Hi I’m Lucy Childerley BSc, Dip NT, Dip PT, mNNA, mFNTP, mCIMSPA.
There have been a few significant events that brought me to where I am today, a nutritionist, personal trainer and hormone specialist. At 15 I lost my last grandparent, she was only 64 and this got me thinking why all of my grandparents had died so young, one was only 47. It was a wakeup call to want to find out more about the body and find ways to not let my genes be my destiny. I went on to study a BSc hons in Sports Science which gave me a broad scope in to health, fitness and well being. From here I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to go so started as a personal trainer in a gym. I soon realised that I loved working with clients to help them achieve their goals, it gave me a real buzz.
Then, out of the blue my father had a massive heart attack. Like his father, he was very young – 49, in fact. Luckily he survived, but seeing this strong fit, invincible man looking so helpless and grey with wires coming out of him made me even more determined to help others with their health and wellbeing.
I set up my own business, Personal touch training, in 2002. It was clear to me that stress was increasingly becoming a major health problem, it was this (combined with genetics) that had nearly taken my father so I started to look more holistically at health, in-corporate more lifestyle factors in to my protocols. This was very successful, especially for my super stressed out clients.
In 2005 we decided to try for a baby. This soon turned into an extremely painful and upsetting few years because my cycle was irregular and I had other complications that I’d not been aware of. After many tests, operations, drugs and miscarriages my body was very stressed. At the time I didn’t understand the impact this was having on my chances of conceiving. I now do and wish I had back then; maybe things would have been different. Eventually we had all but given up… and then as we all hear so often, I found out I was pregnant with our son. I consider us to be extremely lucky.
Time went by as a busy new mum, trying to juggle childcare and running my business, and then in my early 40’s I woke up one day to find a lump on my breast. This was obviously terrifying but I was immediately sent to an amazing breast clinic for tests. Fortunately, once again, I was one of the lucky ones, as it was fibrous tissue – but I wanted to know why this had developed. Not long after (and maybe partly due to the stress of this event), my hair started falling out in clumps. Again, this is not something anyone wants to see. I went to a trichologist in London and they ran some tests. All was well with the hair but my bloods came back a little deficient. I saw my GP who said they were within normal range, but I felt they needed to be in optimal range if I was to see any difference.
This is when my fascination with nutrition really began. I had always eaten well and exercised but even I was suffering. I started to look into it much further and realised I had a hormonal imbalance that I needed to resolve. I wanted to get to the root cause rather than just pop pills. I changed my diet and adjusted my exercise and the both the lump and hair loss disappeared. Even more incredible was that my cycle became regular for the first time in almost 30 years! I was truly amazed at the impact these natural dietary and lifestyle changes had made to my body! 8 years on I have continued to keep my hormones in check. I feel as fit and energised as I did in my 30’s, my hair is thick, my cycle regular and my breast lumps and tenderness are all gone, even as I move through perimenopause.
Despite many of these life events being extremely testing, I do believe everything happens for a reason. The more recent ones led me to study a three year Advanced Diploma in Nutritional Therapy so I could help other women who are struggling unnecessarily with hormonal imbalances to feel their best too- something I feel very passionate about.
If you would like to find out if I could help you or even chat through your symptoms to see what options are available to you, then give me a call on 07813 871 776 or email me at hello@lucychilderley.co.uk.
Life is too short to suffer so why waste time when you could be living your best life:)
L x
Recent Comments