17/01/2026
2016 I started Internal Instinct + Graduated as a Nutritionist
My meaning behind Internal Instinct was to help guide people back to their own inner knowing. I saw nutrition as a vital tool on this path.
Today I change my Instagram name to Lydia Jai I or rather . Because, that my name and whilst I am a nutritionist, I’m firstly, mostly, totally and wholly Lydia.
I have followed my gut and spent 10 years guiding people back to their Internal Instinct the best I could.
It hurts my heart a little to look back at 2016. I think the title for 2016 was “Looking for love in all the wrong places”. Or probably more aptly “Heartbreak across continents”
I was preparing for my post Uni gap year by working a lot in hospitality in Obar, House Sitting to save to travel and accidentally dated all the wrong men.
I travelled to NZ with a fun crew of amazing friends. And I set off to America.
I travelled California with my bestie, I met my whole family in Hawaii and I spent quality time with family in Nicaragua! I lived on Ometepe on a small farm hostel for a few months and then went Lake Atitlan in Guatemala to do an internship at Love Probiotics for a few months. I learnt a lot that year. And I had big dreams for my career - starting with Sourdough Workshops.
I really struggled in my skin in 2016.
And it is such a relief to know that I have grown into the woman I am. My whole identity used to be about my body appearance and I was so scared of my health. I was scared of “toxins” in food and environment. I was afraid of sickness and felt consumed by thoughts of what I can eat. I felt totally out of control with food, I felt weak in my body and I was obsessed with “healthy” eating but would binge. I praised myself the longer I went without eating “because health”.
Two significant people that have passed away, that remind me of 2016. My uncle Louis, my father’s brother - he mended a hole in my heart after my dad died and then he passed in 2016.
In 2016 a beautiful tall Australian man in a skirt walked past me while I was living on Lake Atitlan. Patrick ‘Phoenix’ became like a sibling back home as well ❤️ a few years later, he left us.
❤️Lydia
