quickly I started getting regular emails and began to build a real rapport with my readers.
Because of this I began seeing more clients on a regular basis in three different clinics in the UK. This also gave me a platform to promote health and well‐being talks and presentations. At one of these local events a wealthy businessman happened to be passing through town. He was sitting in a coffee shop and opened the paper at the page that my column was on. There was my announcement about the health talk I was giving that evening. Unbeknown to me, he was an entrepreneur who travelled the world teaching managing directors and CEOs about emotional intelligence and being a leader that works from the heart and not from the head. He had for some time been looking for a nutritionist that would be able to travel with him as part of his masters training programme.
My talk that night was in a nearby hotel, and I had sold around 60 tickets. There were about five spare tickets, but I always had a few extras turn up on the night, so it all seemed good. It was a relatively small venue and I was comfortable with my subject and felt quite relaxed about the evening. What I always hoped for from these events was that I would inspire people to live healthier and happier lives and inform them of the best ways to look after themselves nutritionally. Off the back of this I would then gain new clients who perhaps knew they needed more specific help with their health. Finally, I was about to discover that my luck was beginning to change, in a big way … Halfway through the first session I could see out of the corner of my eye a sharply dressed guy walking into the room. Not only was he coming in late, but he sat directly in front of me in the front row. I didn’t recognize him, but I certainly noticed him, almost to the point of being distracted from my flow.
At the end of the first half I suggested to the audience that they could buy juices and smoothies (a separate business I had created, alongside my clinics, with one of my best friends) and told them to feel free to come and talk to me if they had any questions. This was always a popular moment as the people attending usually had some sort of illness or ailment that they wanted advice about, which I was always happy to give. But this well‐dressed, polished looking guy that had come in late leaped out of his seat and headed straight for me before anyone else had a chance. Handing me his business card he said: ‘My name is Steve, and I run a corporate training company teaching large groups of business executives how to lead through emotional intelligence. I have been looking for a nutritionist to teach alongside me to inspire these people to eat properly and gain energy through their diets. I have been looking for two years, and now I have found you. I want you to come to Lithuania with me next week to start training them. I will pay well, book your flights and cover all your costs while you are there. Call me tomorrow with your answer.’
A week later I was on a plane to Vilnius, in Lithuania. Once I arrived, I had to catch an internal plane about an hour inland. It was the middle of winter; the snow was falling heavily, and the plane was tiny … and it had propellers! I boarded the 1950s‐style plane thinking ‘I have literally lost my mind. I am about to die in a country I know nothing about, am meeting a man I don’t know in the middle of nowhere and I have never trained anyone in the corporate field in my life. I have no idea what I am doing, and what if they all think I am rubbish and don’t like what I have to say and … blah, blah blah! I want to be back at home in my warm house, with my children, snuggled up on the sofa!’ Someone get me oooouuutttt ooooffff hhhheeeerrreee!!!
Turns out it was the best decision I ever made. Those few training days had forced me to step out of my comfort zone and changed everything about my business and how I valued myself. No longer was I the local nutritionist, I was an international jet‐setter giving lectures all over the world about a subject that I was so passionate about – I could talk about it for hours and hours. For days on end! Well, I wasn’t quite there yet, but what this man saw in me was something I hadn’t even seen in myself. He believed I was capable of delivering what he needed in less than 10 minutes of knowing me, and now, so did I.
I think, looking back, that when you have hit rock bottom, there is an inner strength that you can find, that comes from nowhere. It’s like a survival mechanism that suddenly rears its head and says ‘you must start to get your shit together!’
I stopped drinking and started putting into practice all the things I had ever been taught. I ate only foods that I knew were going to uplift me, heal me, and keep my energy and mood high. I started to practise yoga and meditation on a regular basis, and ran further and faster every day. I joined more fitness classes, drank green juice … and slowly but surely the dark clouds began to lift.
Digging deep into your soul to regain your strength is not an easy task, but it’s a mighty rewarding one. What doesn’t kill you does make you stronger. With the utter love of my children, my parents, my sister, nieces, and best friends, I started to feel lucky again. Before, all I looked at was the negative. I had no husband, friends had deserted me, and I was financially broken. If I didn’t turn this around things were going to get bad. Once I started to feed my body the correct fuel, I began to see the value in small things and feel grateful for everyone that had stood by me in my darkest days. I realized that I may have fewer friends now, but at least I know who my true friends really are. Surely it is about quality not quantity. The friends that would call me every day and constantly make me laugh though the tears. The friends that would force me to run every morning even when I was exhausted. My children for loving me beyond anything I could ever imagine and giving me a reason to get out of bed every day. My parents who loaned me money to fight the lawyers when they had no idea whether they were ever going to see that money again, and emotionally and continuously supported my broken soul. My sister who lost friends just to stand by me. These people really loved me, and I owed it to them to make them proud.
Making money, staying healthy, keeping fit, teaching others, being inspired, and inspiring others: it was all beginning to be a possibility. In order to be successful, gaining strength in your body and your mind helps you to see things clearly that will help you to get there. For so long I focused on the negative, but that is the biggest waste of energy for any human being.
Don’t focus on your problems, focus on your dreams.
Life is 90% what it throws at you and 10% about your reaction.
Believe and achieve … and I am about to tell you exactly how to do that.
CHAPTER 3
GET YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW
Whatever is going on in your life you need to find the strength to keep your health robust. Whether you are feeling fabulous already and just want to learn more in order to maintain that, or you have hit a life crisis such as a bereavement, divorce, loss of finances, loss of your job, heartbreak, addiction, etc. Or maybe you have great ambition and wish to climb the ladder of success, and know you are going to need a shedload of brain power and energy in order to achieve such things. If your health is resilient and strong, it’s surprising what you can cope with.
If you have any stress at all in your life – and most of us do in one way or another – you need to raise your ‘health‐enhancing game’ and put all your efforts into keeping your energy and vibrancy high. When your body is stressed it needs all the nutrient‐rich foods it
