Have you ever wondered whether you had control over your health destiny?

When you go to the doctor, do you hope that they can fix you? Or perhaps you are the opposite, and you instinctively mistrust medics, drugs and all that modern medicine represents? My name is Gemma. I studied to become a doctor. Why? I felt called to help people feel better, I like to listen and I like to know what really makes people tick. I became a doctor for all these reasons. And I love being a family physician. Always have, always will. There’s something special about the connection you build with the person in front of you, the shared journey to health and the impact of being able to save lives in slow motion. But after a few years of practice I began to realise that the tidal wave of chronic diseases we are facing was not improving. If anything, the storms were gathering at a faster pace than ever before.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is quoted as having said; ‘“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” This quote resonated with me so much because for a long time I felt that every day whilst at work, I was pulling my patients out of the river, or at least trying to. I am a busy GP Partner with nearly 3000 patients and over the last 20 years of practice I have spent a lot of my time offering an arm to grab onto, but often being unable to pull people out. What do I really want to do? I want to meet them at a tributary of the river and help them avoid the slippery slope leading to the water’s edge of disease. I also want to be able to help them jump clean out of the river, walk with them upstream, and perhaps help them find their own path to wellness that involves empowerment and autonomy.

But where to start? Let me tell you a little bit about me. There I was, having graduated as a young doctor, yet struggling to lose weight and neglecting my own health. I loved all the kinds of foods that didn’t love me back – chips, steak, chocolate and cheese to name a few! I didn’t feel ill, so what was the harm? Late nights studying took their toll too, as well as a chronic lack of exercise. The result? I was overweight, bordering on clinically obese, I had a high blood pressure and I felt hypocritical. I was about to be in a position where people would ask me for tips to get well, lose weight or improve their lifestyle and I was not walking the talk.

So – I tried low carb – like most people I had bought into the background hum of ‘cut the carbs’ and all sugar is bad. I had also read some research around intermittent fasting. I began calorie counting, carb restriction and did an hour of exercise every day – I found myself going from a size 18 to a size 8. Feeling pretty pleased with my wellness progress I checked my blood profile and found my lipid panel was raised. I knew that having a raised cholesterol and LDL were both markers suggesting a tendency to heart disease. In my 20s, at my physical prime I didn’t think there was much I could do apart from accept my fate – my grandfather had been a fit man who died suddenly while playing tennis at 60, and at that time my father was still with us, but was also destined to die suddenly of a heart attack – even younger at age 59.

I was offered a book deal to ‘tell my story’ and ‘share my weight loss secrets’. I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t a nutrition expert, and even though I looked healthy on the outside, my lipid profile told a different story. I wanted to be able to share an opinion based on research as well as personal experience. So I turned it down.

Fast forward by almost ten years and my husband was training for the London Marathon. But he had to stop every few days because each time he attempted to train, he got a swollen foot, ankle or knee, which prevented his progress. Frustrated, he turned to fitness books for tips and inspiration. He looked for Ultra Athletes to find out what they did. He read Rich Roll’s inspirational book, Finding Ultra. Here was a self-confessed lawyer and couch potato who developed chest pain and breathlessness walking up the stairs aged 40. Deciding to turn his life around, he adopted a rigorous training schedule and a plant based diet and became the fastest American to complete the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii. Having read this inspirational story, along with books by Brendan Brazier (who helped the Williams sisters reclaim tennis victory and helped Hugh Jackman bulk up for his role as Wolverine) and Scott Jurek, arguably the greatest Ultra Runner of all time, my husband announced that he was going to start a vegan whole foods plant based diet.