A life changing journey

It was 2 years ago, almost to the day that I first stepped into the office of a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. It was a day that completely changed my life and is something that I am so thankful that I did.

The reason I finally made the decision to make this investment (and it was a big financial investment) in my own health, was that the cost to myself and my family for not doing anything was becoming too much to tolerate and it was time to stop playing around the edges and start getting serious about my health.
There is a family history of autoimmune conditions in my family and I knew that I was on a downward spiral. There are a lot of things that fed the dysfunction in my body, some of that was genetic but there was so much more contributing to it and I knew I needed help to untangle the mess.

I felt so hopeless by this point, I felt lost, out of control and fearful of what the future might bring for me and my family, but I walked out of that first appointment feeling hope for my health for the first time in a long time.

When did it start to go wrong?

This was a question I asked myself so many times. How long ago did my body start to tell me it wasn’t very happy and what would have happened had I done something about it then? Mostly, it is a bit of a pointless question as I didn’t listen then and I am where I am, no point beating myself up for something I can’t change. It has been helpful for me though as it has dawned on me that the decades in which some of the dysfunction in my body has developed means that the healing and rebalancing process is going to take some time.

I definitely started to battle with my weight through puberty and remember, weight is just another symptom within the body. I also had terrible period issues in my late teens. I remember one occasion being doubled over in pain on the kitchen floor at work praying that no-one would walk in and find me. Pain killers and hot water bottles were regular companions each month. Those were probably my first indications that my body wasn’t very happy. I turn 40 this year people, which means I could have started paying attention 26 years ago! The next signs were just the worst cases of trapped wind and bloating in my late teens and early twenties. Now at this stage it was when I ate certain foods, I remember pistachios being particularly bad and eating out was also often problematic.

Believe it or not, this is not a pregnancy photo, this is me and my bloating!

There was one occasion I vividly remember, I was out for a meal with some work colleagues at a Mexican Restaurant in the UK. It was comically called ‘That Mexican Place’ which was always really fun when you suggested it to someone for a meal out, you can imagine eh “what Mexican place?” haha anyway, I digress.
It was my favourite restaurant and they served my favourite meal of all time. It was called a Louissiana chicken melt, it was delicious and soooo spicy but I loved it. Well that evening, the indigestion pain from the trapped wind was so severe that I couldn’t finish my meal (a tragedy) and I was so desperate for some relief I ended up in the restaurant bathroom, lying in the floor in the cubicle trying to work out some of the trapped gas. I know, TMI and I truly apologise for that but it is the reality of what so many of us deal with and put up with.

I think one of the biggest contributors to getting to the point of crisis I was at 2 years ago was pregnancy. It just seemed to escalate the dysfunction in my body. Pregnancy is hugely taxing on the body, little did I know that the morning sickness I was experiencing all the way through to 20 weeks was a sign that my liver detoxification pathways were struggling to keep up (did you know your liver is responsible for metabolising and getting rid of excess and redundant hormones?), or that the weight gain, inflammation, sore pelvis, P.U.P.P.S rash were all signs that my body was not in the healthy, balanced place I wanted it to be. An emergency c-section and a journey of struggling to breastfeed due to a lack of milk production all seemed to compound on top of each other.

I went on to suffer 2 miscarriages as my body continued to struggle under it’s load and dysfunction. This triggered me to start looking at holistic health and what my body needed but it was all about doing whatever was necessary to carry a baby to term. I didn’t really care why my progesterone levels were too low to maintain a pregnancy, I was just happy there was a natural, bio identical progesterone cream I could use to bandaid over the issue. I don’t judge myself for that, I was desperate for another baby and I was in crisis mode looking for a bandaid and that is what I got.

Going through 2 further pregnancies, c-sections and a mixed bag on the breastfeeding front, my body was depleted and not in a happy place. I was exhausted, surviving each day and often getting by with doing the bare minimum.
I started reacting to more and more foods, bloating was a constant companion and it felt like nothing I was trying was working. My bloating and food reactions were so bad that on three occasions, it lead to violent vomiting. It was the third time that this happened that something snapped in me. I wasn’t going to stand for it anymore and I was willing to do ANYTHING to feel better.

Taking the leap

I had 3 separate friends recommend functional nutrition to me and so I dove in. I remember at my first appointment I said “I will do anything you tell me to do! Tell me what will make me better and I will do it” and I did. It was hard, took commitment and support from my family but I am a million miles along the journey to restoring my health.
After the first two appointments, when I walked away with my individualised recommendations, I was infused with hope and confident that I could turn my health around. I had no idea that it would change my vocation, that I would go on to train as a functional nutritional therapy practitioner, launch a business and now support others to listen to the symptoms in their body and to make changes to recreate balance and health for themselves and their families. There was a moment lying on her massage table where I just thought that everyone needed to know this stuff and that sparked a fire in me to train, and help share life changing information with as many people willing to listen that I can find.

It has been a big journey over the last 2 years, so much has happened and in terms of my health journey, it continues. I built that dysfunction in my body over many many years and it was never going to be an overnight solution. Functional nutrition is a slow, patient game of reconnecting, listening and adjusting. Health isn’t a destination, it is something that will continue my whole life and now I also get the joy and privilege of a journey in this beautiful business Wonderfully Nourished as I do my bit to educate, walk alongside, support and encourage every single client who walks through my clinic doors physically or digitally. I hope to welcome you in one day.

I’m so grateful to myself for being brave enough to take the leap and prioritise my health. I am ridiculously grateful to the practitioner that inspired me to study, and helped me start my healing journey and I am grateful for my clients who take that big leap with me and trust me to walk along side them. Here’s to many more years to come.