I’m here not simply just as I’m qualified to be. Having grown through an incredibly turbulent journey in my relationships with weight, food, exercise, body image, self, & health, into a place of self-nurturance, gratitude, healthfulness, & freedom, I want to support you to experience the same opportunities. I couldn’t find the help I needed solely within the medical model of a+b=c. I had so many powerfully rebounding issues around food, weight, & self-esteem which the medical equation didn’t & couldn’t account for. Issues that shrunk my quality of life but had the opposite impact on my waistline. Even as a Dietitian & Fitness Instructor with all the ‘knowledge & know how’, I couldn’t achieve a consistent & sustainable change in my own behaviour.

I discovered not only for myself but many clients, colleagues, & whānau, that prescriptive diets & exercise plans have a place, but are simply not enough to complete a full transformation of a long & unhappy history around weight, food, exercise, & self. One of the hardest things I had to learn & action was to go beyond the ideas of calories, burnt, earnt & conserved. I needed to dig a little deeper, look a little further into what was happening for me & uncover a wisdom that lived inside me, not inside any single quick fix someone tried to feed me, & which I would so desperately race to consume. It has taken me a lifetime of lessons, 19 years professional experience, several qualifications (Including nutrition, clinical dietetics, fitness, teaching, & behaviour change), & becoming the mother of two with incredibly different personalities, to have acquired the depth & breadth of knowledge, skills, & strategies required to design, build, & deliver this program for you.

This program focuses on the health & lifestyle needs of people post bariatric surgery. It offers an opportunity to write your own next chapter with appropriate resources to address the weight of psychological resistance, social oppressions, emotional, physical, & existential pain, other diseases & frustrations, & of course the nurturance of your now changing body. Remembering bariatric surgery is performed on your stomach, not on your mind or environmental factors. This programme is about learning to take care of yourself holistically (internally & within your environment). The theory infused here is applicable to almost anyone & all health improvement goals throughout a lifetime. So, you can freely share the wisdom you gain with friends, whānau, & others seeking to improve their health & life.