In 2009, Dorith was 58 years old. She had been an unsuccessful yo-yo dieter (trying many different diets), battling with her weight for at least 10 years. A typical food day for her was no different to most ‘normal’ people: she started her day with a bowl of a store-bought cereal with skim milk and a coffee with skim milk and sweetener. Lunches were quickly thrown together and usually consisted of a tub of diet yoghurt and some rice cakes with a small tin of tuna. Dorith’s nemesis was her sweet tooth and by the time she got home from work, she would generally be too tired to prepare herself a meal so she would just snack on the bits and pieces that she could find in her kitchen and this generally included biscuits, chocolate and Pepsi Max.

Her world took a dramatic change when she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. From that point on, managing her weight and health became an even more difficult uphill battle for her.

Following her first round of treatment, she hit a further speed bump when she developed lymphedema in her legs, which made it difficult for her to walk and maintain even a low level of exercise. Her weight continued to creep up and her overall health began to deteriorate rapidly, experiencing ongoing pain in her back, hip and legs requiring regular trips to the doctor for treatment of cellulitis and other infections. She was extremely lethargic and had limited energy. Over the next 6 years, her cancer returned twice and she currently remains on long-term chemotherapy treatment to try to beat this disease.

In November 2015, Dorith reached her ‘tipping point’. She knew that something had to be done to change her diet and lifestyle if her health was going to improve.

Knowing her health and diet history, I realised that her body was on fire and was working against her. To be able to transform this, she had to remove from her diet many of her ‘staple foods’ including processed food, wheat, gluten, sugar, soy, dairy, caffeine and alcohol. Instead, these were replaced with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean protein (eg. fish and chicken), and whole foods such as brown rice (not white), quinoa, nuts and seeds. By consuming these foods, she was beginning to allow her body to repair itself, eliminating cravings and increasing her energy.

Dorith found this extremely overwhelming at first, being concerned that not only would she have limited food options, but also the amount of preparation that would be required. However, we worked together to come up with a meal plan with a wide variety of food options. I also showed her some great cooking hacks like preparing her fruit and vegetables as soon as she gets them home before putting them away, and also learning to ‘cook once and eat twice (or even three times)’.

To be able to sustain and maintain this lifestyle change, results needed to be seen, so it was fabulous for her to experience an immediate 2kg weight loss in the first few days. This gave her the motivation to keep going. Four months on, Dorith has now lost an incredible 21kg!!!! A further loss of 4kg will see her at her goal weight, a weight she has not been at for over 15 years!

But it was more than just about weight loss. Dorith’s attitude in general started to improve, and she found herself being more positive towards life overall. This reinforces the strong relationship between mood and food, and how a diet filled with processed carbs and refined sugars has as much of an effect on our mental health as our physical health. Whereas a “clean diet” filled with fresh produce, lean protein and whole grains leaves you feel refreshed and energised.

Dorith was introduced to foods that she had never heard of before and is now enjoying cooking and eating, she is always pre-prepared with her meals, her cravings for sweet foods have diminished and her love for Pepsi Max no longer exists.

Dorith has been amazing through this journey, showing great strength and determination to make long-term changes to her health. She is now reaping the rewards of her hard work and in her own words, ‘today, at 21 kilograms lighter, I feel more energetic, and am now off the cholesterol medication that I had been taking for many years”. Dorith has found a new zest for life, “Keren was my mentor and without her great support and guidance, I would not have been able to achieve what I did!”

Social Media is awash with so called “experts” who give advice on ‘toxic foods’, ‘eating right’, and ‘living right’, and there are just as many other “experts” who then counter-argue against some of these people. It can become extremely confusing for people to decipher what is the right decision to make and what the ‘right’ approach is to leading a healthier lifestyle.

What I have learned so far is that there is no singular “right” diet. No two people are alike, especially when we are looking at people’s metabolism. We need to consider how they respond to stressful situations, and their time and availability to exercise and take time out for themselves. Therefore, people need to trial different eating methods to work out how their body responds and reacts to be able to find the right approach for them.

When it comes to fat loss, it’s all about getting our body to work optimally to burn more energy, rev up our metabolism and making sure you eat the correct nutrient dense foods to support this. However, achieving your weight-loss goal is not just about food, it’s about lifestyle too. You need a lifestyle that will help you become leaner, fitter and healthier.

Although we would like it to be as easy as snapping our fingers to lose excess weight and keep it off, losing weight and keeping healthy takes a lot of dedication. So what is the recipe for a leaner, fitter and healthier life? Eating the right foods, getting regular exercise and making the right lifestyle choices.

Eating cleanly to me represents eating simple, fresh food that I have prepared myself. The food keeps me energised and nourished all day, makes my skin glow, and rejuvenates my cells keeping me looking young.

Below are 3 of my staple daily recipes:

When is a Carb not a Carb? The topic of carbohydrates is very complex; there are so many myths out there about whether or not they should be consumed, that it’s no wonder everyone is confused and unsure of whether they are good or bad for us.

Carbohydrates are actually the single most important food in our diet for long-term good health.

Carbohydrates, in their natural form, contain most of the essential nutrients and specialised chemicals that keep you healthy and increases our metabolism. The problem arises when the majority of the carbohydrates we eat today are refined and highly processed. Our bodies are unable to metabolise these carbohydrates efficiently, and so they have a detrimental effect on our health. They slow down our metabolism and contributing to major diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, dementia and cancer.

Carbohydrates make up the largest food group we consume and there are many different types of carbohydrates. Each type interacts with our genes differently therefore they can have significantly different effects on our metabolism.

We all know that breads, pasta, rice, cookies, cakes and cereals are carbohydrates, but did you know that fruits and vegetables are too? Or that whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds are classified as carbohydrates? These carbohydrates are a MUST to eat if we want to remain healthy as they contain the key ingredient PHYTONUTRIENTS.

Phytonutrients are specifically found in plant food, and the only way they can be consumed is through eating real, whole, unprocessed plant foods. The phytonutrients help switch on genes that help us burn fat and age less quickly. They are a powerful source of anti-oxidants and help to reduce inflammation in our bodies. When carbohydrates are processed, many of their important phytonutrients are stripped away leaving you to consume food that is empty of vitamins and minerals. In other words, food that is just empty calories and of no health benefit.

Fruits and vegetables can be grouped into five different colour categories: red, purple/blue, orange, green, and white/brown. Each colour carries it’s own set of unique disease fighting chemicals. For example, the antioxidants in red fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of cancer and keep our heart healthy whereas the antioxidants in purple/blue fruits and vegetables help protect cells from damage and can also help reduce the risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease.

This is why when we prepare a meal we should endeavour to ‘eat a rainbow’ as not only does it look great but it also provides our body with the best sources of nutrients to maintain long-term health.

Now lets look at the relationship between carbohydrates and insulin. The role of the insulin is to remove the excess glucose so that our blood returns to its balanced level. When we consume carbohydrates that are starchy (eg; potato and corn) or sweet (eg; cake, biscuits, pastries, lollies), they are broken down into glucose (sugar) in your body. The glucose ends up in your blood stream, signalling your body that blood sugar levels have been elevated and for your pancreas to secrete insulin into the blood.

The insulin takes the glucose to our muscles and liver where it is stored as glycogen. However when these glycogen stores are full, the excess sugar is transported by the insulin into fat cells and unfortunately fat cells have an infinite capacity to expand therefore causing you to gain more and more weight, slowing down your metabolism and promoting chronic conditions. This is most apparent when we consume foods (eg. Coke, pastas, breads) that get broken down to glucose quickly signalling a surge of insulin release and potentially no place to store this glucose except for in fat cells.

Not to fear though, certain types of carbohydrates burn more slowly and take longer to turn into sugar in your bloodstream. This keeps your insulin levels at bay and reduces the amount of excess glucose circulating in your blood stream and needing to be stored. These types of carbohydrates come from whole, unprocessed plant foods, specifically those that contain fibre as fibre has the ability to slow down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Fibre acts like a sponge and is able to soak up fat and sugar in your gut and may also prevent some of its absorption. This in turn sends positive messages and switches on the genes that burn fat, increase metabolism and reduce the effects of ageing.

So in summary:

• ​We want to eat carbohydrates that come from whole plant foods and are unprocessed;
• Eating carbohydrates that quickly turn into sugar make you gain weight;
• Choose carbohydrates that are high in fibre (these are usually found in unprocessed foods);
• Include more vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains in your diet;
• Avoid (or at least limit) flour or flour products, refined grains, sugar, processed foods, junk foods and large starchy potatoes.

Ever wonder why sometimes we eat less, exercise more and don’t lose weight?

Food was designed to give us energy. We consume calories so that we will have something to burn, which in turn gives us the fuel to keep going. The calories we ingest from fibre, carbohydrates, protein, fats and nutrients are metabolised at different rates and provide us with different amounts of energy. For example, if you have a soft drink the sugar will enter your bloodstream quickly and the calories you are not using at that time will be stored as fat. However, if the sugar you consume enters the bloodstream more slowly, your body has a greater chance to make use of the calories, meaning more will be burned and less will be stored.

Most of us fit into one of two categories when it comes to food and exercise. We either commit to regular exercise and eating well or we are happy to sit on the couch not caring about what we put into our mouths. But did you know that food contains hidden information that gets communicated to our genes, giving our metabolism specific instructions of what it should be doing. For example:

• Lose weight or gain weight;
• Speed up or slow down the ageing process;
• Increase or decrease your cholesterol;
• Produce molecules that increase or decrease your appetite.

It has been an extremely busy time of the year, with lots of Christmas parties, end of year break ups and of course New Year’s celebrations.

What does this mean? Lots of wining, dining and temptation!

Although we do our utmost to stay focused and on track with our food choices, we undoubtedly at times veer off track a little.

All that food and drink increases the toxins that we ingest and puts additional stress on our liver and detoxification system. But not all is lost, by returning to our roots of clean eating principles we can assist our liver in removing all the additional toxins so that we don’t experience any long term disruptions to our metabolism.

Our detoxification system relies on the right balance of protein, fats, fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients to be effective. Eating the following foods will prime your system for detoxification:

Drinking juices and smoothies are also a fabulous way to increase the amount of nutrients to support your detoxification system whilst giving your digestive system a break.

A couple of good recipes to help you get started are:

Kale and Spinach Juice

Ingredients:
¼ pineapple, peeled
handful spinach
handful kale, washed and de-stemmed
200ml filtered water or coconut water

Method:
Place pineapple, kale and spinach through a juicer and then add water at the end. Alternatively place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. You may want to strain the juicer prior to drinking to remove excess pulp.

Serves 1

Green Gardener’s Bowl

Ingredients:
100g spinach leaves, washed
100g rocket leaves, washed
½ head of broccoli, cut into florets
½ head of cauliflower, cut into florets
½ beetroot, grated
2 Lebanese cucumbers, diced
½ avocado, diced
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
200g lentils, washed and drained
handful cilantro, roughly chopped
handful parsley, roughly chopped

Dressing;
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 lemon juiced
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon raw honey (optional)

Method:
Split the greens in between two bowls.
Prepare broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and cucumbers and spread between the two bowls.
Sprinkle the bowls with pumpkin seeds, lentils and herbs.
Add diced avocado and dressing just before serving.

Serves 2

When you make these recipes, Instagram a photo and be sure to let me know how you go and tag #vitalassurance. Let me know what kind of salad or juice ideas and inspirations you are looking for in your comment.

Enjoy!

In good health,
Keren xX