you're almost just in survival mode at this point. as much as we don't actually factor in the wins that we have along the way, we just almost disregards. everything else. and like you said, it just amounts to this destructive, almost too resilient mindset where you're not giving yourself any self compassion whatsoever.

Amanda: Yeah, yeah. Not listening to the cues that your body is trying to give you. The body will start in whispers and give you these little nudges of, yeah, maybe you should start looking after yourself better, but we don't [00:22:00] listen because we're not taught to listen and we don't believe that, the things we do really have that big of an impact.

Katie: Yeah.

Amanda: symptoms. Just get stronger and stronger until they're unignorable. and then we are handed a diagnosis and we go, Oh. What happened? I don't understand.

Katie: Where does this come from? 

Amanda: Yeah, exactly.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. You're a hundred percent the nail on the head.

Amanda: I think that that paradigm is starting to shift. Thankfully, and recognizing that, you know, the illness we're diagnosed with in our sixties really begins in our thirties and that our health isn't as simple as a quick cause and effect, I remember even when I started, on my healing journey and I started really looking at the food that I was eating I still had that really short sighted mindset of, Oh, I'm in pain or I have bleeding.

What did I eat today? You know, as if it was, just that [00:23:00] cause and effect kind of,

Katie: Yeah. A lot of the time it's not the case.

Amanda: No, a lot of the time it's like, what has been going on this week or this month? have you been. Getting enough sleep. have you been under a lot of stress have you been pushing yourself too hard have you been under eating and maybe relying on too much caffeine or sugar or alcohol or, you know, all of these things.

yeah,

Katie: it's a lot.

Amanda: But I, I ultimately, moved out of that place of poor me. Why did this happen to me to the complete opposite to a mindset of viewing my illness as a gift because My illness woke me up, you know, I was very much just existing in long term survival mode for years and not even recognizing it.

And my illness woke me up to what I was doing and the effect that it was having and has allowed me to Go back to school and re [00:24:00] educate myself and learn about holistic health and nutrition. And, I don't think I'll ever stop learning about these things because

Katie: Mm.

Amanda: I understand, the more I want to know and the deeper I want to understand.

And I think that hopefully things start to shift in this direction so that We are learning these things from a young age 

Katie: And from a parent, I think teaching your children these types of practices that they can then start implementing as they grow up, then that in itself is going to prevent them from disease. And, type of awareness, that can be generational, is so important because then when they have children, they're going to be a lot more relaxed, hopefully, they're not going to be suffering from anxiety, because they'll know how to control their emotions, and even [00:25:00] you're growing a baby inside your body, if you're not going through these levels of anxiety or looking after yourself, actually, you're giving that baby more tools to, again, prevent disease.

And this is like generational. So it's gonna give our whole population A new level of life and hopefully a better quality of life too, because people will be getting, less sick and that's what we want.

Amanda: Yes, and I think that that's a huge part of it is it's our medical system is very much focused on, how do we stop people from dying because we're so afraid of dying, right?

Katie: Mm.

Amanda: there's been very little emphasis on quality of life and health span and how can we. live healthy, strong, vital lives for longer so that we aren't just, dependent on the medical system and [00:26:00] getting all of these diseases 

I don't think it has to be that way with a lot of these illnesses. By learning and by educating the next generation. This is why I love working with moms so much and why moms are Mostly who make up my clientele is because you educate a mom and the whole family benefits their whole family starts to shift their habits and everybody notices this ripple effect of health, in a family, which I think is just so beautiful.

Katie: Yeah. Very fulfilling.

Amanda: I'm curious about what your turning point was when you started. Was there a moment for you when you shifted the way you looked at your illness? Was there someone that came into your life or something that you learned that caused you to change the way you were living and, and really start making some changes?

Katie: I think it was just the general consensus of suffering from horrendous side effects from the [00:27:00] biologic. things like extreme hair loss and I'd pass out a lot of the time my blood pressure's low anyway, but the biologic would just make it go crazy low. And I just got to a point after six years of thinking. I was still having flare ups almost comparing it and being like having the perspective actually on what, what have I got to lose at this point? I have all the tools that I need in my toolbox to know what to do actually give my body the space that it needs to heal and take myself on this path.

But I think, and this falls under a lot of people as well, is having the confidence to actually execute. because we're almost kind of fear mongered into being on medication and thinking, well, if I'm not on medication, then I'm going to die. it's just having that backing [00:28:00] of yourself to say, no, this is not working for me.

I need to do something different because how

Amanda: Yeah. 

Katie: possible? To have pretty much, like, no positive outcomes, but have the potential and high potential and high risk of getting cancer because that was one of the side effects, along with 20 other pages of side effects like I just didn't want to I didn't want to put myself through that anymore You know, I was sitting in that hospital chair Getting that infusion pumped into me every six to eight weeks and just resenting it 

Amanda: Okay. [00:29:00] Okay.

Katie: the way that I wish I had done, know, years ago but

I didn't have the knowledge that I have now so again I can't, I'm not going to blame anyone, I'm not going to have victim mentality, 

Amanda: That's so scary that because you are very much conditioned to believe this is your only option. And if you knowingly decide to stop taking this medication, you're essentially like, You're making that decision for yourself. you are fully responsible for what happens. 

Amanda: I definitely feel that there is a fear mongering element to our healthcare system. You know, I never got to the point where I was put on biologics. And thank goodness because I found a solution before that point, but I was on three different types of [00:30:00] medications, and told that I was, had to be on them forever. and like you, I made the choice, to try something different and took myself off all medications.

And it was scary because there is that, even though there's that deep, innate feeling that, I think my body can heal if I support it properly, there's still that voice in the back of your mind that's saying like, what if this is the wrong decision? 

Katie: Because you're basically having to be accountable at that point. And I think that a lot of people are, and I was scared of. Putting that responsibility into my own hands and not being able to, like, almost, like, rely on someone else to heal my body for me, I suppose, in a way.

Amanda: We are conditioned to outsource the responsibility of our health to someone else. We don't want to hold fully [00:31:00] the responsibility of our health.

Katie: yeah.

Amanda: like to go consult with a doctor and then whatever they say, they're on the hook. If they do something wrong, you can sue them,  but when you have the responsibility and you're saying, no, I think I know my body best and I'm going to make this decision. It's all on you.

Katie: Yeah, and I think it scares the living daylights out of people. And upon reflection, it was probably one of the main things that held me back, That doesn't make you a bad person or a coward or anything like that. It's literally just the way that you've been brought up and conditioned.

So undoing that, it takes work, but yeah, it is possible and we're both living proof of that.

Amanda: Yeah. And yeah, it's hard to even at the beginning, it's hard to even speak of it. like I said, I had a fear of [00:32:00] sharing my story too loudly. because who am I? To speak on this, right? 

I'm not a doctor. I don't have a medical degree. And so I felt like I wasn't qualified to speak on these issues, but.

In actuality, we are the most qualified, you know, given what we've gone through to speak about this and, provide that 

Katie: a blueprint almost for other people. 

And not everyone is going to have the same journey because people have had more trauma in their life than others. People will have to work on certain areas of their life more than others. it's very subjective, but the general consensus is.

It's the same and the thing that starts that and kicks it off is believing in yourself.

Amanda: absolutely. And believing that [00:33:00] that healing is possible, believing that, that there's much more to the picture than what we've been led to believe, where you just sit back and wait to get sick. And. I think that that's the biggest message that I, want to share with our audience is that belief plays a huge role in your healing.

because if you subscribe to the way of thinking that you are sick and you view yourself as a sick person and you, you fully believe that narrative of, you are chronically ill and that's how you will be for your whole life and there's no cure and take these medications. I think that that is a huge part of what kept me stuck for the few years that I was there.

 I don't view myself as a sick person anymore. And it's almost funny when I, when I refer to myself as.[00:34:00] 

someone who has a chronic illness, or if I'm creating content for social media, it's, it's almost funny to me because that's not how I see myself anymore.

I don't view myself as ill.

I don't find that my illness really, runs my life anymore. It does. It's not even really that much of a thought in my mind most of the time. 

And people who are listening, who may be really in the throes of struggling with, chronic illness symptoms might think that that's Unheard of that they could get to a point where they don't think about their illness anymore, but I think it's possible and I think just knowing that it's possible and starting to shift your mindset toward a healing mindset and how can I [00:35:00] support my body better versus viewing yourself as a chronically ill person and then that's just What you're stuck with for good is, probably one of the first steps

Katie: Yeah, it's almost, well, it is, it's transforming your mindset from a a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and knowing that your condition doesn't identify you, you're not. by your illness.

Amanda: a hundred percent.

Katie: I think that was a really good place actually to finish, don't you?

Amanda: Yeah, I agree.