Okay, so we are back from the cliff hanger. You heard in the last newsletter how I got sick. I hit rock bottom! I had turned to everyone and anyone to get better. I reached out to everyone. My doctor who I was seeing throughout this time had given me Nora Gedgaudas’ book and while it was like an encyclopedia, it started me on my healing journey. As Mum read bits to me, we realized there might be something to the diet piece and that food is medicine. It’s been around forever so why not give it a go. From there I decided that I needed to study nutrition to help myself get better. I couldn’t even get out of bed but I wanted to study. Ridiculous right? But with my 20 minutes a day that I was awake, I devoted everything to getting better.
So now let’s fast forward to 18 months into my career as a Functional Nutritionist. I was loving life. I thought I was living the dream. The whole time I had laid in bed sick, my cry had been if I can use this awful experience to help one person then it has been worth it. That’s all I wanted to do, by this time, I had helped hundreds of clients in clinic and helped even more with my corporate clients and speaking events I got to do. So I truly felt very blessed and was happy that my health journey was helping so many people.
My dream while I’d been at the investment bank was to buy a house, so I had worked those long hours to put savings in the bank. I promise you when you can’t get out of bed, all of this money in the bank seems pointless and when you are using those hard earned savings to get your health back it also seems pointless. I did learn the hard way that it’s better to look after yourself to begin with because it costs a lot more getting your health back again.
In August 2017 I finally used my savings to buy an apartment. I was so excited! The dream had taken longer than expected but it was finally coming together. A month after moving into the apartment, I was no longer bouncing out of bed to walk Charlie (my puppy). I still got up but just not as easily. I had put on a kilo of weight. Seems like nothing right? Both of those things you could put down to being busier at work, training more and travelling more. But I now knew my body so well these two things were reason for me to be suspicious about what was happening with my health. By Christmas I had put on 8 kilos and was really struggling to get through my working day and do anything in the evening. I have been the same weight since University, the whole time I was sick my weight didn’t change.
I was now worried. I did everything I would ask clients to do: I ran all my blood laboratories, I did all my functional tests, stool tests, thyroid tests and hormones. Nothing was really showing up. So then I had to think environment! The only thing that had really changed in my life was my house. I kept coming back to this. But there was nothing that I could see in my house that led me to think of mould. So before I was willing to spend thousands testing for mould, I decided to do everything with in my control. Clients at the time didn’t know this but I put myself on the most calorie restrictive diet ever, it wasn’t possible not to lose weight on this diet. You would be shocked how little I ate. I also reduced my work hours, did yoga, meditation, worked with a personal trainer and went to bed early. I was like the angel client. Obviously no one could sustain this, but I did it for 3 and a half weeks, and guess what? NOTHING. No weight loss, not even 500 grams. It wasn’t possible. When I tell clients in cinic that inflammation weighs more than KGS on the scale, here is your proof. I was inflamed. So I paid the money, got the mould inspector out, and guess what? My house was so toxic and the mould spores were so bad that it was unsafe for anyone to be living there.
So, I moved out back into my parents house, thank goodness. The apartment was so toxic I had no choice but to totally gut it out. I couldn’t sell it to anyone else and make them sick. So this led to the next year of me taking on a renovation project I never wanted.
And once I moved out of my apartment my energy improved and my weight “suddenly” started to shift. I like to say it was the most expensive weight loss program ever!!!
So that leads us to now. What are the remains of this story? Well you get mould in your body again and it opens the flood gates, literally! It’s so toxic, and you open the door for your gut to be out of balance again – your thyroid, adrenals, hormones, you name it! So back to the laboratory tests, functional testing, testing we do in clinic and a rather large protocol and that’s where I am today. I could go on forever, anything that might help you or inspire you with your health story, I would totally share.
So what did I learn? You can be doing everything right and life and still throws us a curve ball. However, I’m so glad that I had learnt to listen to my body and listened to that slight energy niggle and little bit of weight gain. I always tell clients in clinic that I’m there to help them learn to listen to their bodies again. Our bodies are always talking, we just don’t know how to listen. Give it the tools to help it heal and it always will. But also more importantly, don’t wait! Clients will always say to me when they have better energy, they wish they had done it years ago. I wasn’t making the mistake of not listening to my body again, I’d already done that once and look where it led to. When we ignore our bodies it always catches up with us.
Do we need part three for the emotional journey too? 😛
I really hope you are motivated and inspired wherever you are on your health journey.
Shelley XX
