Here’s the irony...

In becoming a PhD Biomedical Scientist with special interests in molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics, I ended up in the worst shape of my life. Even though I thought about all day long was how cells and disease processes work, I couldn’t pilot my own human body worth a damn.

Picture this: late nights hunched over textbooks, Chinese take-out, and a brain-on-a-stick approach to living where anything below my neck was pretty much an afterthought.

Then came the “healthier than healthy” era: I got tired of my bookworm body and feeling like garbage. So after a rough patch (oops, divorce) I decided to get in shape of my life:

Intense workouts twice a day, calorie restriction (salads all day), cycling 14 hilly km to and from work…and zero recovery.

That was on top of 60 hour work weeks in the lab, volunteering, going out 3 nights a week, averaging 6h of sleep…

I burned out. Hard.

I lost my period, tanked my energy, and ran my hormones into the ground.

To the outsider, I looked super fit; in reality, I was exhausted, inflamed, and disconnected.

I share this because the road to “health” can be incredibly confusing. After hitting a serious low at 33, I drew a line in the sand and asked: what does health actually mean for me as a woman — not as a lab value, a dress size, or a productivity metric?

That question reshaped everything. I became obsessed…health optimization, hormones, metabolism, longevity - I ate it all up!

The deeper I went into women’s physiology, the clearer it became how absurd it is to ignore our hormones, downplay our differences, and try to squeeze ourselves into protocols designed for male bodies. We were never the problem; the model was.

Now, in my mid-40s — while the world shouts doom about perimenopause and menopause — I am in the best mental, physical, and spiritual shape of my life. This is what happens when a woman stops apologizing for her hormones and starts using them as her superpower.

From burned out…

To blossoming!