I didn’t build Elira Well from theory.
I built it because I lived it.
Your symptoms aren't the enemy. They're the information I work from.
I didn't always trust my body. There was a time I could barely get out of bed. I was always exhausted and foggy. I wondered how I was supposed to keep up with my life, let alone show up for my kids and my husband.
From the outside, I looked like I was doing everything right. Raising a family, running my own business, working out, eating well and showing up for everyone.
What no one saw was that I'd gone the better part of two decades without a break. Ten years as a workaholic, then eleven more self-employed with no off switch. I was running on five hours of sleep, counting every calorie, working out hard and eating cleaner than I ever had. I felt worse than I ever had and no one could tell me why.
Ashley Forslund
Founder & Functional Health Practitioner
The weight kept climbing even as I ate well, worked out, and pushed harder. That was hard enough, but it still wasn’t the part that scared me most.
For a week or two before my period, I didn’t recognize myself.
Mood swings, migraines, nausea. I'd snap at the people I love most, my kids included, in ways that weren't me. Then it would pass and the guilt would set in. I'd wonder how I'd drifted so far from myself.
So I went looking for answers.
I started where most women do, with bloodwork. Then came months on a structured nutrition plan, calories up and then down, chasing the scale. Eat less, move more was the advice everywhere I turned, so I followed it. And I kept getting worse. I did everything I was told and ended up heavier, more tired, and more confused than when I started.
I spent months searching online for something that made sense. A friend sent me a podcast hosted by a functional practitioner, and I listened for the better part of a year, trying to piece it together on my own, scared to spend money I couldn't get back on something that might not work.
What finally worked
I'd been blaming myself for what my body was trying to tell me.
Eventually, I booked a discovery call. Then a call with the practitioner herself.
For the first time, I felt heard.
She didn't tell me I just needed more discipline, as if I wasn't already trying my hardest. She didn't tell me this was part of getting older. I was 38. She looked at everything I'd been brushing off and said: You're right. Something is going on here. Let's figure out how to get you feeling better.
So we did.
None of it was random. And none of it was a discipline problem.
For the first time, the worst of it made sense. The mood swings, the migraines, the version of me who showed up before my period and left guilt behind. It was a pattern my body had been showing me for years.
My symptoms weren’t who I was. They were information.
I later learned this pattern had a name: PMDD, a more intense premenstrual pattern that can affect your mood, body, and ability to feel like yourself. At the time, I only knew something was very wrong, and I needed answers that made sense.
Under that much pressure, my body was doing what it was built to do. It was protecting me. For years I’d been told to do less: eat less, weigh less, need less. But the truth was, my body was running on empty, and I was finally learning why.
I didn’t figure this out alone.
I had a practitioner who looked deeper, asked better questions, and helped me understand my body in a way no one had before. She is still my practitioner and mentor today, and that experience shaped the way I support women now. I know what it feels like to make that call and hope someone takes you seriously. I also know what can change when someone finally does.
Your body isn’t broken. It’s responding.
You've followed the plans, listened to the advice, eaten better, moved more, pushed harder. And you're still told: Everything looks normal. This is just part of getting older. You just need to eat less and exercise more.
But something in you already knows it isn't normal.
You're not lazy and you're not failing. You've been handed the wrong instructions for the body you're living in.
Your body is responding to stress, to years of pushing, to being run down and told to ignore what it needs. That's why eating less and pushing harder stops working. It's why diets get harder over time. It's why you can do everything "right" and still feel off.
Your body isn't fighting you. It's protecting you.
I don’t guess. I investigate.
That’s the difference. I look at what your body is doing, what may be driving it, and what kind of support it can use. Your symptoms, labs when appropriate, digestion, stress, food reactions, and lifestyle all help tell that story.
Digestion is often one of the first places I look because it tells us so much. How you break down food, absorb nutrients, eliminate, and respond to meals can give us important clues. We do not chase symptoms one at a time. We look for the pattern.
What I’ve lived and what it taught me
I came back from debilitating fatigue and constant brain fog.
I learned to trust my body again, after years of feeling like it had turned against me.
I broke a twenty-year cycle of yo-yo dieting and all-or-nothing eating.
I lost 50 pounds and finally understood that my weight was information about my health, not a measure of my worth.
I traded restriction and punishing workouts for eating enough and moving in a way my body could recover from.
I stopped reaching for a drink to unwind at night and found my way back to clear-headed, steady, and present.
And now I sit on the other side of that table. I'm the one who looks closer, asks the better questions, and helps women find what everyone else overlooked.
My education and continued learning
My education started with Metabolic Mentor University, where I spent hundreds of hours studying metabolism, digestion, hormones, blood sugar, and how to apply that information to real client cases.
I continued that work through the Institute of Restorative Health’s Art of Gastrointestinal Healing, where I deepened my understanding of digestion and the way gut function can shape how a woman feels day to day.
I keep learning because I know what it costs to lose years feeling exhausted and disconnected from your body. The more I understand, the better I can help women get support sooner, ask better questions, and stop living in the cycle of guessing and starting over.
If you’re here, there’s a reason.
You don't have to figure this out alone. I'll walk it with you as a partner and a guide, not one more person telling you to try harder.
If you've been told you're fine but you know you're not. If your body feels unpredictable or out of your control. If you're ready to stop guessing and find out what's been going on, this is your next step.
I'm opening six founding client spots. That’s all. These are full one-on-one partnerships for women who are done guessing and ready for answers. You'll go through the whole process with me, at a founding rate, as Elira Well builds its first case studies. When they’re filled, they're filled.