My journey to nutrition
Welcome and a very warm thank you for visiting my website and opening a window onto my life, what I do, believe and proudly love, HEALTH.
“Health is not the absence of disease, but rather a wonderful and magic state of being”. It is supreme vitality, contentment, happiness, strength, joy, prosperity, harmony and abundance. It is an orgasmic experience that involves all your senses at a higher level.
If Health is what you are experiencing at the moment, you might not need this website, but if you are far from it or know someone that is, please read on.
Out of any doubts, “your health is your most valuable treasure and definitely the best investment you will ever make”. If you are physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy, you have more chances to thrive in life. You will have more energy, more vitality and therefore will be more competitive and successful in your personal and professional life and live a happier and longer life.
Far too many people live their entire life in misery because of physical illness, stressful jobs, limiting and self sabotaging believes, social conditioning etc. This website is the result of my life experiences and academic education. It aims to share with you all my learning in the intent of contributing to a healthier and happier You and ultimately to a healthier, happier and more conscious society.
So, if you ended up here you might be on a quest to find some answers to your questions and I deeply wish you will gain some extraordinary insights from browsing around these pages that will serve your physical, emotional and spiritual growth.
Please know that I am profoundly honoured to have you here and to be part of your journey.
Who am I
My name is Cristiano Percoco and I am a Nutritional Therapist, trained using the Functional Medicine model at the University of Westminster in London. My passion for complementary medicine began in the year 2000 when I participated in a basic Aromatherapy introductory course and loved it. This single event changed my life forever and clearly impacted on every single decision I took ever since.
Thereafter I continued my education in alternative medicine and gained diplomas in deep tissue and Swedish massage, Indian head massage, aromatherapy, Reiki, the Horstmann technique. Working as a massage therapist in a well known South London clinic gave me the opportunity to help many clients with their muscle tension, pain and stress.
Soon, I became aware that so many clients of mine were suffering on a much deeper level and that massage, as wonderful as it can be, was only alleviating some of their symptoms, but not the underlining cause of their health problems. I intuitively knew there was much more to health than massage or energy healing, but I didn’t know what yet.
The following part of this article is intimately emotional and deeply personal and it is part of the journey that brought me straight into nutrition, which you were definitely not expecting to come this way. By sharing it I am willing to show you that anyone may improve or even reverse their illness and life condition by providing their bodies with the right nutrients and adopting positive lifestyle changes.
One common denominator must exist in order for these to happen:
“You must want it and must be ready to take action!”
Please bear this thought in mind:
“What brought you here, won’t take you there. You have to make changes if you want different results”
I understand and appreciate that “change” sounds unfamiliar and scary sometime, but you must take action and make some changes if you want different results. I wish with all my heart this last sentence resonates with you on a much higher level and will shake you from within.
“So, take that first step, it may lead you somewhere magic”
If you find yourself paralyzed by making decisions and are desperate to live your life the way you always wanted to and were meant to, I will suggest you look into this book by Susan Jeffers called “Feel the Fear and do it anyway”.
“The best day you had to make a change into your life was yesterday, but you have today” Make the most out of it!
By sharing my experiences I am intended to move you and inspire you to take action before you fall in physical and mental misery, before pain becomes unbearable and disease kicks in, and hopefully I will succeed. But if you are already in a painful corner, I wish you will find here the strength to ask for help that will initiate your journey to recovery.
“You can achieve whatever you put your mind to”!
My dream ended
My passion and career as massage therapist ended in 2003 after my daughter was born. Back then I had two part time jobs, one as bartender and the other as complementary therapist. My desire was to develop more skills in order to practice massage full time, but I soon realized that my future was holding other plans for me. As my expenses increased, due to the growing family, I had no other choice then to accept a job offer to manage a brand new venue with a fine dining restaurant, a boutique cocktail bar and night club. I was excited about this adventure and the good salary, but this new life soon became my prison.
My prison
Within this new job I used to work five days a week, Thursday to Monday, from 2pm until 3am on average, during weekends, bank holidays, Christmas, New Years Eve, and Easter. My only two days off were dedicated entirely to my daughter. My bosses were very bulling and I was always under immense and humiliating pressure. The environment as a whole was incredibly stressful and very unhealthy, before the cigarette band came along.
I had anyway so much respect from my staff about my hard and honest work and so much appreciation from my customers that I kept performing at the highest possible levels and always aiming for perfection. I soon learned, on my own skin, that perfection does not exist and that aiming for it can be very detrimental to health. So if you also struggle with perfection I will suggest letting it go gently and aiming for healthy self love instead.
Few months later my daughter was born, my relationship with her mother ended, and so they both moved out. Some weeks later my ex partner brought my daughter back to my flat and left her with me for the duration of my two days off. I had no clue what to do with this little girl all by myself, what to feed her, how to change her nappies, what to play with her, and over all how to be a good father. I had no guidance and no one to rely on, as my family was abroad. Everything was just so big for me to handle back then.
Taking my daughter to and from nursery was a nightmare. It used to take me one and half hour one way, because I had to change two busses during rush hour, with cold and rain. She was also not happy at all to go to nursery, crying all the way to school and I had no skills or energy to reassure and calm her down. I soon realized that parenting could be the most challenging “job” there is if it happens not in the right conditions. I also learned that the parents’ mental and physical wellbeing will massively impact on the overall health of their children. My relationship with my daughter was very challenging for the first few years, with lots of resentment, frustration, love deprivation and anger on both sides.
Things did start changing after reading a book called “They f**k you up” by Oliver James. This book put everything into contest and made me realize that aware, conscious and loving parents are the gate keepers of their children’s mental and physical health. The book is not only for parents with young children, but it is for anyone who has parents, practically everyone. So please grab the book if you want to find out why you behave and feel like only you do and breakthrough limiting and self sabotaging believes.
Today my relationship with my daughter is millions times better than what I could have ever imagined and so it is my relationship with my parents, for which I am so immensely grateful.
Emotionally unstable
When I was aged two, I had a huge fright and as a consequence I became completely mute for about six months. When my voice finally came back, it did with a very severe stuttering and the only way I had to communicate with my mother was through singing. For some strange reasons singing allowed my voice to come out uniform and clear.
As a result of this speech handicap my confidence, public relation, communication, academic skills and my sentimental life suffered immensely and so I became an introvert and angry young man. I locked up all my emotions in my heart and my thoughts in my head. I never got to express anything, for the fear of being jugged and to avoid confrontation with normally able people.
Smoking, drinking and light drugs use became the norm for a long period of time, as my only way to escape my meaningless and painful reality.
Fast forwarding my story to when my daughter was born, I was emotionally devastated and still very immature, and as a result everything spiralled down to a very dark place, from which there was not quick coming back. My highly stressful lifestyle carried on for several years and excluded me from having a normal social life. So, I ended up being all by myself, trapped in a very distressed and poorly equipped mind and gradually ill body.
Now I wish to would have come across Daniel Goleman’s “Emotional Intelligence” book many years before, for his teachings on how to maturely structure and manage your emotional blueprint, thinking and behaviour. I will recommend this book to anyone that has had a difficult childhood, with emotionally distant and perhaps abusive parents, to those having difficulties with boundaries or issues in naming, managing or expressing their feelings and emotions. This book is furthermore recommended for anyone wanting to improve their decision making process and to master general social skills. This book is true gold.
The books I mentioned above are among some of the finest readings that changed my life for the best, that gave me a feeling of “going back home”, which I will recommend to anyone on a journey to become their very best self.
Illness came
The food I used to eat was mostly comfort and “junk” food, which majorly contributed to the development of borderline metabolic syndrome, with elevated blood pressure, homocystine levels, triglycerides and cholesterol, plus weight gain. My body was completely inflamed and I developed fibromyalgia. In some occasions the pain in my body was so intensely sharp that I was not able to move a single muscle and leave my bed. I had severe UTIs, constant cold sores, and always feeling tired and bloated. The scariest thing that happened to me was a mild heart attack. I literally felt a clotty matter passing through my heart, stretching my arteries and stopping the blood flow for few seconds, I will never forget.
Depression came
Within this scenario I gradually became clinically depressed and my GP put me on SSRIs antidepressants to help lifting my moods. This medication gave me very vivid dreams and sleep disturbance, nausea and incredibly painful suicidal thoughts. This was definitely the darkest period in my life, but as they say, you only see stars when it’s dark.
Awakening
Then, one morning, out of nowhere, THE MAGIC happened…!!!
I was in my bed, staring at the ceiling and I had no will power to get up, as my depression and discomfort, lack of motivation, apathy, physical stress and illness had become too much for me to deal with. I do not remember how long I spend in bed, but when I finally got up my life had already changed. As I was lying down, lost in the universe of my mind, I had an illuminating thought. It was a breakthrough, like a sparkle in the darkness, a flower in the desert and came out from absolutely nowhere. The thought was made of one single word and that word was: NUTRITION!
That was a message from my soul, wanting to save me and I realized that when your soul speaks, You must Listen..!!
I instantly knew what to do! I immediately got up and began my research for which institution was offering the best course. It appeared to me that the University of Westminster in London had exactly what I was looking for: a BSc (Hons) Health Sciences, Nutritional Therapy. Admission was not straight forward as I had to go through a set of different interviews and examinations. The University of Westminster received more than 300 applications for the course that year, and I very happily and proudly managed to get one of the 30 places available. It was an incredible victory!
Life at University was anyway very challenging and within my first year, my dad had a serious stroke during Christmas, which left him partially handicapped. As a consequence of needing time to be next to him I lost my job and because I was in a mess, my girlfriend also decided to leave me. Nevertheless, I managed to pass 19 assignments, all with good grades, as I finally found inspiration, strength and vitality again. The “never give up” became my motto.
Sometime you have to get lost in order to find yourself
I once more had a purpose in life and felt happiness and joy again, priceless. I felt alive. This renewed energy pushed me further and further. I stopped the antidepressant medication and started to see a psychotherapist, because I realized I needed professional guidance. I also found out I had an incredible passion for cycling. I learned how to meditate and started my yoga practice. I read many books on personal development and self help, of which some I already mentioned above. I completely changed my diet, incorporating specific wholesome and highly nutritious foods and super foods. I gave up smoking, drugs and drinking and anything else was poisoning my body, mind and spirit.
It is weird to say and perhaps to believe, but I am grateful for all the hard times in my life. They taught me some incredible life lessons and made me constantly push my boundaries to find solutions to every problem. With every answer I added a piece to the puzzle. Today the puzzle has a clear, neat, happy and colourful picture on it, my own. Today I am the best me ever existed, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Today I feel blessed and inspired with so much energy, vitality and enthusiasm and ready to guide many others through their journey of personal development and self healing. Today I know where I am and where I want to go and I know my purpose in life.
My life’s purpose is to guide people to achieve their health goals so to have a more conscious, healthier and happier society and ultimately a better planet to live on.
John Lennon used to sing: “I am a dreamer” and I like to believe that I am not the only one. A healthier and happier society is possible and we have to use our gifts and passions to make it happen.