Hi I'm Nic

I am passionate about helping you to take control of your nutrition habits to achieve and sustain your health and performance goals.

Work with me to nurture and nourish your body for optimal health and performance.

I am committed to promoting a food first approach specific to each individual.

Following graduating from Durham University, I moved to Leeds to complete my MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition and my Level 3 tennis coaching qualification from Leeds Beckett University. While completing my MSc, I was fortunate to work as a nutritionist with Leeds United RTC for 2 seasons, as well as rugby, netball and swimming sport scholars at Barnard Castle School.

I am a Registered Sport and Exercise Nutritionist (SENr) and ISAK 1 qualified, currently working with Cultiv8 Tennis Academy, Castleford Tigers RLFC, Durham County Rugby and as being the TASS practitioner for Teesside University. Previously, I have delivered nutrition support to The GORSE Academies Trust Rowing Team, a range of tennis academies and counties in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as a range of individuals.

Sport Nutrition background:

Throughout my childhood, I played tennis and netball competitively; sport generally has always been a massive part of my life. I do not remember receiving any personalised nutritional advice as a junior tennis player - 'eat bananas' and 'Andy Murray's favourite sweets are Percy Pigs' being all the generalised recommendations I can recall. Having now studied the subject, I am passionate about helping other young athletes to understand the value of adding a variety of different foods into their daily lives to boost health, mood and performance. I am committed to helping athletes of all ages to maintain a healthy relationship with food, focusing on all the amazing ways they can use their bodies and the importance of fuelling themselves well to reach their full potential. Some of the topics I am most interested in are preventing Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) and maintaining a healthy hormone balance as an athlete. I also strongly believe that the habits created as a young athlete underpin health and performance in the long term.

My Story:

In my early twenties, for the first time, I began to become more acutely aware of my body image. Growing up literally spending every hour of the day that I could playing sport, I had developed a lean, athletic figure. At university, I became so anxious to make sure I maintained this; without realising it, my body had become a massive part of my identity as the 'sporty girl'. I began to track my calorie intake intensely and would often go to the gym three times a day to ensure I wouldn't feel guilty about eating out with my friends. I restricted foods and would beat myself up if I ate something I thought I should be avoiding, or use exercise as a punishment to burn off the calories. I find this sad to reflect on, with sport and exercise always being an absolute passion of mine, I was now punishing my body with it. I reached my lowest weight as an adult, but I had become so irritable, fatigued and this definitely had an effect on relationships. My life was very unbalanced.

In early 2020, just before the first COVID lockdown, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). At first this only heightened my anxiety around food and exercise. I was uneducated around the effects of PCOS and was so worried that it would mean that I would put on weight, especially due to the restrictions of the 2020 COVID lockdown; my relationship with food diminished further. At this time, I also developed severe acne on my face, having been fortunate to have never suffered with acne as a teenager. Now having a much greater understanding of my body, I look back and realise that a lot of the PCOS symptoms I was experiencing were due to the amount of stress I was putting on my body - restrictive eating, binging, overexercising and stressing if I didn't exercise or eat 'clean'.

Over the last few years I have been driven to reduce the symptoms I experience with PCOS. It has been a long road, but my biggest learning has been to show myself care and compassion, to use my food and fluid choices to nurture and nourish my body, mind and mood. Guess what? I haven't gained any weight, my body composition hasn't even changed too much and I have so much more energy and mental clarity.

My mission is to combine my own experiences with my academic nutrition background to empower others to nurture and nourish their own bodies. I can help you create tailored habits that are an investment in your long term health, whilst also allowing you to push yourself to accomplish your goals, respecting the amazing achievements your body can perform.