My belief in testing started before I became a practitioner
I did not become a “test, don’t guess” person because functional lab testing became popular. I became that person because I needed answers for myself, and I learned how easy it is for important clues to be missed, minimized, or left unexplained.
Back in 2013, before I left corporate and before I became a functional health practitioner, I read a book that recommended running certain advanced blood markers. I brought the list to my doctor and asked him to add them to my bloodwork.
He looked at me, rolled his eyes, and basically asked, “Why do you want these?”
My answer was simple: “Because I read about them, and I want to know.”
He warned me insurance might not cover them. I told him that was fine. I wanted the information.
The doctor who rolled his eyes accidentally opened a door for me
That testing revealed several things I did not fully understand at the time. It showed elevated lipoprotein(a), a genetic cardiovascular risk marker. It also showed prediabetes and patterns that pointed me toward detoxification pathway challenges.
The elevated lipoprotein(a) was mostly brushed off as “genetic,” as if that meant there was nothing useful to do with the information. But that did not sit well with me. I remember thinking, “If this is part of my risk picture, why would I not want to understand it?”
The prediabetes result hit me differently.
I do not remember the doctor pointing it out at that appointment. I remember seeing it later when I was home, going through the results myself, trying to understand what the numbers meant. And immediately, I thought about my mom.
When I was younger, I used to drink condensed milk straight from the can. My mom would find the cans hidden under my bed and yell, “If you do not stop doing this, you are going to get diabetes.”
At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about. I did not understand diabetes. I did not understand blood sugar. I did not understand insulin resistance. I just knew I loved sugar.
Years later, staring at that bloodwork, her words came back to me.
At a later appointment, after I had started learning more and had a better understanding of my numbers, I brought it up. I said something along the lines of, “I am prediabetic, and you did not say anything.”
The response was basically that I was young, active, and did not have diabetes in my family, so it was not a big deal.
I did not argue. But I remember thinking, “You never asked me what I eat. You never asked what happens in my house. You never asked about my relationship with food and sugar.”
That stayed with me.
Because from the outside, I was active. I was not the person most people would assume was moving toward a blood sugar problem. But inside my real life, sugar had a grip on me, and that mattered.
That is one of the reasons I believe testing needs context. A number on a page can be useful, but it becomes more useful when someone asks better questions about the person behind the number.
That experience made me dig deeper into blood sugar, detoxification, nutrient status, inflammation, and what the body may be managing behind the scenes.
That experience stayed with me because it showed me something I still believe today: your body can be giving clues, but you may not get the full picture if no one is asking better questions.
Have you ever wondered what your bloodwork is actually checking?
Most people get bloodwork because their doctor orders it.
They go to the appointment, get the labs done, wait for the portal message, and hope everything looks fine.
I did that too.
And to be clear, I am very pro-bloodwork. Any bloodwork is usually better than no bloodwork. If you have access to routine labs through your doctor or insurance, I believe it is worth paying attention to them.
“Your body can be giving clues, but you may not get the full picture if no one is asking better questions.”
But for a long time, I did not understand something important: not all bloodwork gives the same level of information.
A basic panel can be useful. I am not dismissing it. But it may not show the full picture, especially if no one is looking at patterns, asking deeper questions, or ordering markers that connect to your symptoms, risk factors, energy, metabolism, hormones, inflammation, nutrient status, cardiovascular risk, or blood sugar regulation.
And most people do not know what was checked versus what was never looked at.
That is the question I want people to start asking.
Sometimes “your labs look normal” really means, “The markers that were checked did not raise a major red flag.” That is useful information. But it is not the same thing as saying every relevant pattern was explored or that your body is functioning optimally.
There may be other biomarkers that could offer helpful insight. Not because more testing is always better, but because the right markers, interpreted in the right context, can help connect symptoms, patterns, risks, and real-life habits in a more meaningful way.
That realization changed the way I looked at bloodwork.
It made me stop seeing labs as a pass-or-fail report card and start seeing them as clues.
Clues that need context.
Clues that need better questions.
Clues that need to be connected to the person sitting in front of the results.
That is one reason I am so passionate about helping people become more informed about their own bloodwork.
Not so they can replace their doctor. Not so they can diagnose themselves. But so they can walk into conversations with better questions, better context, and a clearer understanding of what their numbers may be suggesting.
Sometimes that means helping a client identify biomarkers they may want to discuss with their doctor. Sometimes it means helping them understand the labs they already have.
And sometimes, when someone does not have recent bloodwork or wants a more comprehensive picture, it means helping them access a broader panel that looks at patterns connected to metabolism, blood sugar, inflammation, liver function, nutrients, hormones, cardiovascular risk, and overall resilience.
Because the goal is not to collect more data just to have more data.
The goal is to use the right information to make better decisions.
Genetics showed me the map. Bloodwork showed me where I was.
As I kept learning, I started to understand that genetics and bloodwork tell different parts of the story.
Genetics can help reveal some of the predispositions, risks, and tendencies you may have been born with. Bloodwork can help show what is happening now.
That distinction mattered for me.
When I started putting the two together, I could see my body differently. It was not about fear. It was not about thinking, “I am doomed by my genes.”
“Genetics showed me the map. Bloodwork showed me where I was.”
It was about understanding.
Certain genetic patterns may give clues about things like blood sugar regulation, obesity risk, methylation, thyroid function, cardiovascular risk, detoxification pathways, inflammation, nutrient needs, and how well someone may absorb or use certain nutrients.
But genes are not the whole story.
Your lifestyle, food, stress, sleep, movement, environment, habits, and choices still matter. That is the point of epigenomics. Your genes may show tendencies, but your daily life can influence how strongly some patterns show up.
For me, this was empowering.
It helped me understand why certain choices mattered more for my body. It helped me become more committed to the way I ate, trained, recovered, supplemented, and monitored my health.
It also helped me understand that some support may need to be ongoing. Depending on someone’s genetics, nutrient status, bloodwork, symptoms, and health goals, certain nutrients or lifestyle strategies may need to be supported and monitored over time.
That does not mean guessing forever.
It means using the data, watching the patterns, and making more educated decisions.
When you understand your genetic tendencies and combine that with bloodwork, you are not just looking at isolated numbers anymore. You are seeing a more complete picture of how your body may operate, where it may need support, and what choices may help reduce risk over time.
And how empowering would that be — to understand not only what your body is doing now, but also what it may be more vulnerable to over time?
The test result that made me cry at Starbucks
In 2017, during Functional Diagnostic Nutrition training, I ran cortisol and hormone testing on myself. At that point, I had left corporate to build Be Fab Be You full-time and had been working long hours, saying yes to too much, and trying to build everything at once.
I had lost my zest for life, my libido, my excitement, and my sense of fun. I relied on caffeine most of the day. I would drag myself to evening CrossFit classes, yawning before the workout even started, then get a little burst of energy afterward and repeat the cycle the next day.
When the test results came back, I opened them at Starbucks. I started crying.
The data showed what I had been trying to override: my body was no longer keeping up with the pace I was demanding from it. My stress physiology was waving a big red flag.
That result forced me to ask hard questions. What was I doing to myself? What needed to change? Where did I need to say no? What did sustainable success actually look like?
Around the same time, my business coach told me something I never forgot: “Maria, you cannot build this business by destroying yourself.”
She was right.
I adjusted my training. I reduced intensity and frequency. I lowered weights. I changed how I worked. I had to choose what to stop doing. I started respecting signals I had been ignoring for too long. I had to create and follow a healing protocol for myself. I had to do things I would normally suggest my clients do.
Why I still test, track, and experiment on myself
I do not believe in asking clients to do things I am unwilling to explore myself.
Over the years, I have experimented with finger-prick glucose testing, continuous glucose monitors, food sensitivity testing, microbiome testing, hormone testing, comprehensive bloodwork, and other tools to better understand how my body responds to food, stress, exercise, sleep, travel, and life.
Not because I am trying to be perfect. I am not. Perfect health sounds exhausting.
I do it because the body is always responding to the life we are living: stress, poor sleep, travel, food choices, alcohol, medications, nutrient gaps, training load, illness, and everyday life.
Testing helps me see when something needs attention before I ignore it for too long.
I have removed foods I loved for long periods of time, including eggs, avocado, and garlic, because my body needed a break and time to rebuild. I have used CGM data to understand blood sugar patterns. I have retested my gut to see whether what I was doing was actually moving me in the right direction.
That is the point: not obsession, but awareness.
“Data without coaching can overwhelm. Data with context can guide.”
A lab report by itself can be confusing. A CGM graph can create anxiety. A genetic report can make people think their future is fixed. That is why I believe data needs context, education, and practical coaching.
My role is not to diagnose, treat, prescribe, or replace a licensed medical provider. My role is to help clients understand patterns in plain English, connect data with symptoms and lifestyle, ask better questions, and build practical next steps around nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, recovery, and targeted support when appropriate.
Data gives you choices. Lab-led functional health coaching helps turn those choices into a strategy that supports better function.
That is the part I care about most.
I believe the body is always trying to work for us. Every cell has a job to do. My job, as the person living in this body, is to understand what support it may need so I can give it a better chance to function, adapt, recover, and thrive.
That is one of the reasons I want to know how my body is functioning.
Not because I want to obsess over every number.
“Data gives you choices. Lab-led functional health coaching helps turn those choices into a strategy that supports better function.”
Because I want to make better decisions.
And the truth is, “just eat healthy” is not always enough information, especially after living in a body for several decades.
Our current health is shaped by many layers: genetics, childhood nutrition, stress, sleep, medications, infections, environment, training history, digestion, hormones, blood sugar, inflammation, and the choices we have repeated for years.
That does not mean we are doomed.
It means context matters.
When you understand more about how your body is functioning, you can stop guessing and start asking better questions.
- What needs support?
- What is being overworked?
- What is being undernourished?
- What patterns keep repeating?
- What choices would make the biggest difference now?
That is where data becomes useful.
Not as a report card. As a guide.
Ready to stop guessing?
If your labs, symptoms, energy, cravings, digestion, hormones, or blood sugar patterns have left you with more questions than answers, a Clarity Session is a simple place to begin.
This is not a coaching session or personalized plan. It is a conversation to look at where you are, what feels stuck, and whether working together makes sense.