In 2019, everything changed for me. I was diagnosed with amenorrhea (absence of menstruation), a word that until then I didn’t even know existed. I didn’t understand why suddenly I had this pathology, since until then I’d been healthy and had no menstruation problems whatsoever. For me, it didn’t make sense and the question that kept popping in my head was “what did I do wrong?”. I was very crushed by this bad news, and I couldn’t have imagined the impact that this could have on other components of my health. On top of that, I had anemia and most of my vitamins and minerals were below the normal threshold.  Some doctors were even surprised at how I could be sitting there, in front of them, and still working at the same time. 

I’ve always been interested in health and until that moment I thought that I had led a very healthy lifestyle. Until 2019, I had followed many different “healthy” diets (looking back, that was precisely the beginning of the problem). I was very careful with what I ate, did regular exercise, didn’t smoke, only drank a glass of wine occasionally, and even so I was sick. I became a vegetarian in 2005 when I was a teenager. I remember that the concept was strange back then and not mainstream at all. After a couple of years, I became vegan. Later I adopted Macrobiotics and that’s when everything crashed. When I adopted these diets, in the beginning I felt amazing, but with time passing by I started to become weaker. I knew people that were vegan and were super healthy and people that ate everything and were sick all the time and vice versa. I started to find everything very confusing. After all, what would be the best approach for me? On top of that, I had a very extreme exercise routine and a very stressful and demanding job. All the beliefs of what was healthy that I had followed until then were being put into perspective. I ignored all the signs that my body gave me – because back then, I didn’t know how to listen.

I sought out doctors who might be able to cure me and also explain to me how on earth I had this, all of a sudden. The answers I got were disappointing to say at least and their posture left me frustrated with the current western health system.  They did not attribute the pathology to the lifestyle that I followed. Some would say that it was genetic even though I had no one in the family with similar problems. Others would say that was normal and that happened to many girls and women. All prescribed me hormones in order to solve the condition. But a voice inside of me kept screaming that none of these answers made any sense. If I was healthy until that moment, why I was suffering those symptoms? Why would I need to take medications that would not solve the cause of the problem, but instead put a quick band-aid over the symptoms? They couldn’t tell me why I was feeling like that and how to gain my health back. 

These events not only affected my physical health, but they as well started to affect my mental health, culminating in a severe burnout. I had no energy, low mood, always felt exhausted and I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t recognise myself and that’s when I realised that my health had reached a rock bottom. I knew that something had to change. That’s when I began to wonder whether holistic nutrition, and a different lifestyle could help me to restore who I was. Simply to gain my life back.  

Some time after the diagnosis, I adopted a different mindset towards health and life itself. I began to look at life through a different lens and I began to consider all the elements in a 360º approach. I began my research and found many interesting scientific articles and ancient wisdom that helped me to find the answers that I was looking for – wisdom that in these latest years has been ignored by many. I’ve been always eager to learn (something that characterises polymaths such myself), so I started to study and adopted an holistic nutrition with emphasis in TCM; and embraced other tools that have been helping me to support my body and mental health such as: mindfulness, mantras, yoga, nature, acupuncture, massages, reflexology, natural herbs, sounds baths and an array of alternative therapies. I adopted a calmer, gentler and natural lifestyle. I stopped separating body & mind & soul. I can’t tell you how many eyes rolls I got from friends and family, in the beginning. What other doctors tried to resolve in two years, in just six months I was able to restore my menstruation and started to feel the first results in recovering my energy and mental health, only using a natural approach. I started to be present in a way I haven’t be able to be in many years. My energy was restored to the point of feeling that I have more energy nowadays than when I was nineteen. I cannot close my eyes to the enormous transformational results that I feel daily after all these years. I have totally fallen in love with studying food as medicine and guiding other people on that.

During this journey, I’ve learned so many things and how they are connected and that for many years I entirely ignored. I learned to navigate the health lifestyle space with criteria and not be driven by the intimidating and confusing concepts that flood the field. While there has been amazing research and development in the wellness space, this space has been suffering changes a little bit to an extreme and popularised in a wrong way by the wrong people. Good knowledge in the area is crucial and should be easy to understand and inclusive, and not a niche or a trend to achieve aesthetic goals. Because there is too much information, because there are too many trends, because there are too many buzzwords, because ultimately what is simple became complicated. What may be good for some may not be good for others, and this distinction and comprehension is the key in TCM.

I want to gather in one place all the knowledge that I’ve been acquiring throughout the years through degrees, books, life experience and ancient wisdom. This space contains the information I would have liked when I began – the many answers I spent years searching for. With this unique array of knowledge and experience, I have created a unique holistic approach to help you to effectively find Your Own True Balance and tap into your inner energy.