ABOUT ME

Hello and welcome to my website, winner of the #2 spot on the Best 10 UK Organic Food Blogs 2018! I found that award funny, because the recipes were only ever a small part of what I do! Still, food plays a huge part in my wellness journey so I’m really glad that so many people enjoy them.

I’m Lauren (obviously). I’m a health writer, nutritionist, holistic wellness coach, podcast host, blogger, aspiring novelist and, perhaps my most important role to date; mama. Having been previously wheelchair-bound until implementing the lifestyle that I will outline below, I’m also very much immersed in and an advocate of holistic living and live by this quote:

My life’s work is dedicated to bringing this message to others, and to helping others attain this level of wellness themselves.

So how did it all begin?

I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of two, and Uveitis in my right eye the year following that. My poor parents didn’t know what to do; in 1986 there weren’t many options. They researched as much as they could and decided that the steroids the doctors wanted to prescribe were too toxic an option for a two-year-old so instead we tried everything from homeopathy to spiritual healing. The homeopathy helped to keep my immune system strong and helped keep my joints from being damaged by the disease, which was a major achievement, but it was always like there was a piece missing from the puzzle because I was never free of the disease completely and I would have dreadful yearly flare-ups that would result in time off school and a watered-down version of childhood.

With very swollen knees on my 5th birthday

When I was seventeen, after starting performing arts school, I suddenly had a huge flare up that wouldn’t go away. I ended up being put on a chemo-based drug that changed my life forever – and not in a good way. It damaged my liver, caused me to lose my hair and left me wheelchair-bound. I left college and never got to go to uni, or go travelling with my friends; I really lost out on those late teenage years but what I did instead was find a way to get healthy again; I found the missing piece.

I researched relentlessly, immersing myself in self-study in everything wellbeing related; nutrition, epigenetics, meditation, neuroplasticity, breathwork, the psychosomatic element of chronic illness, and how the medical model of today was hindering my recovery. I used many modalities to aid my recovery, from homeopathy and herbalism to cranisacral therapy and spiritual healing. I studied different forms of meditation and began practicing daily yoga. It was not an overnight recovery, and was not as straight-forward as it sounds. It was over a decade in the making, but eventually, I went into remission in 2013.

With my sister in 1992 after a severe flare up of the joints and eye

In a lightbulb moment, I decided to write a book about my life with arthritis, the journey it took me on, and how I overcame it with a holistic lifestyle (currently in progress to be re-released with a new publishing company in a few months – not available until then), and realised I was always meant to be a writer. My journey to wellness was my blessing in that way (and many other ways too). After that I was invited to become a trustee of the British Homeopathic Association and spokesperson for the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine.

I eventually qualified as a nutritionist and I have since become Parliamentary ambassador for Juvenile Arthritis and I now spend my time writing wellbeing-, health- and conscious parenting-related articles for publications such as Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Natural Health, Health & Homeopathy, What Doctors Don’t Tell You, The Green Parent, The Natural Parent and more. I have recently begun writing more mainstream features, too. I speak at a range of events from conferences to festivals, and I am in the process of writing my first novel. I also spend as much time as I can campaigning for the awareness and accessibility of natural health options and informed choice for parents alongside wonderful organisations such as the Arnica Network.

My most recent venture, Reconditioned with Lauren Vaknine, is the podcast that opens up discussion on all aspects of health and growth, looking at ways we can recondition ourselves back to wellness through integrating the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements of ourselves. (Tune in to hear me alongside some pretty awesome guests!). Creating a podcast felt like the next natural step to be able to share all the things I’ve learnt throughout my journey that I hope will help others. The podcast page here will tell you more.

I’ve taken a break in wellness coaching to devote time to writing and my podcast, but plan on taking this up again in the not-too-distant future, as I redevelop my model to make it the very best it can be to help others reach their health and happiness goals

Though of course allopathic medicine has its place in many instances, many years have now passed since I stopped all forms of conventional medication – including pain-killers – and I have been in remission since 2013, with the exception of postpartum flare-ups following the births of both my children, which was an important learning curve as each one reminded me that this autoimmune disease lives dormant within me and any number of things can trigger it and it’s up to ME to tackle that – not the doctor, not my parents, not my husband, and not the pharmaceutical industry… I take my healthcare into my own hands. Postpartum hormones were not something I had control over but the need to up my game to get back into remission each time spurred me on to really practice what I preach. I believe that in order to cure, we must heal from the root cause, and after that, we must focus our energies on prevention.

With Jo Wood & Tilly Wood campaigning for awareness into vaccine injury

I live in London with my husband, Daniel, and our 2 children. The picture below includes our precious dog, Milo, even though he is no longer with us, because I can’t bring myself to take it down!

I hope you enjoy my blog, and please make sure to follow me on Instagram where you can keep up-to-date with everything I’m up to.

ABOUT ME

Love & health