Blog Category: dreamlife

Hello friend. I am Karin Collins. My journey to health and wellness began as a little girl growing up in Sweden, spending summers outside in the garden with my parents planting and harvesting fruit and veggies. Going on hikes in the pine forrest with my dad picking wild blueberries and chanterelles.  My favorite pastime was experimenting in the kitchen with my mom and coming up with dishes to share with friends and family. 

In 2011, I earned a degree in the Living Foods lifestyle at the Ann Wigmore Institute. It was a big AHA moment for me. I learned all about healthy living. I started reading all the labels of my household and beauty products. Tossed everything that had ingredients that didn't serve my body. I cut out all processed foods. I focused on eating plants that were fermented, sprouted, blended and organically grown. I felt ALIVE. Like a new born baby. I decided that I had to teach others about this type of lifestyle, BUT I wanted to make the food a little bit more flavorsome. So I attended Living Light Culinary Institute, where I became a certified Gourmet Raw Food Chef and Nutritionist educator.

Another spark came with the pregnancy and birth of my daughter Liv in 2012.  I knew instantly that my desire was to create and become a healthy living resource to other mothers and their families. I also instantly knew that I wanted my daughters name to be Liv which is a Scandinavian name that means life. I felt alive, I was eating living foods and I had this incredible little human growing inside me.  The Living You LLC was born. I now had The "Liv" ing You LLC.  During this time I also became a certified yoga and fitness instructor and started the pre and postnatal fitness company, Fit4Mom Marin. It was a beautiful time in my life supporting mother's in motherhood and fitness. 

After 6 years of ownership of Fit4Mom Marin I decided to sell the company and focus more on creating healthy wellness events outside of fitness...I hosted and collaborated with amazing wellness professionals and created several smoothie resets, cooking classes, yoga and meditation events, sound healing, cacao ceremonies, retreats...you name it. I was a busy bee but I had so much fun serving others. 

Covid hit and I got really sick...for a year and a half.  It shook me to the core. How could I get this sick when I was living such a healthy lifestyle? Eating healthy, working out, thinking all the happy thoughts....

Now after feeling well again I can say that getting sick was such a blessing in the end. I needed to slow down. I needed to dig deeper into my own health. I started working with a functional medicine doctor and we got to the root cause of my symptoms. I took lots of tests to see where the imbalances were and then took a lot of prescribed supplements to help balance my body. I slowed down more than I could have ever imagined I would do because I LOVED to work and create healthy events for others but this wasn't the time to help others. 

Instead I focused 200% on healing myself. I followed everything my doctor shared with me. I got more mindful again with what I put into my body. I cut out all the sugar...even fruit. Just some berries here and there. I went to bed at the same time every night at 8pm. I stepped up my exercise game and added more weight lifting. I became a more regular client with holistic practices such a chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, infrared sauna... all the things. Every meal, every thought, every action towards health is a new opportunity for happier cells. 

One of the best decisions I did was to take a breath-work and cold plunge facilitator course. Just to help myself. I had no intentions of sharing with others. I also bought some crystal sound bowls...just to help myself with intentions of sharing with others. Little did I know that once again the path of my own healing journey would be my greatest strength to serve others. I took a sound healing course and started a breath-work and cold plunge group that meet regularly during the winter season in Lake Tahoe.  These wonderful tools were the catalyst to help others feel their best just as they were been life changing for me. 

In 2022, our family made a huge dream come true. We built a retreat house in beautiful Belize right on the Caribbean sea. Our revitalizing Belize retreats are dedicated to your soul. A time to discover more of life...a real soul-adventure. A beautiful reminder that YOU are meant to grow and thrive full of energy. You are meant to reach your full potential. Just like all living things YOU are supposed to flourish. The mission of The Living You LLC has always been to empower you to become the healthiest version of YOU. Join me to renew, restore and revitalize.