Why I Do What I Do: My Personal Journey to Naturopathic Nutrition

Looking back now, I can see the signs. But at the time — in my late 30s and 40s, I was just doing what so many of us do: pushing through.

Life was full but it was good. Career, new home, responsibilities….

The catalyst was the sudden illness and death of my father. We had just moved out to the country and I was 7 months pregnant with my first child when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. He died just a few weeks after my son was born. My final months of pregnancy were spent wishing time away hoping my dad would live long enough to meet his grandson. The early weeks of motherhood were split between the hospice and home. My husband and I played tag-team parenting so I could be by my father’s side throughout his time there and when he died. I had my son with me at the hospice during the day while my husband cared for him through the night.

There was no time to rest. No space to bond. No opportunity to process the horrific way in which my Dad died. The trauma was immense, but I buried it. Life didn’t pause and within a short time I was pregnant again, still supporting my grieving mother, and preparing to welcome baby number two.

Before I knew it, I had two children under the age of two, was navigating redundancy, and trying to keep everything afloat. My needs were last on the list — a pattern many of my clients will know all too well.

Years passed in a blur of sleep deprivation, the ‘juggling act’, stress, and the infamous ‘coffee, toast and wine diet’. Then, in my mid 40s, my body started to protest.

Fatigue that went beyond tiredness. Pain in my joints so intense and debilitating I ended up in A&E on many occasions. Swelling in my elbows, hips, shoulders and hands. I was tested for broken bones (early onset osteoporosis), autoimmune conditions (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus) and other inflammatory disorders. My inflammatory markers were high, but everything else was ‘normal’. I spent nearly two years under the care of a Rheumatologist, told I might be in the early stages of an autoimmune disease. Heavy-duty medications were prescribed, but answers remained elusive.

I remember being told: “Sometimes these things happen for no reason and go away on their own. Or you could go on to develop a full-blown Autoimmune disease triggered by Menopause.”

It made no sense.

I wanted to understand why I’d become so unwell. I began to explore the links between stress, trauma, chronic inflammation, and nutrition and it opened the door to a different way of doing things.

I started to nourish myself properly. Even though I’d always perceived myself as healthy, a total foodie - cooking from scratch and avoiding junk food for the most part, I was clearly nutrient depleted. I gave counselling the attention it deserved, finally addressing the trauma I’d carried silently for nearly a decade. Very slowly, things began to shift.

I went on to study Naturopathic Nutrition at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, a three-year degree that changed everything. It gave me the knowledge, insight, and tools to look at health in a completely different way.

In many ways, it felt like coming full circle. Before children, I’d worked in the pharmaceutical industry and always followed the conventional path when it came to health; I thought I’d always put my health first. But this journey helped me realise something powerful: when we treat the body as a whole, nourish ourselves fully, and make space for healing — it can make such a difference

Now I’m 50 and heading deep into the Menopause years, my boys are teens, I still juggle many plates but this time taking a very different approach. I’ve learned the hard way so that you don’t have to - that health isn’t a luxury, it’s a non-negotiable. It’s what enables you to juggle everything, it’s what enables you to show up as the best partner, parent and employee. Your health is your foundation. And choosing to prioritise it will be the most important decision for your future that you’ll ever make.

Don’t wait for the wheels to fall off your pram, don’t wait until the debilitating symptoms creep in.

Finding optimal health in your 40s and 50s is what sets you up for the best life, it’s what enables you to absolutely thrive in every area. It’s what enables you to find joy in the smallest of things.

If you would like to find out more, I offer a free, no obligation 20-minute discovery call. 

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