As the great Hippocrates said; “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. I hold this quote very near to my heart, as you see food has been my medicine, it has healed me and literally saved my life!

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Five years ago, I used to be the woman who raced through life at 100 miles an hour, filling up my days with endless to do lists and eating and drinking whatever I wanted. I had a great ‘life CV’. I was playing hockey for the NSW Women’s Team, working in a lucrative corporate job as a team leader for a large global recruitment firm and had a wonderful social life, partner, family and friends. In my mind, I was doing what everyone else was doing, working all day, exercising at night, eating a carbohydrate fuelled diet, falling asleep with a few glasses of wine and waking up each morning with coffee.

Even though I had such an active life and was playing elite level sport, I would still get allergies, cold’s and flu’s multiple times a year, headaches, irritable bowls, massive mood swings, bloating, a foggy head, muscle aches, constant fatigue, acne, excess weight, sleepless nights and I had an underlying anxiety and depression that I masked with superficial pleasures, comfort food and alcohol.

Deep down, I knew I wasn’t 100% but I was so focused on “doing” so much and “achieving” so much, that I pushed through and ignored everything my body was trying to communicate to me. I simply took the quickest fix I could get a hold of to push past the pain and mask my symptoms, so I could carry on with my day. I believed that because I was doing what everyone else around me was doing, I would be fine and healthy…….I was horribly wrong!

In 2011 at the age of just 26, I was struck down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with underlying Adrenal Burnout. My burn and churn lifestyle finally had caught up to me and I was bedridden for six months. I could not wash my own hair, I could not walk to the bathroom without my heart racing as if I was running a marathon and at times I did not have energy to talk. I had to quit my job, quit hockey and move in with my parents for support, spending all my savings on medical bills. My life had rapidly crumbled around me. Within a few weeks, I had gone from being a high achieving, successful sports and business woman to having absolutely nothing and fighting for my life.

I soon realised that unfortunately no conventional medical doctor could help me, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and embarked on a journey to help heal myself.

Over the course of the next four years, I spent every minute of every day researching everything I could about how to heal the body naturally using food as medicine and finding alternative, natural healing tools. I used my body and mind as my own laboratory to test and trial different dietary theories and concepts until I slowly, but surely started to heal.

Key Learnings

• Food is medicine, it can either harm or heal you
• Being healthy, is not the absence of having a disease, but the ability to wake up every single morning happy and bursting with an abundance of energy
• Your thought, emotions and lifestyle choices, all impact your health on the absolute highest level.

My journey of healing using the power of food was a blessing in disguise and I have found a new purpose and passion in life as a Holistic Health + Wellness Coach. I educate, inspire, motivate and guide other women to make positive changes in their life that serve them on all levels and am proud to announce that I will be speaking at the upcoming 2016 Mind, Body Spirit Festival in Sydney on ‘Eating for Energy’!

Desiree Taylor’s Top Tips On Eating for Energy

• Eat wholefoods
• Eat good fats with every meal
• Ditch the sugar, caffeine and white processed carbohydrates