Jess is a Naturopathic Nutritionist and Hormone Specialist, driven by her own experience with infertility, restrictive dieting, anxiety, gut issues, and hormonal breakouts. What began as a personal journey has evolved into over a decade of experience supporting women in understanding their hormones and building nourishing eating habits.
In our interview, Jess shares her top tips for curating health, her personal experience with mould exposure, and the pantry staples she swears by.
What do you love most about your home?
I love that my home is cozy but also really uplifting. I always feel really safe and happy and it's just my happy place.
What led you to moving from London to the countryside?
I think mainly it was wanting more space and also in preparation for starting a family. We couldn't find what we were after in London so decided to move to the countryside.
Can you tell us a little bit more about what you do in your day work?
So my day-to-day work mainly involves working one to one with female clients, getting to the root of their health challenges and helping them use food and lifestyle to optimise their health and their well-being.
What inspired you to help people with their health?
It was really my own health challenges that inspired me to study naturopathic nutrition. I had PCOS and hypothyroidism and we were trying to conceive and it wasn't happening. It really made me look at my own health and try to understand what was going on. The more I learned and changed my diet, the healthier and more hormonally balanced I became. I began to feel more connected with myself and realise the huge impact how we live our lives and the food that we put into our body really makes. I finally fell pregnant and my mental health improved. It made me want to help other women experience the same thing so I just absolutely love what I do.
From your own personal journey, what helped you the most with curating overall health?
There are so many things that played a really important part in becoming the healthiest version of myself. A few things that I would advise anyone to do because it’s free, accessible, and are game changers are focusing on your sleep. I know it's really hard sometimes in the evening when you want to chat with friends or WhatsApp or social media or even work, but it's so important to have boundaries and a bit of discipline in the evening and not to have that constant blue light exposure. This blue light exposure inhibits our melatonin production, which is our sleep hormone, and it can be quite stimulating on our cortisol levels as well. So, even 30 minutes before you go to bed, put your phone away - charge it outside your bedroom. Just have that time to really regulate your nervous system and get into your sleep state. It really helps with things like rest and digestion and stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system.
Another one would be to basically eat more real foods and less fake foods. It's as simple as that. And I probably made it sound too simplistic, but actually just focusing on eating real foods is a really really good place to start. Something that everyone can do. The more fresh produce and less processed foods you eat, the better you’ll start to feel and more motivated you’ll feel to keep at it.
The last, and really important thing I would recommend, is to start to track your cycle and really understand what's normal for you because what's normal for your friend or your neighbour is not necessarily going to be the same as what's normal for you. And that's really key in understanding your body, connecting with your cycle, and then being able to optimise it through food and lifestyle. When I did begin tracking my cycle I realised I could literally feel the ebbs and flows in my body and how my mood changed throughout.
What does home health mean to you?
Home health to me means having a space that makes me feel really grounded and that just really calms my nervous system. So for me that's having lots of natural textures and materials like our wooden flooring. The feeling of having your bare foot on a wood floor is unmatched.
I also love having the doors open and fresh air coming through the house. I think it's really important. Also having the fridge stocked with seasonal fruit and vegetables is really important to me.
Another really big thing for me is lighting. I think natural light is really important, especially to support your circadian rhythm, optimise your sleep and support your nervous system. So those things together are really important to me in creating a really nourishing, healthy home.
Are there any practices you do daily to lead a healthy lifestyle?
There's quite a few things that I love to do in terms of my daily rituals, but one of the things that I just would never not do is as soon as I wake up in the morning, I come downstairs to take my probiotic shot. I get my ice roller out of the fridge, which is literally a game changer, and then I step outside and expose my naked eyes to the sunlight. This really helps with serotonin production which is so important for our mood, energy and overall resetting of your circadian rhythm. So the things that you do in the morning really help you sleep better at night.
And then in the evening once I've done the bed and the bath time routine with my son, I come downstairs and I love to light a candle and just get really cozy on the sofa with the blanket. Even in the summer, I've got the window open and the fresh air coming through, I just love to feel cozy and layered.
Before UNTOLDMOULD, were you thinking about the quality of the air you breathe at home?
Yes, absolutely. Mould has always been something that I've been really conscious about. It all started back in London when I was renting with a friend. When we first signed up for the flat, it was so beautiful and lovely from the outside. A couple of months down the line, I opened my wardrobe one day to get out a handbag that I hadn't looked at for ages and it was literally thick with this fluffy gross mould and I was so shocked. I'd never had an experience with mould before. When I dug a bit deeper and looked further into the wardrobe it was everywhere and actually got worse really quickly.
It's a really good example of how the space can look really pretty and polished on the outside, but sometimes mould is hiding inside. It’s really important to be aware of these things as mould can cause so many problems with your physical and mental health. Long story short our landlord wanted to basically paint over the mould and not get to the root of the problem.
I think it's a topic that needs more air time and that we need to be really aware of because mould can cause a lot of problems. So just knowing how clean and how safe your space is can be invaluable to your family.
Do you think the presence of mould affected your health?
It definitely did, but I think at the time I didn't realise that it did. It was only months later and then on reflection actually thinking about it. It was at that time that my anxiety and panic attacks were really heightened. I'm not saying it was all because of the mould but I think it was a combination of things. I think that sleeping in this place, breathing in mould every single night for a really long period of time definitely didn't help my overall health.
And from that experience, how important is it now for you to know that your family is breathing fresh air?
It's so important for me to know that our home is mould free. I think people place a lot of importance on keeping floors and surfaces clean and tidy, without thinking about whether mould is actually present in their home. So this product is an absolute game-changer because it gives you the information that you wouldn’t otherwise have. A space can look beautiful but you just never know what's hiding as a lot of the time mould is behind cupboards or somewhere that you're not always looking. So this gives you the reassurance to know if mould is actually in your home.
