After having my initial consultation on Monday 3 November with Erin, I am astounded by how much I have learnt; how the body works, how certain life events could impact on my wellbeing, that potatoes = sugar… a huge blow to any potato fanatic.

The information gleaned from filling out my consultation forms deepened hugely, to develop a certain perspective of myself that I couldn’t have hoped to have without Erin’s know-how.

The most noticeable areas of insight were:

1, An actual timeline, tracking lifestyle and eating habits… how many of us can honestly say that we remember everything about our lives and actually mean it…

Probably quite a few of us – I did – and I was wrong. Here is my timeline – 30% of which I would not have remembered had it not been for Erin’s line of questioning:

2003 (16 years old)	Developed a slight eating disorder after adopting a lead cereal brand’s fad calorie counting diet. Worked in a restaurant regularly and went to the gym often.
2004 (17 years old)	Ate limited remit of food and little of it. Went down from a size 10/12 to a size 6/8 jean size. Worked in two restaurants regularly and over trained at the gym.
2005 (18 years old)	‘Teen-life crisis’, ate everything and gained weight rapidly. From a size 6/8 to 12/14. Quit one job and avoided the gym. Had a whopping kidney infection with no warning.
2006 (19 years old)	Sought the help of a personal trainer and learnt to eat the right foods and train sensibly. Went from a size 14 to size 10. Worked in one restaurant and one town bar, a lot.
2007 (20 years old)	University life in London, alcohol, late nights, couldn’t get work, no money, little food… mainly stable though.
2008 (21 years old) to 2011 (24 years old)	Quit Uni, took on a full-time job in the Music Industry. Ate anything and everything. Eating out, eating in. Drinking lots of alcohol, late nights etc.Work was fast paced, long hours and ever-growing responsibilities but loved it. No need for the gym – walked everywhere.
2012 (25 years old)	Doubts about my future in work, met my beautifully talented boyfriend. Ate comfortable foods or should I say – enjoyed food rather a lot…. Moved back to Suffolk in the autumn, worked freelance for the London company and others as well as working in a pub – no gym membership… Not much walking either! Second whopping kidney infection out of nowhere.
2013 (26 years old)	Not eating bad foods but experienced zero routine in eating and sleeping. Very much a size 12/14 in clothing. Worked part-time in a pub, part-time with a gardener and set up Woolpit Complementary as well as freelance work for London. Still no gym membership or walking…
2014 (27 years old)	Still not eating bad foods but experiencing zero routine in eating and sleeping. Still a size 12/14. Worked one off events in Suffolk at the weekend through Summer, working full-time at Woolpit Complementary as well as freelance work for London. Still no gym membership or walking…

So it’s not exactly an exciting read… But it provided a few key triggers for Erin.

– The stress of weight-loss and over exercise is potentially the reason for my kidneys falling out of sync the first time round when I was 18.

– Kidney issue no.2 could be linked to the stresses undertaken with being over worked and anxiety riddled decisions to leave or not to leave my comfort zone of London.

Why had this not been suggested before? I don’t necessarily see it as a failing of my GP or others, but I do find it interesting that no questions as thorough as those asked by Erin, entered the conversations with GPs and my specialist doctor at the time.

– Also, at the earlier stages of my 16-18 year old self, I managed to stress my metabolism long enough, to cause significant negative changes in the efficiency of my metabolism.

2, Another area of analysis, that came as a bit of a shock, is just how useless I am at routine outside of work.

I have no wake up time, no sense of food / meal times, no clear rest time or time allocated to myself – alone.

Work first – life second… Not for much longer.

Everything in life is a balance so it’s now time to get focused on making that a true statement to my situation.

Tune into the next blog to see what Erin suggests for healthy eating (pertaining to my lifestyle specifically), including a diet plan, Glycemic Load, and general report with resolve to give me back my ‘Top 3’:

• Radiance

• Energy

• Weight loss