Hi, my name is Hayley and I am a health and fitness blogger and recently qualified Freelance Journalist. I have an absolute passion for helping people reach their health and fitness goals. Whether they want to lose weight, gain weight, tone up, gain more energy or simply live a healthier lifestyle, I can help. I provide free wellness evaluations, one on one coaching, assistance with meal plans, exercise guidance and 24/7 support.
I love writing articles on health and fitness, animals , travel and the community in general. I love trialling new fitness regimes and recipes and giving my honesty feedback.
For the best part of 10 years, I have struggled with headaches, fatigue, severe stomach problems and the list goes on. At one point, my health was so bad it was taking over my life. Everyday I would wake up not knowing what sort of a day I was going to have health wise. I was awfully thin and my skin wasn't great either. I first went through a series of tests while I was living in London, only to be told that they couldn't find anything wrong with me. I kept food diaries and eventually tried a gluten free diet. This helped to some degree but certainly didn't solve the problems. After getting a few more professional opinions, the general consensus was that my health problems were stress related. I had been living in London for 5 years at this point, working long hours in the Investment Banking world and living in a city that never sleeps. So I decided to move back to Australia.
Once I was back in Australia, my health improved somewhat, but it was still terribly unpredictable. I ended up putting up with this for a few more years as I didn't have the energy to go through all the testing again and feared being told for the second time that there was nothing they could do for me.
After moving to Brisbane, I starting having severe stomach attacks. Piercing pain in my upper stomach which would result in vomiting amongst other things and would cause me to be bed ridden for a day or two. It was then that I decided to go and see a doctor.
I was sent to do blood tests and off to a specialist for an Endoscopy (camera down the throat). The blood test results showed that I was severely deficient in Zinc and B12. The endoscopy results came back all clear with no signs of Coeliac Disease or inflammation. I was then given a food allergy prick test. This came back with reactions to a lot of different foods, but the biggest ones were onions and oats. I was then put on an elimination diet where I could only eat plain meat and vegetables for 4 weeks. This was a really tough time for me emotionally and physically. But this gave my body time to get rid of anything else in the system. I then slowly started to introduce food groups.
After this I decided to see a Naturopath for advice on food and supplements. We got some good results from this but I still didn't feel right and with a few important events coming up, I wanted to get more answers. So I went back to my doctor and insisted we run more tests.
As I hadn't been on a high gluten diet when I had my Endoscopy (I was actually on a Gluten Free diet), my doctor suggested we do a blood test for the Coeliac gene in my body. When these results came back, I had not only tested positive to one gene, but to two. Statistics show that 90% of people who test positive to one gene will have or eventually be diagnosed with Coeliacs Disease. And I was lucky enough to have both genes (lucky me, NOT). So my doctor told me then and there to go strictly gluten free and as I had reacted to oats and onions, they too were banned from my diet.
Being gluten free is much easier now than what it was 5 years ago. Restaurants have an array of GF options to choose from and supermarkets also have a huge range of GF items. Being onion free is another story, Every sauce, gravy, stock, seasoning, packet of chips has onion or onion powder in it. It's honestly one of the hardest things to avoid. Not only that, onions aren't classified as an allergen (unlike gluten, diary, nuts etc), therefore, restaurants don't necessarily have to state it on restaurant menus. I have been caught out on this numerous times and have had to send food back to the kitchen. It is also not a very common allergy, so people are generally shocked when they are told. This also means that I cannot have leeks, spring onions or red onion. It can make dining out rather difficult (forget Mexican food) and can also be rather embarrassing when going to someone else's house for dinner.
Having food allergies affect people both physically and mentally. It is a constant battle and one that is here for life. Being gluten free and onion free is simply a choice I don't have. I know when I started out being Gluten and onion free, I had no idea where to start with recipes and did so much research but couldn't find much information on it.
After being sent to another specialist late last year, I have managed to get my stomach problems mostly under control with the help of a few different medications and supplements.
The struggle I am now dealing with and trying to get to the bottom of is my fatigue. Unfortunately this isn't just a case of feeling tired. It is much more complicated than that. It involves me waking up every day absolutely exhausted. Sometimes too exhausted to even get out of bed.
More test results revealed extremely low cortisol levels. Your cortisol levels are at their highest in the morning, then reduce as the day goes on. Unfortunately my levels first thing in the morning are lower than what they should be at night time when our body tells us we are tired and its ready for bed. The reason for this goes back to your Adrenal Gland. Mine has just given up. Through years of stress fighting food allergies, the Coeliac gene and being a worry wart has taken its toll on my adrenal gland which has resulted in me being diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue.
So it's no wonder that I have a strong (personal) interest in healthy living. What goes into our body definitely affects its performance and appearance so its no wonder that living a healthy active lifestyle is so important. I may not be a doctor or a specialist, and I certainly don't claim to be, but if I can help just one person from my own experience, then I am a happy person. I know that if there was more research and help out there when I was going through it, then it would have made my life a whole heap easier.
My goal is to help people by introducing them to foods and recipes to help with food allergies either by recipes I have created myself or ones I have found through my own research.
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