My health journey
In 2016 I was loving life. I was married to a wonderful man, with two beautiful daughters and was enjoying being back at work part-time. However, one day everything changed when I developed uncomfortable digestive symptoms. It felt like food was scraping through my colon every time I ate, and I was only able to go to the toilet every few days.
In January 2017, just after my 40th Birthday, a colonoscopy revealed I had mild Crohn’s disease. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I was healthy. My diet didn’t include much junk food. I wondered how I’d become so sick.
Given my interest in cooking and nutrition I asked multiple gastroenterologists and dieticians about diets and foods to eat/avoid. I was repeatedly told that diet was neither the cause of, nor solution to my problem. This was incredibly disheartening and disempowering.
However, my love of learning led me to research diet and Crohn’s disease and I embarked on a 3-year journey trying multiple dietary approaches, in addition to medication. Nothing seemed to work, and I experienced alarming side-effects from the medication.
After 3 years of multiple failed attempts to regain my health, I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. My medical expenses were mounting, and I had also spent thousands of dollars on allied health, alternative practitioners, and supplements. Something had to give.
In 2019, feeling alone and frustrated, I created a social media account to connect with people successfully overcoming inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). I discovered a health coaching business supporting clients to regain their health using a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet.
In March 2020, I became a client. A 100% plant-based diet was the only dietary approach I hadn’t tried and unlike the other diets, it was evidence-based. It was also the first time I had invested in the support of a health coach, spending 3 years desperately trying to find the answers alone.
Under the guidance of my coach, I immediately removed all animal products, oils, and highly processed foods. I added fruit smoothies for breakfast, vegetable soups for lunch and cooked starchy vegetables for dinner.
By December 2020 I was no longer taking medication and my inflammatory markers were normal. My weight was healthy, my digestive symptoms gone, and I was bursting with energy. I have remained medication and symptom free since.
I have now decided on a career change in nutrition and health coaching. I get to live my passion – helping people prevent and overcome chronic illness by adopting a WFPB diet, enabling them to achieve a life of health freedom.
I want to save you the time, money, and heartbreak I experienced on my health journey. It is now my mission in life to encourage, empower and support you to make the changes required to allow you to regain your health and become the best version of yourself possible. Health is in your hands, particularly the one that holds the fork!