My why…where it all started

From as early as 11 years old I remember being health conscious and health aware. I enjoyed reading health content in magazines, watching documentaries on telly. 

When I went to highschool I would research in our computer room in my spare time. I prioritized exercise and good nutrition daily. However, being young and with lack of resources, as many of us have fallen victim to, I found myself in the spiral of under-eating and over exercising. This went on for years and throughout my Bachelors in Exercise Science. 

I was 22 when I started to notice strange symptoms. Incredibly painful and angry adult acne. Weight gain without over eating. Incredibly painful periods and bleeding every two weeks. My gut instinct was telling me I needed to get off the pill because I had been on it for over 5 years. 

Of course, my GP told me there is no risk of being on the pill and that I should try skipping my bleed’s, and can take it for as long as I want without any consequences. 

I knew something was up, so I acted against that and came off the pill. My symptoms got so much more aggressive - my breast size went from an A cup to a D cup within a week and was incredibly painful, my period pains were debilitating, I had severe hot flushes at night and would wake up in a ball of sweat, my emotions were turbulent and energy was next to none. I gained 10 kilograms in what felt like a blink of an eye. 

I went to a nutritionist to investigate symptoms and wound up 10x more confused with a lot of words (at the time) I didn't understand, and I still felt like I wasn't in control or knew what was going on in my body. At this point I was doing my teaching qualification in health science and knew that I loved to educate. But I also loved to learn - and that's what led me down the path of nutritional science and specializing in endocrine health as a clinical nutritionist and now have been trained as a functional medical practitioner. 

I thought I knew everything about nutrition and health as I had done some post grad work on sports nutrition and thought it was exercise I needed to learn. Boy was I wrong - starting my studies specializing in clinical nutrition and hormone health opened my eyes to a whole other world. I went plant based early on in my studies and 5+ years on,  I haven't looked back. I have corrected my own hormonal dysfunction and I strive to keep doing the same for as many women as I can. Making women who cross my path feel special, understood and cared for. 

I strive to have women leave my clinic feeling in charge of their health, feeling powerful, and with a sense of clarity that they can make health decisions that are best for them. 

I know that for every woman I educate, this translates to their community - their friends, their daughters, their colleagues, their nieces. And little by little we can start to change the shape in which women are disconnected from their own bodies. 

I firmly believe it is every woman's right to know and understand the depths of the functioning of her own body.