A note from the founder of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Joshua Rosenthal: As the founder and primary teacher of the world’s largest nutrition school, I get to meet and teach truly amazing individuals. I am proud to introduce you to Caitlin Padgett, an inspiring example of what’s possible with an IIN education and courage!

Tell us about your life before IIN.
Looking back, it is hard for me to place exactly where I became a person that “drank too much.”
My 20s were fast paced, challenging and for the most part, exciting. I certainly wouldn’t have described myself as someone with a drinking problem. Yet at the end of my 20s I found myself getting a divorce from someone who looked in my eyes and said, “Caitlin, when you drink you disappear.”

And where did IIN come in?
I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I felt a calling deep inside of me that there was a different path to follow, one that was based in true healing rather than bandaids.

I wish that I could say my drinking habits changed then and there, but they didn’t. After another wild night out, I woke up trying to piece together the night before. I was absolutely sick - not only from the hangover, but because I was so over repeating the same pattern. I was already three months into my health coach training program.

And then what happened?

On September 19th, 2013 I vowed I would never be drunk again, and I haven’t been. I also vowed to dig deep, confront long-held pain and trauma, and with the support of IIN, rise above.

I finally decided to dedicate myself full time to healing, learning and growing. I hired my own coach, also an IIN grad, and with her support, the peer coaches and all of the teachers of IIN who I consider to be my mentors, in March 2014 I launched my program to support women who wish to redefine their relationship to alcohol, their bodies and their lives.

And how did your IIN experience transform your life?
I now have a life worth remembering every second of. A life I am excited to live.
Instead of wasting money on cocktails and hazy hungover days- I spend money on delicious, nourishing food and wake up with energy, clarity and enthusiasm. Instead of numbing out stress, anxiety or accumulative shame, I feel and I deal, and I know that I can handle whatever comes my way. And instead of feeling stuck in a job that wasn’t fulfilling - I have created a life for myself that combines my personal experience, passions, skills and talents.

Thanks to IIN, I have stepped fully into myself and created the life of my dreams.

Connect with Caitlin