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The Birth & The Beginnings of: A Table for 1

 

 

In the start of 2015 I graduated in Naturopathic Nutrition from the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London. I initially graduated in Animation and spent many of my years in college focusing on art, photography and graphic design. Alternative medicine wasn’t always the path I had sought after but everything going on in my life was directing me towards it.

 

With a super poor diet and certain life events I spent most my childhood years with a run down immune system, an increasing number of recurring illnesses, skin problems, anxiety, depression, side effects to almost every medication, low energy and no answers, leading me towards my final option: alternative/complementary medicine. At 17 I explored making natural home made remedies using ingredients from the kitchen and at 21 I saw my first homeopath followed by a nutritionist. The results were life changing and prompted an immediate curiosity to further my learning. This lead me to the four year course at CNM where I practiced in clinic for the final two years. I was then able to read my own blood tests using functional - instead of convential - lab ranges and detected a thyroid imbalance. I took the results to an endocrinologist and was soon after diagnosed with Hashimoto's, an autoimmune condition that attacks the thyroid gland. No doctor had been able to tell me this before, simply because it wasn't at a high enough level to prescribe me medication. As I had caught it early my Dr prescribed a low dose of thyroxin, a hormone replacement. I was devastated at the news however, I went into full research mode trying to find the cause and the reasons behind how and why an autoimmune disease can just develop like that. That is when I came across a book I highly recommend for anyone living with an autoimmune condition: 'The Paleo Approach' by Sarah Balantyne. Heavily delving into the science beneath it all, I finally began to understand the detail of my condition and with a solution to either reverse or put my condition into remission, I began to treat myself naturally. I am not prompting everyone to do the same, it is very important if symptoms persist or you are on medication or live with a condition, to work alongside a functional practitioner as well as your Dr to look at more complementary alternatives that best support you. After all my learning, testing, practicing in clinic and understanding, I was able to take my own actions. 

 

Years of ill-health, countless rounds of antibiotics and poor lifestyle choices had contributed to my poor gut health, specifically intestinal permeability, otherwise known as leaky gut - the root cause of all autoimmune disease. Intestinal permeability is when the tight junctions in our gut loosen over time. This can be triggered by gluten, stress, candida over growth and other contributing factors. When foreign substances like food, are able to penetrate our gut barrier through these loosened junctions and into our blood stream it triggers an immune response, over stimulating our immune system to attack this foreign substance. Unfortunately somewhere in the crossfire the body can get confused and start attacking our own cells, thus an autoimmune disease is born. There is usually a commonality between patients with type 1 diabetes - an autoimmune condition - being weaned off breast milk and onto solid foods too early before the gut has fully matured. It is also in our gut that we absorb all our nutrients and if our gut and digestion is impaired we are not able to absorb these nutrients. Nutrients are essential for our everyday physiological processes and healing. Disease is often linked to certain nutrient deficiencies. People who suffer from thyroid problems usually have deficiencies in Vitamin A, D, C, zinc and iodine to name a few. These very nutrients are actually needed to help make certain thyroid hormones for a healthy functioning thyroid gland.

 

With all this knowledge, I have been and continue to be mindful in taking an approach that works best for me and my body, working towards healing my gut and living healthy and happy. I focus on eating nutrient dense foods, abundant in fruit and vegetables with the occasional fish/animal protein, cutting out grains, dairy, sugar and processed foods. Being healthy became a lifestyle. As well as the physical, I also saw the importance of balance between the spiritual, emotional and mental bodies too and how positively impactful all four can be for optimal wellbeing when each is nourished. I make a great amount of time for good sleep, no stress, good rest, exercise, yoga, meditation, nature, fun, play, Love, family and essential time out to myself. Since then I have been living symptom free with so much energy, harmony, happiness, vitality and have never looked back! These personal experiences really helped show me how powerful nature, natural medicine and positive lifestyle changes can be. It showed me how capable the body is of healing istelf once restoring it back to balance and how much I was able to change my life around.

 

A Table for 1 is a platform that allows me to give back and help spread this incredible knowledge and information further creating the option to give people more positive lifestyle choices so that we live with not just an absence of disease but an abundance of vitality, in balance and in harmony, just as nature intended. A Table for 1 is looking at the human as a whole, taking all aspects of our spiritual, mental, physical and emotional beings into consideration when it comes to overall health and recognising the importance of balance, creating not just a diet but a lifetsyle. A Table for 1 is also a platform to help spread awareness on the topic of our environment; how it contributes to our health and the importance of how we can play our part in making a difference by looking after our planet, for ourselves and our future generations. With this website I invite and encourage you to use it as a guide to optimal living but also encourage you to go further, researching as much as possible from trusted sources, books, documentaries and learning from our greatest teacher: Mother Earth. I encourage you to have fun with the recipes but to also listen to your intuition making variations where necessary to best suit you. There is no "one shoe fits all", we are all beautifully, biochemically unique.