Founder of Plant Based Life. Three decades with prostatitis and IBS. Almost 13 years plant-based. Hundreds of clients. One quiet mission: help men get well.
I founded Plant Based Life in 2015 after years of personal training, group fitness, and quietly rebuilding my own health from the ground up. The aim was to help people transition to a plant-based lifestyle, and we still serve that purpose — but the main focus now is coaching men through prostate and gut health using whole-food plant-based nutrition, Pilates, breathwork, and the daily lifestyle habits that most coaches skip.
Alongside Plant Based Life, I work full-time as a qualified Pilates Instructor and Personal Trainer, and I'm also a Food Coach. You can see that side of my work at John Cawley Pilates and Fitness.
I'm based in Australia and work online with men around the country and beyond.
I was diagnosed with prostatitis in my twenties. Then IBS. For more than thirty years, I've lived with both — the kind of conditions that don't kill you, just slowly grind you down and make you feel like a stranger in your own body.
For a long time, I did what most men do: I shut up about it. I went to specialists, took the medications, endured round after round of antibiotics — nothing really helped. I tried herbal remedies too, and quietly assumed this was just my life now. Pain that came and went. The constant low-grade dread of a flare-up at the worst possible moment. For years it affected my moods. I was deeply frustrated, and instead of talking about it I would binge drink to escape — which only caused far more problems. It was a downward spiral.
The worst part was the silence. I didn't know a single other man dealing with this — not because they weren't out there, but because they were like me, and reluctant to talk about it.
About 13 years ago, I did a PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test with my GP, and my PSA level had doubled within six months. That was a big change — it can indicate more serious issues like prostate cancer, although with long-term prostatitis the PSA levels can fluctuate. I had already been transitioning to more plant-based foods, but this made me take it far more seriously. I started reading the research on whole-food plant-based diets and inflammation. Not the celebrity-vegan stuff — the proper, peer-reviewed work coming out of places like the Forks Over Knives community and clinicians like Dr Michael Klaper and Dr Nandita Shah, and many other leading advocates for this lifestyle.
I also gave up alcohol and did several juice fasts and feasts that I found transformational for my health. Around the same time I became a dad — and when my son was born, he became the main reason I wanted to reclaim and improve my health. I want to be well enough to enjoy all the time I can with him as he grows up.
It didn't fix everything overnight. But it was the first time in two decades I'd felt the dial actually move. Less inflammation. Better digestion. More energy. Fewer flares. Within six months my PSA levels had returned to normal, and they've stayed there ever since. Over the next couple of years, as I leaned in further — daily Pilates, taking breathwork seriously, sorting my sleep — the change became undeniable. I went raw vegan for 7.5 years, which was extremely healing for me; these days I eat a mix of raw and cooked foods, but I'm a huge advocate for the healing power of fruit.
I've also learned how important it is to focus on the activities you enjoy in life. We need to get into a flow state as often as we can — fully immersed in what we're doing. For me that's spending time with my son and kicking a ball around with him, and my other great passion, music: I'm a long-time DJ and events organiser, and it brings me enormous joy. Pilates, exercise, breathwork and meditation help me immensely too, and I drop into a flow state every time I teach a class.
I'd already been working as a personal trainer. Slowly, more and more of my clients started asking about the food side, the stress side, the everyday lifestyle side. In 2015 I started Plant Based Life as a way to formalise that work.
Since then I've coached hundreds of people across one-to-one programs, group workshops, retreats, screenings and events. I've worked with people of every shape, age, and starting point.
Eleven years in, I've noticed a pattern: the men I work with are usually the quietest in the room and the most relieved when someone finally talks about prostate or gut health in a way they can resonate with. They've been carrying things they've never told anyone. I was one of those men, and I want to get this information out to everyone who needs it. There's no need to suffer in silence anymore.
1 in 8 men will experience Prostatitis symptoms in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer in men globally. IBS affects an estimated one in seven adults. These are not rare conditions. They're just under-talked-about ones.
So Plant Based Life is changing. Same name, same values, much sharper focus: men's health — specifically prostate and gut — using the four pillars that have actually worked for me and the men I've coached. We're still here to coach all people, both men and women, but our primary focus now is prostate and gut health.
If you're a man reading this and something feels familiar, know this: you're not the only one. You don't have to white-knuckle through it. There's a way to live well, and it doesn't have to involve more pills.
I'm not a doctor. I don't diagnose, prescribe, or replace your specialist. What I do is help you make the lifestyle changes the research backs — and that I've seen work for my own health. I'll always encourage you to keep your medical team in the loop.
I'm a qualified Food Coach, not a clinical nutritionist. For more detailed nutritional advice I work alongside a qualified nutritionist, and I'll refer clients across when their situation calls for it. Where I add the most value is decades of lived experience with Prostatitis — years of research, trial, and practical know-how about reducing inflammation and managing symptoms so men can get on with a normal life. I'm also a Pilates Instructor, Personal Trainer and Functional Movement Specialist, and I teach Oxygen Advantage breathing techniques — I draw on all of these modalities to help clients.
Plant Based Life began in 2015 as a way to share what worked. Workshops, retreats, screenings and one-to-one coaching — a community built around plates, movement, and the courage to actually talk about what's going on.
John is a very knowledgable trainer who helped me achieve my fitness goals. He motivated me and pushed me within my limits so that I got the most out of every session. My progress had stagnated before training with John, but I achieved unprecedented improvements in the 8-week challenge. I received excellent advice about nutrition as well. I would recommend John to anyone looking to improve their fitness.
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