I’m Paula, also known as Yogi Bird, a North London girl now happily settled in Leicester since 2001. I share my home with my endlessly patient husband, a handful of rescue hens, and some much-loved rescue furbabies.
Movement has been part of my life since childhood. I was a competitive gymnast, representing my school and county, and I’ve always found joy and freedom in moving my body. Gymnastics led me to yoga, which I once saw as “gymnastics for grownups”, but it soon became so much more. Over time, I realised yoga’s ability to heal, ground, and restore both body and mind.
In 2013, I left a successful but unfulfilling career in sales and marketing to pursue something meaningful. I retrained in group exercise, teaching, dance, and yoga, eventually specialising in women’s health and menopause support, areas that deeply resonate with me.
My own menopause journey has been far from easy. Like many women, I was unprepared for the emotional and physical shifts it brought. It also reignited my long, complicated relationship with food and decades of dieting, restriction, and guilt.
There are many photos of me going way back that tell the story better than words. I was stuck in the “start again Monday” cycle, exhausted and full of self loathing, shame and guilt. I thought weight loss was the answer.
Today, over 50 pounds lighter, I move, eat, and live from a place of self respect instead of self punishment. This isn’t a before and after story about weight. It’s about self compassion, healing, and learning to work with my body, not against it.
This change motivated me to explore nutrition and lifestyle medicine more thoroughly. I am now a certified EIQ Nutritionist and a third-year BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy student. I blend this knowledge with my experience as a yoga teacher, menopause coach, and educator to support women in feeling stronger, happier, and more in control.
Now in my early 50s, I can honestly say I move, breathe, and feel better than I did in my 30s. Not because life is perfect (I’m definitely a work in progress!), but because I’ve learned to listen to my body, and that’s what I help others do, too.
Through nutrition, yoga, and coaching, my mission is simple:
To help women feel at home and healthy in their bodies at every stage of life.
