Heal Thyself Emporium, Inc

01/12/2026

Tales from a Chronic Starvation Dieter

I have practiced starvation dieting since I was 12 years old.

Not intentionally starving… just constantly eating less than my body needed because that’s what women were taught to do. Smaller portions. Lean protein. Low fat. Diet drinks full of harmful artificial sweeteners.

Did I ever hit my weight goals? Sure, once or twice. But I also struggled with thyroid issues, hormonal issues, PCOS, chronic illness, and autoimmune issues.

Here’s what I see over and over again in practice now:
The biggest metabolic issue women have isn’t overeating. It’s chronic under-eating.

When you consistently fail to fuel your body, your thyroid adapts. Your metabolism downshifts. Your lymphatic system slows. Your hormones conserve instead of thrive.

Then menopause hits. 🫣

And everyone blames menopause…when in reality, many women are entering it already metabolically broken from decades of starvation dieting.

Two years ago, I changed everything.

I stopped fearing red meat.
I embraced animal fat.
I ate real breakfasts like this one.
And my body responded immediately.

My lymphatic system started draining properly. My energy stabilized. My body composition changed. My nervous system felt safer. Most of my chronic issues went into remission. I felt good. I had energy. And my weight was actually decreasing.

But healing isn’t linear.

Last year, without intending to, I slipped back into starvation mode, simply because life got busy, overwhelming, and relentless. I was also battling depression, and for the first time in my life, I genuinely had no desire to eat. No hunger cues. No appetite. Just survival mode. And once again, my body felt the consequences.

That experience reminded me just how quickly a woman’s body will adapt to scarcity and how unforgiving it can be when fuel is removed again.

Now, I’m consciously returning to the way I ate when I was thriving, because I’ve lived the difference. I know what under-fueling does to a woman’s body, and I know what happens when you give it what it actually needs.

My new years promise to myself was intentionally returning to eating 1,700–2,000 calories a day, with a minimum of 120g of protein, because my body (and yours) cannot heal, detox, or regulate hormones without adequate fuel.

Food is not the enemy.
Protein is not the problem.
Fat is not what broke you.

Starving your body did.

This plate isn’t indulgence.
It’s my restoration….and I couldn’t finish it! 😅 But I ate all I could and thats better than I was doing last month.

Shout out to Eggcellent Cafe in Jonesboro for this amazing meal. I’ll definitely be back.

12/13/2025

I had a few moments to scroll Facebook the other day, something I rarely have time to do lately, and what stood out to me wasn’t one specific post, but a pattern.

EDS.
POTS.
Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Long COVID.
Chronic Epstein-Barr.

Post after post of people talking about “my chronic illness.”

And I found myself thinking:
We are naming the symptoms… but we are missing the root.

I say this as someone who just came out of months in Cell Danger Response myself, and who is now actively pulling myself back from another crash.

My immune system dropped below a viable threshold and crossed into true immunocompromised territory. Not because I didn’t “know better,” but because knowing and doing are not always the same thing, especially when you’re trying to hold space for clients, family, work, and life seven days a week.

I tell people every day to slow down.
To nourish their bodies.
To protect their energy.

And yes, I am often my worst patient.
(I’m in therapy for that. For real.)

What pulled me back wasn’t a new diagnosis or a new label. It was restoring energy.

Here’s what I’ve done the last month:
A very aggressive full moon cleanse.
Massive mineral repletion with fulvic and other mineral complexes.
Oxytocin therapy.
Deep energetic work.
Setting boundaries.
And finally honoring the reality that I cannot outwork biology.

Here’s what I want people to understand:

Most “chronic illnesses” are not separate diseases.

They are different expressions of the same underlying problem: ATP depletion.

ATP is the energy currency of every cell in your body:
Every nerve signal.
Every immune response.
Every digestive contraction.
Every detox pathway.

No ATP = no function.

When the body perceives threat, infection, toxin load, emotional trauma, and chronic stress, it enters what’s known as the Cell Danger Response [1]. Survival becomes the priority. And survival is expensive.

The two most ATP-hungry systems in the body are the immune system and the digestive system. They can not run at full capacity at the same time.

When the immune system is activated, digestion slows or shuts down [2].
That’s why you lose your appetite when you’re “coming down with something.”
That crushing fatigue isn’t weakness — it’s energy reallocation [3].

But here’s the part almost no one talks about:

Once ATP drops below a certain threshold, the body can no longer build the very mitochondria required to make more ATP [4].

At that point, you’re not tired because you’re doing too much.
You’re tired because your body cannot generate energy even at rest.

And this is where people get stuck.

We chase diagnoses.
We collect labels.
We argue over whether it’s POTS or EDS or EBV or Long COVID.

But underneath the name is the same reality:
The cell’s energy budget has collapsed.

So how did we get here?

Mitochondria are not magic.
They require massive amounts of minerals to function like magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, selenium, iodine, sulfur, and more [5].

We have stripped our soils for decades.
We grow food fast, not nutrient dense.
Calories are abundant.
Minerals are NOT.

You can eat enough food and still be starving at the cellular level [6].

What used to take decades of depletion, I am now seeing in children.

Metabolic dysfunction.
Immune dysregulation.
Neurological symptoms.
Gut shutdown.

That’s not genetics. That’s environment.

Healing does not start with chasing another diagnosis. It starts with restoring energy.

Feeding mitochondria.
Rebuilding mineral reserves.
Supporting the nervous system.
Respecting the body’s energy economy.

When ATP comes back online, the body remembers how to heal. The body has ENERGY to heal.

And sometimes, even practitioners need to be reminded of that too.



Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material and are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

References

[1] Naviaux, R. K. (2014). Metabolic features of the cell danger response. Mitochondrion, 16, 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mito.2013.08.006

[2] Pavlov, V. A., & Tracey, K. J. (2017). Neural regulation of immunity: Molecular mechanisms and clinical translation. Nature Neuroscience, 20(2), 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4477

[3] Dantzer, R., O’Connor, J. C., Freund, G. G., Johnson, R. W., & Kelley, K. W. (2008). From inflammation to sickness and depression: When the immune system subjugates the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2297

[4] Wallace, D. C. (2012). Mitochondria and cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer, 12(10), 685–698. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3365

[5] DiNicolantonio, J. J., & O’Keefe, J. H. (2018). Magnesium in man: Implications for health and disease. Open Heart, 5(2), e000668. https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2017-000668

[6] Davis, D. R., Epp, M. D., & Riordan, H. D. (2004). Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950–1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 23(6), 669–682. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409

12/12/2025

The Science Behind The “Woo”
- Why Energy Work Matters

Most people are taught to think of the body as purely physical: muscles, organs, labs, diagnoses. But long before symptoms show up in tissue or bloodwork, dysfunction shows up in the energetic nervous system.

That’s where modalities like acupuncture, specialized kinesiology, Reiki, and sound/frequency healing come in.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture works by restoring the flow of Qi (the Chinese word for energy or life force) through meridians that directly interface with the nervous system, immune system, circulation, and organ function. When energy stagnates, the nervous system stays locked in fight-or-flight, inflammation rises, and healing stalls. [1–4]

Through my training in specialized kinesiology that includes Touch for Health, Stress Indicator Point Systems (SIPS), Kinergetics, MNRI, and others, I’ve seen this firsthand the impact energy work has on restoring health and removing blocks to healing. Muscle testing isn’t mystical; it’s neurological. The body responds instantly to stressors long before the conscious mind catches up. The Qest4 scan is also called a meridian stress assessment tool because it operates within this area of the body as well. These energetic systems help identify where the nervous system is dysregulated, where stress is stored, and what the body actually needs to return to balance. [5–6]

Acupuncture, Reiki and sound/frequency healing work on the same principle: regulating the autonomic nervous system, improving coherence, and shifting the body out of survival mode so repair mechanisms can turn back on. This isn’t “woo;” it’s bioelectricity, frequency, and resonance. Every cell communicates electrically. Every nerve fires through energy. Ignore that layer, and you’re only treating part of the problem. [7–10]

Research continues to show that acupuncture and related energetic therapies influence autonomic nervous system balance, vagal tone, stress hormone regulation, pain perception, and inflammatory signaling. [1–4, 7–9]

In other words, the energetic body is the bridge between the mind, nervous system, and physical tissue.

Most chronic illness doesn’t persist because the body doesn’t want to heal; it persists because the nervous system doesn’t feel safe enough to release the energetic blockages and trauma trapped in the fascia and tissues.

When you address the energetic layer, the physical body often follows.

This is why true healing is never just biochemical. It’s neurological. It’s electrical. It’s energetic. And it’s been overlooked for far too long.



References:

[1] Hui, K. K. S., et al. (2000). Acupuncture modulates the limbic system and subcortical gray structures of the human brain: Evidence from fMRI studies. Human Brain Mapping, 9(1), 13–25.

[2] Napadow, V., et al. (2007). Acupuncture decreases sympathetic nervous system activity and increases parasympathetic activity in healthy subjects. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 13(4), 409–414.

[3] Kavoussi, B., & Ross, B. E. (2007). The neuroimmune basis of anti-inflammatory acupuncture. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 6(3), 251–257.

[4] Takahashi, T. (2011). Acupuncture for functional gastrointestinal disorders. Journal of Gastroenterology, 46(7), 743–755.

[5] Goodheart, G. J. (1988). Applied kinesiology research manuals. Detroit, MI: Privately published.

[6] Walther, D. S. (2000). Applied kinesiology: Synopsis (2nd ed.). Pueblo, CO: Systems DC.

[7] Baldwin, A. L., et al. (2010). The effect of Reiki on autonomic nervous system activity. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(9), 989–997.

[8] McCraty, R., et al. (2009). The coherent heart: Heart–brain interactions, psychophysiological coherence, and the emergence of system-wide order. Integral Review, 5(2), 10–115.

[9] Oschman, J. L. (2000). Energy medicine: The scientific basis. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

[10] Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009). Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection: Further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2), 81–88.

12/07/2025

A little surprise showed up today! My motto is officially framed!

“When in doubt, p**p it out”

My cousin’s wife absolutely nailed it! Honestly, if more people understood how many symptoms start with sluggish bowels, we’d have a much healthier world.

Daily p**ping isn’t optional. It’s your body’s primary detox channel. When things back up, EVERYTHING backs up. Hormones, lymph, mood, immune function, skin, sleep… you name it.

I’m proudly displaying this on my bookshelf.
Sometimes the simplest wisdom is the truest:

If you’re not p**ping, you’re not healing.

And thank you Beverly. This made my entire week!!!

11/16/2025

As I was sitting in my quiet time this morning, I stumbled across this quote in Brené Brown’s new book Strong Ground.

Middle age has a way of waking us up. Your body will whisper for years…until one day it stops whispering and starts demanding your attention. And the truth is, those “demands” are never random. They are invitations. Some quiet, some loud.

Every symptom is a message. Every ache, every shift in hormones, every wave of fatigue, all of it is your body trying to reroute you back to yourself.

Taking care of your body is not optional. It is the most important thing you’ll do today. Because when your body breaks down, everything you’re trying to hold together goes with it. And when your body is supported, everything in your life strengthens alongside it.

Middle age isn’t a downfall. It’s a turning point. Listen to what your body is asking for. Do something you may consider “selfish” and take some time for yourself today. Sit quietly. Ask God to reveal what your symptoms are trying to tell you. It’s never too late to heal; but it is time to pay attention.

11/12/2025

To the men we love, please hear this:

Our family has been rocked by another su***de. I wasn’t close to my step-cousin, but as a survivor of su***de, I know what my step-family is about to endure. And because today is Veterans Day, the weight of this truth hits even harder. We are living in a quiet epidemic and it’s stealing our men.

Men make up about half the population, yet nearly 80% of su***des are male. Middle-aged men, the ones holding families, careers, and communities together, are quietly falling apart inside. From fathers to veterans, this crisis is everywhere.

Between 2002 and 2022, the rate of male su***de rose sharply and has stayed heartbreakingly high. Veterans carry an even heavier burden, with an average of 17 a day taking their own lives. These aren’t just numbers, they’re fathers missing from dinner tables, sons whose laughter has gone silent, and husbands who leave wives trying to rebuild lives shattered overnight.

Almost half of all adults in this country personally know someone who’s died by su***de. It touches nearly every family now. And the aftershocks are lifelong.

Men aren’t choosing to die because they’re weak, they’re dying because they’ve been told their whole lives not to feel. They’re taught to “man up,” to carry pain in silence, to hold everyone else up even as their own world collapses. When identity, finances, health, or relationships crumble, many internalize the pain until it becomes unbearable.

Middle age becomes a perfect storm, the years when they’re supposed to have it all together are often the years they’re barely holding on. For veterans, the burden runs even deeper. They come home carrying trauma most people will never understand: moral injury, survivor’s guilt, a nervous system wired for war trying to live in peace. The world keeps telling them to “move on,” but trauma doesn’t just fade because someone says it should.

If men could truly see what su***de does to the ones left behind, they would understand: it doesn’t end pain, it multiplies it. A single su***de ripples through entire generations.

Spouses carry lifelong scars, the anxiety, the depression, the sleepless nights replaying every moment, wondering what they missed. Children grow up with holes in their hearts they can’t name. They learn to be “strong,” but they also learn that love can vanish overnight. Parents and siblings live with a kind of grief that never softens; it changes holidays, songs, the smell of rain, the way light falls in a certain room. It changes everything.

Families do not get over su***de. They adapt around it. They rebuild around an absence that will always ache.

To the men reading this: you are needed here. Not for what you do, but for who you are. You are irreplaceable to someone, even if you can’t see it right now.

If tonight feels impossible, please, don’t make a permanent decision in a temporary moment.

Tell someone. Anyone.

Walk into a firehouse. A police station.

Call or text 988.
If you’re a veteran, call 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

And to those who love a man who’s struggling, speak up. Sit with him in silence if you have to. Remove anything that could be used in a moment of despair. Feed him, walk with him, help him breathe again. Keep checking in even when he says he’s fine, especially then.

For every man: staying costs courage.
Leaving costs generations.

Today, on Veterans Day, we honor those who have served, but we must also fight for the ones still here, fighting invisible battles on their own soil. Let’s not wait to honor them until it’s too late. Let’s reach for them now, while there’s still time.

11/07/2025

This post is about you.
And it’s about me.

Many of my friends and family will think this post is about them, and it is. But it’s also about me, and what I’ve had to learn the hard way.

We live in a world where women (and some men) wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. We say “I don’t have time” while pouring from an empty cup. We prioritize everyone else, our kids, our partners, our jobs, our commitments, and we call it love.

But what it really is… is avoidance.

We’re running from the quiet. From the parts of ourselves that need rest, reflection, and healing. From the truth that self-neglect is still self-abandonment, no matter how noble the reason.

The same women who tell me they don’t have time to exercise, meditate & pray, drink water, go for a walk, or cook a real meal, spend hours tending to everyone else’s needs.

And here’s the part that stings:

If you don’t start prioritizing you,
you won’t be here to keep prioritizing them.

READ THAT AGAIN.

Your body will make you stop.
Your nervous system will force you to listen.
Your health will demand the time you refused to give it.

Taking care of yourself is not selfish, it’s stewardship.
It’s saying: I am worthy of the same care I give away so freely.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve learned this lesson the hard way too.
And if you haven’t yet, let this be your warning and your permission.

Do something today that takes care of YOU. That feeds YOU.

Drop it in the comments to inspire others to do the same.



Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material and are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

10/31/2025

On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-battlefield-to-healing-field-dr-jen-calverts-story/id1544491271?i=1000734367763

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VFpc4tNEOrOBOa2tUt9Zo?si=Rx4r8M_cSKqeGeBNT4NYLQ

🎧 New Episode Out Now: Dr. Jen Calvert — Heal Thyself Emporium 🌿

Dr. Jen Calvert’s story is one of resilience, faith, and finding purpose through pain. After serving as a lab specialist and combat medic in the Army 🇺🇸, Jen faced a health crisis that changed everything — leading her to discover a passion for holistic wellness and eventually open Heal Thyself Emporium right here in Paragould. 🌱

In this episode, she shares how her journey through physical, emotional, and spiritual healing shapes the way she now helps others live whole, healthy lives. 💚

🎙️ Listen now wherever you get your podcasts — just search The Paragould Podcast!

10/29/2025

🎙️ New Episode: Dr. Jen Calvert — Heal Thyself Emporium

From Blytheville to the battlefield to holistic healing.

After facing her own health crisis—neck surgery, thyroid problems, and a season of deep personal loss—Dr. Jen Calvert’s story took an unexpected turn toward healing herself and helping others do the same. Now the owner of Heal Thyself Emporium here in Paragould, she’s passionate about helping people understand their bodies, minds, and spirits as connected and created for wholeness.

Following high school, Jen was told she couldn't cut it in the military... she enlisted anyway, serving as a lab specialist and combat medic, and learning that the military is more than discipline... it’s family. Those years shaped her values of honesty, integrity, and compassion, traits that still drive her mission to help others today.

Hear her story of resilience, faith, and holistic health—available soon wherever you listen to podcasts.

10/28/2025

10/20/2025

If you or someone you know is a woman, you need to watch this.

The 4 leading powerhouses in women’s health break down urgent topics facing women today: irregular periods, PCOS, endometriosis, perimenopause, and the best ...

10/18/2025

“The Science Is Settled” is the most unscientific phrase of our time. True science is never settled. It’s questioned, challenged, refined, and rediscovered.

Phrases like:
- “The debate is over.”
- “Follow the science.”
- “Trust the experts.”
- “It’s been proven.”
…all go against the very foundation of the scientific method which requires continuous inquiry, skepticism, and open discussion.

When dissent is silenced and data is censored, what we’re left with isn’t science… it’s ideology wearing a lab coat.

Watch An Inconvenient Study and decide for yourself.

https://www.aninconvenientstudy.com/



Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material and are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

An Inconvenient Study: This could change everything. An ICAN Production.