Q+A with Liv Crumpton
To me, holistic health means unity between physical and mental states. In my practice, I have witnessed the word 'health' as triggering, causing anxiety around nutrition deprivation and complexity, health anxieties or unrealistic goal setting and comparison to others' physiques, causing low self-worth and lack of sustainable drive and motivation. It's evident that many individuals are at a loss and become caught up on numbers of food or weight, only to view health as a number, something so rigid, black or white, good or bad.
I educate my patients to zoom out, to see the physical and mental connection that will harness their true potential and become more fluid. Holistic health is individual and should be a wholly attainable and enjoyable lifestyle to create healthy habits that last a lifetime. Sadness or stress over restrictive habits that do not bring mental strength are short-lived and create yo-yo physical and mental patterns. I pride my practice on supporting my patient's realistic capacity to thrive where psychological and physical health is equal, to relish life, not restrain it.
According to teenage Liv, I would have said I have been focused on 'health' for as long as I can remember. However, sadly I fell to the pressures of being a young woman in the dancing and modelling world of the 90’s - where 'health' meant skinny. Moving into my late teens and early 20s, my parents faced a devastating reality with separate cancer diagnoses.
During this time, my soul, my future husband, was too facing rapidly declining health and devastatingly, a heart transplant was the only option to save his life. We were lucky enough to receive the gift of life from the family of a young man who tragically left this world well before his time which comes with its own continuous mental and physical hurdles. Needless to say, the fragility of life became the soul focus of my existence.
Becoming a young adult can be an emotional and difficult time; throw terminal illness into your deep-to-the-core support world, and you have yourself a perplexed and shattered young woman, who displayed strength and resilience, but internally deeply struggled with unrealistic weight idealisations, grief and all the knock-on effects that roll on from this collateral damage.
I felt a profound pull to shift focus on my health - not the skinny, deprivation kind, but the fly-and-thrive kind, to make the most of this precious life. This moment gave me the strength to change my career. Now I have the science, passion and experience to support others to do the same.
I love supplements and functional products that support energy production, mood and clarity, and those that benefit strength and endurance in support of a well-rounded fitness lifestyle. I am also profoundly obsessed with powders and tonics that I can add to smoothies, drinks and recipes. For this reason, the entire Superblends collection. The Nutrient Capsule: Bovine Liver are a must, too. The vast nutrient profile and health benefits include endurance, strength, and cognition.