My Early Years

When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with how I looked. I wanted to be slim at all costs. I started working out 4 to 5 times a week. But that was not enough to get to where I wanted, so I entered the world of dieting.

Maintaining my desired weight was always a struggle for me. So I spent most of my young adult life jumping from one crappy diet to the next, trying out fat burning pills, slapping on slimming creams and body wraps, and even starving myself. Anything to look good. I didn’t care about the consequences. What mattered was how I looked.

At a glance, you would have thought that I was a fit, healthy girl. But yo-yo dieting and a lousy lifestyle had started to take its toll on me. I learned the hard way that what matters the most is being healthy, not just slim.

I started having health issues. I was suffering from ocular migraines – It’s a type of migraine that affects the eyes. It leaves you blind or partially blind for about 20 minutes, followed by splitting headaches and a sense of weakness for the next couple of days.

But that’s not all. I was shocked to find out that I had high cholesterol levels and many vitamin deficiencies. I was fatigued most of the time, and I was having issues with bloating, constipation, and allergies.

That was when I realized that health is the most precious thing we have. I could not let my body image jeopardize my health anymore. I needed to change my life, and I needed to get my health back.

My husband, Jeff, was turning 41 at that time. He was also feeling the toll of bad habits and an unhealthy lifestyle. He was suffering from migraines, lack of sleep, heartburn, foggy brain, low energy, and eczema, amongst other things. He was sick of feeling miserable all the time, and like me, he decided to turn his life around.

Then we discovered juicing =)

How it all started.

For his birthday, I bought Jeff a food processor. Not the typical gift you would buy for your husband, I know, but this was actually what he had asked for. Jeff loves cooking, and he is excellent at it. And he also loves kitchen gadgets and small appliances.

But this food processor was extra special. It was THE birthday gift that was going to change our lives.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about this food processor. But the unique thing was that it came with a juicing attachment to make fresh fruit and vegetable juice at home.

We couldn’t wait to try it. Our first juice recipe was apple, carrot, and ginger, and it tasted amazing.

It was totally different from what we were used to buying from the store. It was so flavorful and looked incredibly vibrant, and it tasted so fresh. But most of all, it tasted real!

We were hooked!

We started experimenting with different fruits and vegetables. We searched the internet for various recipes, trying new ones every time.

That was when we learned more about juicing; how to juice, what to juice, the health benefits of juicing, and read endless other articles about it. But what really got my attention was the many testimonials from people that have been using juicing to gain back their health. Juicing made people feel amazing and healthy, and there were claims of people who had actually improved or even reversed certain chronic diseases with the power of juicing.

We figured out that juicing was not just another flavored beverage. It was so much more than that.

Watching the documentaries about juicing like ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ and ‘Super Juice Me’ had inspired and motivated us to start this juicing journey.

We bought our first proper slow masticating juicer, started juicing, and we never looked back.

We started feeling better right away. We were in a positive, lighter mood and felt more energized. We could focus better on work and sleep restfully at night.

My skin and hair felt healthier. My bowel movements became more regular, and the bloating was gone. And over the next few months, the frequency of the ocular migraines decreased from 2 to 3 episodes each month to maybe 3 episodes each year. And I lost a few pounds too.

Jeff’s brain fog was gone, and he felt focused and could concentrate properly. His life-long heartburn had disappeared, and his eczema was getting better and better day by day.

We felt amazing.

This was what healthy people feel like all the time. This is what everyone should feel like all the time.

A Word of Advice

Juicing and a healthy plant-based lifestyle have helped me gain my health back and lose weight. I became so passionate about it that I went on to study juicing in-depth, and now I have a Diploma in Juicing.

If I could give a piece of advice to the 21-year-old me, it would be ‘Do not let the world tell you what you should look like. Take care of your health first, or you will suffer the consequences later. There are healthy ways of losing weight.’

Today my mission is to spread the word about living healthily with the help of juicing.

I also want to inspire people who struggle with their body image. You don’t need fat burners, creams, or endless hours at the gym to be slim AND healthy. What you need is a healthy lifestyle.

You also need to nourish your body with vitamins and minerals which can be easily achieved with juicing.

Your health is the most important thing you have. Treasure it.