My previous life involved working long hours and under high levels of stress. Like many women, I was putting everyone else first in my life, and including and especially work.

Things came to a head 10 years ago when I found myself feeling totally unfulfilled, unhappy, unhealthy, overweight, and with low energy. To put it bluntly I found myself fat, sick and tired. My life had been devoid of fun and enjoyment for many years, there wasn’t time to fit in things that I loved doing. I never took time to have quiet time for myself. I needed to remain busy. With hindsight now I can see that behind all this need for being constantly busy was really the need to prove my self-worth. The price I paid for the constant busyness and workaholic life was the loss of connection to the real me and the loss of connection to spirit. This led to unhappiness and a lack of fulfilment.

A diagnosis of Hashimoto’s disease resulted in my doctor telling me that I would be on medication for the rest of my life - this spurred me into action and to take control of my health, and I was determined to reverse the auto-immune disorder. I realised things had to change. Once I had discovered that my gut health was the root cause of my  health issues, I totally transformed my health, my energy levels soared, and I was able to come off medication for my auto-immune disorder. What’s more, there was an added bonus: 2.5 stone (35lbs) excess weight just melted away in 90 days.

In order to get myself well I had to create a good strong work-life balance and stick to it. I needed to take time out and I started a daily self-nurturing ritual as well as a journey of creating a different lifestyle though learning and personal development. I took a lot of time out in nature.

I made a conscious decision to shrink my business, making staff redundant, but for the first time in my life I made a decision on what was right for me, letting go of what anybody else might say. That was huge!

The reality, though, was that even though I was working less hours I actually doubled my revenue and nearly doubled by profit over the next year. Why? I was more productive and focused in the hours that I was working because the time was fixed. I learnt a lot in that year but key was that working smarter was far better than working harder! I brought back the creative things that I love – photography, singing, and crafts. Life started to flow.

On my journey back to health I learned that our typical Western diet, as well as our lifestyle and high levels of stress, is having a major impact on our gut health. As gut health is the most fundamental thing that determines whether we will stay healthy or not, I know that staying on that endless treadmill of constant busyness will lead to illness. It’s not a matter of “if” it is just a matter of “when” it happens. I know that when that happens, it will have a negative impact on your life. If you are running a business then that impact is a serious problem because finances get affected.

But a bigger issue is the impact that this constantly busy lifestyle is having on our children.  We are seeing children as young as 9 and 10 suffering from anxiety, unheard of generally in my childhood days.  Children's health is poor, with many children struggling with weight issues and all the health problems that brings at such a young age. I have come across many young women in their early twenties with auto immune or other conditions where they have never really ever been well in their life.

This is why I am so passionate about educating, guiding, supporting and empowering women to take responsibility for their life and their own health, so that they can look to live their life to the full and inspire others, but also so that we can start to change the outcome of our children’s lives and their futures.

We tend to focus on only two areas of our lives, money and business, we leave the rest to chance. When we create goals in every area of our life making our health our number one priority, we can create and live the life we truly want and deserve.

Life is for  loving and having fun and enjoyment and it is not supposed to be hard and a struggle. We make it that way. When I started taking responsibility for my life and made some key big decisions based on what was important for me, I started to see other things shift dramatically in my life for the better.  I want that for every woman!

Sue Ritchie is a wife and mother of two children. She is also a speaker and an author.  After a successful career in corporate marketing, Sue set up her own marketing business prior to setting up her life transformation business. She is a double award winning author of the‘Love your Gut – The Practical Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss from the Inside Out’ and  a co-author of the Book of Inspiration for Women by Women, The Book of Soulful Musings, Rise in Pursuit of Empowerment, Dance in the Fire of Life - all global collaborative projects for women to share their wisdom for the benefit of others.