My Story
I began my career as a nurse, training at St Thomas' Hospital in London, finishing at The Brompton Hospital. I then left nursing to bring up my sons. As my sons became older, I decided to retrain as a teacher and earned a B'Ed (Hons) 2:1 in primary teaching studies at Southbank University where I developed my love of teaching Science and ICT. I also have a Diploma in Computing in Education from Kings College London. When I realised that I could improve my health via good nutrition, I retrained as a Nutrition Advisor with The Nutrition Network. I am now enjoying combining my nursing, teaching and coaching skills to help others learn how good food can heal their bodies.
My Story
Throughout my 20s and 30s I was like most people fairly healthy, slim (probably too slim) and looking back, like most young people, I took my health for granted. It was in my 40s that problems started. After giving up smoking at 40 I noticed my body changing and I started to gain weight. There then started the endless slimming clubs, where I would lose weight, but gain it back again. I was always perplexed, as I knew I was not overeating and had taken up strength training at a gym.
Eventually in my late 40s, I noticed that I was very unwell and always tired. As a busy teacher I was exhausted at the end of the day. I would often fall asleep whilst trying to mark books. It took three years for doctors to acknowledge my rising TSH levels were a problem, it seemed my body had started to attack my thyroid gland. I now had an autoimmune condition. Moving into my 50s things became worse, pains in joints and muscles, and even changes to my red blood cells. I eventually discovered that I was seriously deficient of Vitamin D, within 3 weeks of good supplementation, I was totally pain free. That's when my search for real health began.
My Story
I eventually found out about the keto/low carb. My scepticism led me to start my own research, both through Nutrition Network and other scientists and medics in the field of metabolic health such as Ben Bikman, Dr Jason Fung, Dr Unwin and his wife Dr Jennifer Unwin. However, my eternal gratitude is to Gary Taubes, and his great book "The Case For Keto" This book helped to clarify many things about Keto/low carb and introduced the history and science of this way of eating.