Steph Swarts

My Story: How self-discovery changed everything

Welcome to my blog! I’m Steph Swarts.

As a registered massage therapist, I’ve always been passionate about helping people live their best lives. When I was encouraged to start a blog for my RMT business, I jumped at the chance. Finally, I had a platform to share my wealth of information with the world. My goal with this blog is to provide you with tools and advice to help you achieve your goals and live your best life.

Why do I feel so passionate about sharing information?

I crave to share my insight. It has been a buildup of life experiences and overcoming difficult times. In this, I have learned that bad things are not all bad. In fact, they can be your best lessons for growth. When I see people struggling and I know there is an answer out there for them, I want to help!

My Story:

After a life-changing move, I started Grade 8 in a new school. My parents had gone through a divorce and I found myself moving back to my birthplace of Southern Ontario. 

I thought I did well with the divorce. In a child’s younger years, parents divorcing is a pretty confusing thing to go through. I did not understand at the time how it would affect my future choices. But God created me to be the type of person who accepts change when it comes at me. I tend to adjust or look for solutions as needed rather than dwell on the issue. 

Along with that change, my body was also changing. Puberty is a peculiar time in life…

I experienced terrible acne until I was put on Accutane (Isotretinoin). Have you heard of Accutane? It is a strong drug used short-term to treat severe acne that hasn’t responded to other treatments. There are serious side effects that occur from those using it. However, it made my skin blemish free, so I didn’t care about any repercussions. 

Severe acne can seriously make a person depressed, myself included. Those who experience acne are 2-3x more prone to depression than the general population. Dear parents, if your kids have acne, I encourage you to do everything you can to help them through this time. Read how I naturally cured my severe acne fast and forever!  

Over the years after being off Accutane (it is used only temporarily), my acne came back, not as bad, but bad enough that I wore makeup daily to hide it. It was also painful, and just one spot might last 3 or more months. 

On my 35th birthday, I looked in the mirror frustrated and asked myself why the heck I hadn’t grown out of my acne stage yet!? It was also the year 2020 when masks were mandated to walk into any public setting. I did not want to wear makeup while constantly putting on and taking off a mask. At that moment, I made up my mind that I would get rid of my acne problem once and for all. Was it easy? Absolutely not. But I was motivated. Throughout this time, I also discovered the remedy for several other health concerns I had for years…

During those puberty years, I started to gain weight for the first time in my life and developed an eating disorder to try to keep it under control. The eating disorder went on for 9 years before I ever told anyone. I kept it from my family and friends. Dear parents, please be aware of how easily our children can fall into this trap. Read what a parent can do to help prevent your children from having weight concerns.

After nine years of struggling with this eating disorder, I still remember driving home from work one day when I finally knew I needed help. I needed to tell someone about my big secret and become free. But I was quickly consumed by fear and stuffed the idea once again to expose the truth and get support. As I toiled with the devil on my shoulder who was whispering in my ear all the reasons I needed to stay quiet and deal with this on my own, I realized exactly what was happening: I was in the bondage of fear. Well, I was taught by my momma that evil has no place hovering around and telling me what to do. I realized I no longer wanted to identify as a person with an eating disorder. I was done with all the games. I decided fear wasn’t going to stop me from living a better life, and just like that, I pulled over my car and reached out to my co-worker by text, who was part of a healthy-eating program. 

That was the start of my journey to healing. I learned a whole bunch of misconceptions about food that I never understood before, such as that nutrition was more important than just counting calories and that some food isn’t actually food and really has no business being on store shelves. I dove deep into learning about healthy living and found a new obsession for nutrition and natural alternatives. 

But, even after years of living a healthy, active lifestyle, it was around my 35th birthday that I found it was becoming harder to feel good in my clothes and I was noticing the changes that are said to come in your 30’s such as lower energy. My weight was slowly creeping up even though I was trying to eat exactly the “right things”, exercise the “right amount” or drink the “perfect amount” of water. I became nervous about what was happening with my metabolism. It didn’t help that my undiagnosed hypoglycemia was becoming a bigger issue…

As a college student, I discovered I struggled when I didn’t eat on time. Some people can miss meals or go for long periods of time without eating, but I couldn’t. I would develop a racing heart, become shaky, lightheaded, sweaty, irritable, and couldn’t concentrate. I would feel hungry and one step away from fainting. My grandmother had diabetes, and I knew it was genetically possible for me to develop it too. But research pointed me to believe I had hypoglycemia. I never officially was tested for it, I had tried but it didn’t work out with the timing of when I was nursing my babies. But I assumed I had this condition due to the classic symptoms. I just couldn’t predict when or why I would have an episode.

I still remember the life-changing moment when I discovered the cure for my hypoglycemia episodes. It was the year 2020. I had eaten a typical breakfast of eggs, toast, and tomato. An hour later, I got on my workout gear and did one of my normal workouts. Within 20 minutes, I was on the floor shaky, heart racing, lightheaded… I thought I was about to faint. What is happening? Why can’t I work out without nearly going unconscious?! I immediately ate some fruit to replenish my sugars and started researching. 

I had researched in the past but never found answers like what I was about to discover. And what I discovered changed everything. I now know exactly what foods to eat to avoid ever having a hypoglycemia episode again. It sounds so simple, and it is. Read how I got rid of my hypoglycemia episodes.  If I do not eat the right things for a day or so, it comes back and I have the same hypoglycaemic symptoms. If I stick to the right foods, I don’t ever have a symptom and avoid episodes completely.

It’s incredible that not only did I discover how to fix my hypoglycemia symptoms, but I gained back more energy than I’ve ever remember having. I had a renewed strength. And, my weight started to go back down without even trying. Then, as a side bonus, the allergies I was suffering from also went away…

As a teenager, I suffered a little from allergies. I couldn’t breathe through my nose, but the typical allergy medications couldn’t offer me quick enough relief, or I would get wiry from them.

After I got married, I moved away from the farmland I grew up around, and the allergies seemed to disappear. But upon moving back to my hometown, the allergies came back worse than ever. I was experiencing episodes about four times per year of an intense three weeks of stuffiness and a head cold feeling. I couldn’t breathe through my nose, and nighttime was truly a nightmare, not knowing how long it would go on for or how to get relief. Some medications relieved the symptoms slightly, but I was still suffering terribly during these times. 

Until the year 2020, the same changes I made for the hypoglycemia had a ripple effect of changing my allergies too. I no longer have any allergy symptoms.  Read my blog about allergies and diet.

In conclusion to the amazing freedom I have gained over the years, I have discovered that the possibilities of overcoming health concerns are endless. Your concerns may not match exactly what I have been through, but I believe there is hope and help as we seek it. I took time off from working as a Registered Massage Therapist because, after having four kids and experiencing health troubles, I didn’t know how I could possibly jump back into such a strenuous job. After ten years of being licensed, I believed I was done as an RMT. But my revived health recharged my energy to get back in the massage therapy field with renewed strength and the ability to guide my clients to their own better health. 

I could keep talking about the miraculous benefits I discovered over the years from taking back my health. I really had no idea how God was going to turn my story around with remarkable self-discovery. I encourage you to feel hope today that you can overcome what seems to be the greatest obstacles.

If you are looking for support to achieve your goals, then stick around and read some of my blogs.

Keep seeking insightful wisdom and knowledge, and you will never stop growing!