Hi, I'm Catherine

The journey has been long; it began in my teens with feeling overweight. Back then, magazines were full of weight-loss plans and we all wanted to look like the celebrities. In the early 2000s there appeared to be only one acceptable body-type. Of course, they weren’t always healthy or happy, but I didn’t know that at the time.

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Several soul-crushing fad diets later and I realised it’s not about calorie restriction diets; it was really about eating the right foods for my body. We are all different in the way our bodies react to what we put into it and it’s important to find out what works best for us as individuals.

Sure, the fad diets had helped me to lose the excess weight but that was all, and eating that way is certainly not sustainable long-term. I didn’t feel particularly good but I was heading into my early twenties, had no significant health problems and was slim, and that’s all that matters right? 

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Wrong.

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I was having a great time, I didn’t exactly look after myself well but my friends were doing the same so I thought it was fine. After three years of a lifestyle that was pushing me to my limits - physically and mentally - I felt like I’d aged by ten years. Burning the candle at both ends was an understatement - I threw the candle in the fire. I was a husk. 

 

I didn’t resonate with the term “burnout" until years later but that was my first experience of it.

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My mental health suffered and my physical health declined too. At my lowest point, feeling utterly depressed, unable to leave my bed some days, I decided to see a psychotherapist who had been recommended by a friend. 

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She was a lifesaver. 

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From then on I have always said that everyone should see a therapist, you learn so much about yourself and gain such valuable skills in managing future problems.

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At very least, we should all recognise when to ask for help.

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Around the same time there were a couple of hospital and GP visits with various unexplainable pains but even after tests and scans, no diagnosis was made, the issues seemed to go away on their own. Looking back, I’ve come to realise that it was my body desperately trying to tell me to just slow down and rest, but I just wasn’t listening.

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Despite making some positive life changes - meeting my partner, changing jobs, moving house - new stressors emerged, and I discovered I had a food intolerance. That led me to do a deep dive into all things nutrition and I enrolled in a course in nutritional therapy. From that moment, I wanted to understand everything about how our bodies interact with the food we eat. It’s in my nature to research anything that sparks my interest! 

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Inevitably learning about the science of nutrition led me in other directions and as I considered my own situation, it became apparent to me that many people suffer unexplainable or untreatable illness; symptoms that don’t get better after seeing their doctor and get given prescriptions that lead to more prescriptions. 

Don’t get me wrong, we need allopathic medicine and it does incredibly well at fixing acute illness - I dread to think where we would be without our emergency services and surgeons. But when it comes to chronic physical or mental illness, something has gone wrong.

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In my quest of wanting to help people who can’t be helped by the mainstream medical system, I qualified as a health & wellness coach and delved into how all aspects of our lives are just as important and impactful as nutrition in the route to optimal health.

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By now I thought I had it all figured out. But even with an optimal diet and lifestyle, I still experienced brain fog, lack of focus, inconsistent energy levels and low motivation. It felt like an unfair exchange for getting everything “right”. 

I knew there was something else I was missing, I kept searching and making adjustments but couldn’t find anything to significantly move the needle, until I stumbled upon circadian biology. 

 

Suddenly it all became clear, like seeing life in high definition for the first time.

 

I’d heard of circadian rhythms, and I knew a bit about how screens at night will keep you awake, or how light therapy can help with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). But I wasn’t aware of how deeply light influences our health. It baffles me that we aren’t readily told that our entire biological system relies on circadian timing to function properly.

 

The concept of circadian rhythms has been around for centuries but in 2017 the Nobel Prize was won for discovering the “master clock” in our brains, which is programmed by light signals from our environment. This “master clock”, known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, informs all the peripheral clocks throughout our bodies. It is fundamental to our health that it gets the correct programming from our environment - light being the main influence.

 

Living with a disrupted or constantly shifting circadian rhythm is like being in a permanent state of jet lag - without the holiday. Unfortunately most of us are experiencing it chronically. Over time, this disruption can lead to weight gain, mental health challenges, increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

I thought I was doing pretty well with diet and lifestyle, but since aligning my circadian rhythm with the natural light/dark cycles, I’ve experienced improvements in energy, motivation, focus, hormone regulation, sleep, satiety, stress management… the list goes on!

 

I spent most of my life thinking I was a “night owl” and that I could never change that, but I’d transformed within a matter of weeks. Now I wake up with sunrise without an alarm - feeling refreshed, not groggy. Honestly, it’s a revelation to me. The pressures of daily life don’t weigh me down anymore. I’m feeling lighter, happier, healthier and more resilient.

 

It took me years of meandering to get here, but I’m so grateful to have found my way. Now I want to share what I’ve learned so you can get here much faster than I did.