Hi, I'm Kerryelle
I'm a foodie, self confessed nerd, Nutritional Therapist, Yoga student and teacher.
My Journey
Trigger Warning! This is my not so ‘fairy’ fairy tale… and it contains some sensitive topics.
I was raised in the green New Zealand countryside eating simple, close to the source food, grass fed beef and amazing fresh seafood caught by my family. As a single income family with six kids (think gang!), anything we could forage, fish or catch was a very welcome addition to the family table and I loved being part of that foraging process. We were connected to our wild hearts via nature and I loved the reciprocity of that connection.
I have always had a love of food, in no small part influenced by the eating part of the transaction(!), and loved watching Julia Child’s cooking show as a child. I was a competent baker before I reached double digits and loved to cook for people. In my mid-teens, Dad talked me out of becoming a chef, as he quite rightly pointed out, I’d be cooking at work while all my friends were out socialising and living life so, I shelved my food dreams.
Just weeks before turning 18 I had a serious car accident and somehow managed to walk away and decided it was time to start a new life in Australia.
I got a retail job the day I arrived, I simply walked around a shopping centre until someone took me on. I was earning three times the amount I was in little old New Zealand so it was game on, party time!
I had my own groove and I loved it. I was a Doc Marten boots wearing grungy, hippy and regularly got told to ‘move to Newtown’ by the more conservative residents of Cronulla beach, which at the time was my adopted home. I was not your typical surfer girl or city moll (as I jokingly called them!). I played bass guitar and wrote angry rock songs in a band with my sisters called ‘The Buds’.
After a year or so working in retail, I studied at Tafe and landed an opportunity to work in legal precedent development with a beautiful lady named Grace. I suddenly had someone who believed in me and career prospects beyond slicing meat and eating all the olives (one had never graced my plate in NZ) in a Deli. I embraced the opportunity as I slowly morphed into the city molls I had previously mocked. The vanilla, cookie cutter versions of each other, lining up to get the train and work for the man… oh my, how the tables had turned?!
My natural love of learning had kicked in and I continued to study and grow into various roles in the law firms and with software companies specialising in the legal arena and eventually my own successful precedent consulting business.
Outwardly I was extremely successful, yet on the inside, I was lost, I was not happy, I drank – a lot. I partied – a lot. That was the culture both at work and at home. At times, I wasn’t a very nice human being. My ten year relationship and marriage failed and I leapt headfirst into a messy and damaging ‘rebound’ boyfriend that lasted over four years. Eventually something had to give and it was my health. The stressful legal industry, the partying, the poor food choices, the damaging relationships, were all taking a major toll on my physical and mental health. I didn’t like myself, let alone love myself and it was showing up in every area of my life. I was so disconnected from my body, I didn’t listen to my inner voice, I didn’t know what I really wanted in life, I was slowly destroying myself.
Searching once more, I got on another plane and for two months I travelled South America alone. It was simultaneously the most amazing and scary thing I had done in a long time. But a small ember of fire had sparked in my heart and I had to find myself again, that wild hearted, fearless girl who had boarded that plane in sleepy old Hamilton, NZ. Where was she? What had happened to her? What would she do now?
I got really sick in the last week of my trip, the worst food poisoning in my life (or so I thought ha ha) and the symptoms continued for months after my return to Australia. Fast forward another year and my sister went ‘paleo’ (for want of a better term!) and I decided to follow suit and discovered that I had a non-celiac gluten sensitivity as well as a host of other food sensitivities. Another terrible bout of food poisoning (hello absolute worst!) that year whilst travelling in Mexico and Central America saw my gut health deteriorate further. I had brain fog, bloating, gas and bouts of chronic pain, elimination issues and a systemic candida infection that ultimately lasted three years.
Still lost and seeking something more fulfilling than my corporate consulting business, I found yoga and my life changed direction. I started to feel like ‘myself’ again on my mat and for the first time since a sunny day on a beach in Waihi, when a child’s mind had separated from her body to protect her from what was being done to it, my mind and body reconnected. Wow. I could actually feel what was happening in my body. They were no longer two separate entities. This was a revelation and a giant leap in my journey to self-love. To be able to feel again was incredible and it was confronting, I suddenly had a life of stored trauma in my body to process. I studied to become a yoga teacher, beyond excited to be able to share the beautiful teachings with others.
In July of 2016, one month after graduating from my teacher training, I lost my beloved Dad to suicide following a lengthy journey with anxiety and depression. I believe that Yoga came me to me when it did so that I had the tools to get through this dark time.
During his illness, I had spent a lot of time with my Dad in the allopathic medical system. I was acutely aware that whilst wonderful things can be done with allopathic medicine in trauma and other situations, they did not offer any guidance in terms of maintaining good health from a nutritional standpoint. Not once did we discuss his health in terms of looking for any underlying causes for this mental health experiences, we were simply ushered out with a new prescription each time we went to his GP.
Realising how much of my free time I now spent learning about health and wellbeing, I decided to study further in the field of Nutrition and found the Nutritional Therapy Association, returning to a childhood passion of food. As I gained more knowledge and understanding of the role of nutrition in our physical health and mental wellbeing, I came to the heartbreaking realisation that had we caught Dad's food sensitivities and deficiencies and started a nutritional therapy approach sooner, he would likely be here with us today.
The embers erupted to flames...
It has been a long journey for me back to myself, back to my wild heart but every step, every lesson has been worth it. It has shaped the woman I am. I believe things don't happen 'to us' in life, they happen 'for us' and I am determined that my personal experiences be my catalyst to help others.
I believe YOU are catalyst for change in your life.
I believe that when you are truly seen and heard, when you are provided with practical, no BS advice that is easy to implement, you can transform your life. You can reconnect with the inner knowing, that voice you ignored for so long, you can find your wild heart once more.
I am now dedicated to using nutrient dense, properly prepared food to support the foundations of good health for individuals to live in balance in the wonderful, complex, amazing body we are each gifted with... to help others realise that they can take control of their health and well being.
