NATURALLY EMPOWERED HEALTH Transformational Coaching

I have had a torrid relationship with food all through my life, as a teen I was bullied at school and named ‘Thunder Thighs’ by girls who I thought were my friends. Nothing could have been further from the truth as I was often taunted, shouted at, spat at as well as being psychologically bullied.

At 14 I took drastic action where for a year I only ate bread and drank water, it worked! I lost weight – weight that I didn’t need to lose as I plummeted to 7 stone. I am 5ft 7 now and wasn’t much shorter then so I was painfully thin and anorexic. But I fitted with the in crowd, I was thin, had long hair, not bad looking and was easily to manipulate as I was constantly tired.

I was brought out of this ‘slumber’ by a sudden shock, at 15 ½ my mum was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease, and here started my life-long studying of gut health and the immune system. Back then it was trips to the library as this was before the internet and there wasn’t that much known about Lupus and autoimmune diseases in 1990.

My life stabilised at this point I got my head into the books and went onto A-levels and college years to study Business and Information Technology. I started going to the gym and got obsessed, I was doing 3-4 hours per day and my food, I watched like a hawk, I wanted to be in optimum health so there was no chance of me developing my mum’s condition which could be passed down from mother to daughter.

August 1999 – I’ll never forget it My Dad had took early retirement for 25 years of working at British Gas, he had a part time job so he wasn’t getting too much under my Mum’s feet! Early August he went to the doctors complaining of stomach pain, from here he was requested to go to A&E, within hours our whole world had changed, My Dad was told he had cancer and that is was spreading, we were all floored, but were hopeful in the fact he was told he had a number years to live and the cancer could be managed. 21st August 1999 my Dad, my rock, passed away I was destroyed. I couldn’t cope and very quickly turned to food and alcohol, binging on both to numb the pain of losing the one man I could forever trust.

A year or so later I moved down to Liverpool to be with my new partner, I can see now that I was running away from my family and the grief I was feeling, I just couldn’t cope being around them at that time. I had never lost such an important person in my life and I didn’t know how to get round it, to be honest I am not sure if I ever did, I cope with his loss but still feel like a hole is there.

My new partner worked long hours so I was left in the evening, alone, in a strange city with no close friends at the time, dealing with a huge loss and far away from home, my binge eating got worse and worse, food was my new friend. It comforted me, gave me escape and made me feel everything would be OK – temporally. I was no longer going to the gym so my weight went up and up, I put on over 5 stone very quickly and HATED what I saw in the mirror. To me I was a failure, my family would be disgusted by how I looked, well that’s what I thought anyway, I had let myself and them down.

I tried both Weight Watchers and Slimming World and didn’t like either. I felt that is was a competition of who can lose the most weight. If you lost, great but if your weight stayed the same or increased, you were named and shamed, here I was being bullied again and no-one was helping with the root cause of why I was binge eating.

I decided to take actions into my own hands, I started to see a nutritionist who got me to understand what foods would be best for me at certain times of the day to keep me fuller longer and energised, so I wasn’t reaching as often for my comfort foods. I also took up running, the best thing ever for me as it got me to process my thoughts and if I was ever in a bad mood, sprinting like hell on the last 500 metres of a run really did the trick!

Life was good, I was seeing my family regularly, I was still with my partner I had moved to Liverpool for and we were engaged. I had moved up in my career ladder, working at large events and festivals and dealing with the access of customers, staff, performers, press, VIP’s etc. etc. I loved it, even if it was hellish long hours!

My 40th was looming and things were not going so well between me and my husband (after 12 years we got married and thought this was our forever). Later that year, we went on a make or break holiday to see if our relationship was salvageable, we came back talking of splitting for good. I moved out of our home and into my friends flat where I had to fit my life into one room. I couldn’t

concentrate, I had a constant whirring mind that plummeted into depression, I lost my directors job and quickly spiralled down and down where my relationship with food took on a different guise as I believed I didn’t deserve to eat. Days could go by and all I wanted to do was sleep, food was not my friend as it was there to nourish and I didn’t want to be nourished, I wanted to pass away quietly.

Two of my very closest friends saw what was happening to me a suggested that I went to see a councillor, I don’t know about you but it’s not often you may listen to friends, but after about the fifth time of suggesting I’m glad I did as I honestly don’t think I would be here today telling my story. Bit by bit, step by step I could see myself coming back, my eating got better and so did my depression. A few months later in a session my councillor gave me a decision, to go back to a high powered directors role, full of stress and long hours or choose a new road and follow my passion.

I am glad to say I followed my passion, food had always been a challenge to me and I wanted to be finally at peace with it and be able to support other people on that journey too. I trained to be an Anti - Diet Empowerment coach where I marry this with over 30 years of gut health knowledge.

It took me a few years to understand that my body image also needed work as my first attempt at my business didn’t go so well, I did have clients but I didn’t feel that I was in the right headspace to be able to coach them to never need diet again.

So my story took one more dramatic turn, which I am sure won’t be the last. In May 2020 my wonderful Mum passed away after a battle with mixed dementia. She was my inspiration to re-brand and re-launch my company as Naturally Empowered Health where I coach women and now pre-teen/ teens from using food as a crutch or coping mechanism to relieve stress, comfort, or distract us from what is the root cause. I build in my gut health knowledge so when a client has successfully reached food freedom, their gut health is restored and optimum health is theirs to own. No more diets or discomfort, just peace with food and life.

I offer coaching either one to one where we focus on getting to the root cause, understanding and dealing with triggers, giving you the tools to intuitively understand when it is best for you to eat and what to eat at that time to gain fullness and natural energy so you’re snacking is no longer an issue. We work together on your body image and body respect so you feel empowered and strong. Coaching where diets can be ditched forever.

I have a ‘Fresh Start’ membership where over just 12 months women are able to walk away from their emotional eating triggers for good. Each lady receives a monthly

workbook to uncover, understand and make peace with different aspects that contribute to our relationship with food and our body. The membership also includes a 15 minute coaching call with me each month where we get results fast, an ask the expert session where an expert gives their advice in their expertise when it comes to emotional eating and gut health. A recorded guided meditation each week and a WhatsApp group where each lady in membership is included for support and accountability.

I now also have a book called True Taste on sale, which is full of recipes that my clients love and a section on beginning your own journey on intuitive eating, this is available on my website and Amazon.

So what does the future hold? I wish to expand my one to one coaching to support as many women and teens onto food freedom as possible, this is the very beating heart of my business. By doing this I am now expanding into offering wellness sessions for businesses who wish to raise their

BREAK employee awareness of how food can effect our focus, our stress levels, our emotions, our moods and hormones FREE and what we can each do to improve our focus and productivity so stress is lowered and we know which food can help and which can hinder when it FROM comes to our own bodies and minds. I am also calling on schools where I offer workshops where we discuss the impact of food and body image THE so that pupils are better equipped to recognise triggers and how to work past them and feel secure and happy in their own skin. DIET It’s my aim to support women and teens to be able to move away from experiencing similar anxieties and stress with food as I, so along with me CYCLE they can truly experience a life where food is no longer in control of them Leave emotional eating and gu but they are in charge of food, and their lives.behind you and break free of dependency with Anti - Diet

SCAN QR CODE Empowerment Coach, Margar

Scan QR code to learn more