My Story – How I Started Health Coaching
Before Everything: When My Body Was Whispering
Before my Hashimoto diagnosis, my emotional state was all over the place.
My body was 38, but I felt 60.
Lack of motivation, low tolerance, low energy, aches appearing in different parts of my body…
And at that time, I couldn’t fully understand any of it.
Turns out, my body had been whispering — I just wasn’t listening.
The First Spark: Yoga and Blood Tests
My first encounter with yoga goes back to the early 2000s.
But truly understanding its philosophy happened in 2018.
Before starting yoga teacher training, we were asked to do blood work.
I looked at my results… ignored them.
Later, I had to pause yoga because of a herniated disc.
A year later, when I returned, I repeated the tests.
This time, the results couldn’t be ignored.
The inflammation in my body had nearly tripled.
Diagnosis: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
When the doctor said, “You will use medication for the rest of your life,”
what I heard was: “You will continue living exactly as you are.”
Only the symptoms would be softened.
Growing up with homeopathy, deep down, I knew this wasn’t my path.
I had been disconnected from my body for so long.
This time the voice was so loud that not hearing it was impossible.
The Transformation Begins: Nutrition and Courage
I went to an osteopath for my pain.
He looked at my results and simply said:
“Don’t worry. Change your diet, and Hashimoto will go away.”
He gave me a tiny list:
“Eat these; don’t eat these.”
The foods I could eat barely filled two hands.
But that one sentence was enough:
“It will go away.”
And the moment I walked out of his office — literally at that moment —
I started a gluten-free, sugar-free, packaged-food-free life.
No postponing.
No overthinking.
It was hard. Really hard.
But the results… were unbelievable.
My life changed.
My books changed, my meals changed, my environment changed, my body changed…
And eventually, even my career changed.
When the illness people said “won’t heal” actually began healing,
a strong voice rose within me:
“You need to share this.”
That calling led me to the
Functional Medicine Health Coaching (FMCA) program in the U.S. in 2020.
For a full year, I learned not only nutrition but also
sleep, movement, stress, relationships, emotions—
in short, the full mind–body–spirit connection.
Then my professional coaching training began.
From 2021 to 2024, I completed the Adler coaching program
and earned my ICF ACC credential.
And that’s how my path of supporting people
in health, relationships, well-being, and personal transformation began.
Today…
The Nilay who welcomes you here today
is not speaking from the shadow of an illness—
but from the light that this illness taught her.
I’m grateful I found my own path.
And now, I’m here to walk beside others
as they find theirs.
