My Story

Hi, I'm Ricci.

 

 I grew up like most kids in the 1980s. Our diet was full of processed food, and we simply didn’t know much about nutrition or long-term health. As a child I was often sick — constant ear infections, frequent strep throat, recurring tonsil infections. Eventually my tonsils were removed. Nothing was alarming at the time, but my body always seemed to struggle.

 

In my twenties, after having my children, I gained a significant amount of weight and decided to take control of my health. I entered the fitness world with full intensity. I lost the weight, began training hard, ran marathons, taught fitness classes, and pushed myself physically as far as I could go. I was strong and athletic, and on the outside I looked extremely healthy.

 

But I misunderstood something important.

 

I believed I was healthy because I was fit.

 

In reality, I was overtraining, under-nourishing, and constantly pushing my body past its limits. I was disciplined, but I was also depleting myself.

 

Then, at age 30, everything changed.

 

After returning home from a trip one winter, my health rapidly declined. Within a short time, I went from being highly athletic to my body collapsing. I developed severe inflammatory symptoms resembling rheumatoid arthritis. My knees filled with fluid. My wrists, shoulders, fingers, and toes were painfully swollen. Some days I needed crutches. At times I was bedridden. I had my knees drained and was repeatedly placed on steroids just to function.

 

The hardest part was not just the pain — it was the confusion.

 

I could not understand how I could go from “healthy and strong” to barely able to walk.

 

I spent a long time searching for answers and not finding them. Eventually I saw a rheumatologist who explained the medications he wanted to start me on. He warned me that if I wanted more children, I should have them before beginning treatment because the drugs were so harsh.

 

That moment changed something in me.

 

I understood that medications are sometimes necessary for quality of life, and I respect modern medicine. But I also knew, deep down, that if there was another path, I wanted to try to find it.

 

My husband and I decided to have one more child, and after my youngest was born and I finished breastfeeding, I committed myself to understanding my body.

 

That began a long journey.

 

I removed anything I felt could be contributing to inflammation — dental root canals, breast implants, and other potential stressors on my system. I went back to school for integrative nutrition. I studied constantly. I tried almost every dietary approach you can imagine: autoimmune protocols, paleo, whole foods, raw vegan, juice cleanses, fruitarian, keto, detoxes, and elimination diets. I traveled around for all sorts of crazy treatments: IV's, stem cells, hyperthermia treatments, ozone therapy, you get the point. I was determined to heal.

 

For years I also struggled emotionally with exercise. I desperately wanted to be the person I used to be. I pushed, then crashed, pushed, then crashed again. Eventually I had to accept that healing required rest and respect for my body, not punishment.

 

The real turning point came when I stopped trying to constantly detox and started trying to rebuild.

 

I focused on gut health. I worked on restoring my microbiome with nourishment, prebiotics, probiotics, and gentle whole foods. My inflammation began to decrease.

 

But I noticed something else.

 

My symptoms would flare after emotional stress or lack of sleep.

 

That observation changed my direction completely. I began studying the connection between the mind, emotional patterns, nervous system, and physical health. I started addressing my mental and emotional world with the same seriousness as nutrition and supplements.

 

And that is when true healing began.

 

As I worked on stress, emotional processing, and internal patterns, my body improved dramatically. Today, at 46 years old, I am essentially symptom-free. Only during periods of extreme stress or severe lack of sleep might I experience minor tenderness in a joint — but I have not had the severe swelling I once lived with for many years.

 

Over the past several years I have slowly returned to movement and exercise — gently, respectfully. I now treat my body like fine china: something valuable to care for, not something to dominate.

 

Outside of my health journey, I am a mother of four and a grandmother of two. My family is my greatest joy. Horses also became an unexpected part of my healing. They brought me peace, connection to nature, emotional grounding, and a quiet space to exist outside of illness. They reconnected me to life, to the outdoors, and to myself in a way I didn’t know I needed.

 

After 16 years of searching, learning, failing, adjusting, and healing, I realized something:

 

Healing is not one thing.

 

It is not just food.

It is not just exercise.

It is not just supplements.

And it is not just mindset.

 

It is the relationship between all of them.

 

That realization became Tuned-In Transformation Program.

 

This program exists to help you gently reconnect with your body, your mind, your emotions, and your life — without overwhelm, extremes, or punishment. My hope is not perfection for you. My hope is awareness, self-trust, and quality of life.

 

Sometimes healing is not about extending life — it is about improving how we live it.

 

I want you to know there is hope. Change can happen gradually, softly, and sustainably.

 

I want to share this, not because this program is about me — it isn’t — but because understanding where this came from helps you understand why it was built the way it was.

 

I took things to the extremes and what I realized is, if I had learned to tune in to my body before my health completely collapsed, I would have been able to support my body and prevent it from happening at all. Our bodies are constantly communicating with us. Most of us were never taught to listen. 

 

In this program I guide you through ten pillars or areas of life I have found to be the root of everything. Through learning to tune in and small daily shifts, we rebuild balance from the inside out.

 

I didn’t create this from theory.

 

I created it from living it.