Recently I met Sumit Nanda, a man who has a very interesting story about his journey to finding sustainable good health. Throughout his childhood, his teens and even his twenties, one health issue kept cropping up after another. As he began developing multiple chronic illness,  he was told, "Your parents have these diseases, so you have them too ... it is genetic."  For a period in time, he believed that there wasn't much he could do about it. He became a daily pill popper but continued to get worse. Fortunately, he came across a solution. Now, he has more energy, better sleep and much better health than in his twenties.  Along the way, he lost an impressive 20kg.  (Scroll down to see his transformation!)

How did Sumit get well?  He followed the ancient principles of Ayurveda, where they respect your bio-individuality.  Based on your body type, they identify what you really need. Applying the belief that food is medicine, he worked with his body's natural circardian rhythms on when to eat and what to eat through the day, looking also at what was available, based on the weather and season. He believes that you can reverse age naturally, along with many age-related illness. He's walking proof.

Sumit isn't the only person proposing that you can reverse age naturally. There are others advocating this strongly too.  Examples include Blue Zone Communities and if you haven't heard of them, you should!  Here's more information about who and what they are.

In 2004, National Geographic teamed up with some of the world's best longevity researchers.  They looked at places where people not only live the longest but also have incredibly good quality of life, practically right to the end.  They were nicknamed Blue Zone communities. Which communities were identified? Barbadia (Sardinia, Italy),  Ikaria (Greece), Okinawa (Japan), Seventh Day Aventists @ Loma Linda (California, USA), Nicoya (Costa Rica) 

One of the results of the documentary, was the setting up of the Blue Zones Project!  What does the project aim to do?  Reverse Engineering Longevity! So, what do people living in Blue Zone communities do?  Nine things: 

1. They eat wisely. Natural, nutrient-dense food that is available to their local communities and eating what's in season. They eat food designed by nature to be be good for them based on different physical demands created by seasonal weather. And yes, there is a strong bias towards plant-based foods.
2. They follow the 80% rule.  This means they eat small meals -- typically till they are 80% full (the Japanese are well known for this).  Often these communities have bigger meals earlier in the day, eating more lightly in the evenings.
3. They know how to "downshift" - they relax and unwind, to manage day to day stress.  They do this through naps, practicing gratitude or having "happy hour" (See point #4)
   
4. They practice wine at 5 - yes, they drink a small or moderate amount of alcohol or wine to unwind, typically at the end of the working day.  They unwind.
5. They move naturally.  They don't consciously exercise, but they use they are physically active as part of every day life, right through advanced years of age.
6. They live with purpose.  They have a reason to get up in the morning.  "Retirement" is often a word that doesn't exist in their communities.
   
7. They create right tribes.  They have communities or groups that support healthy behaviors - from food, to moving, to socializing, to having additional support.
8. They put loved ones first. Beyond having a life partner, giving children time and love, this notion of putting loved ones first, included parents and grandparents. 
9. They belong to faith-based communities.  Attending 4 times a month leads to 4-14 years longer in life expectancy. 

How many of these do you practice?

Coming back to Sumit, many of his eating principles (described on and off camera) mirror the first two points above found in Blue Zone.  You can find out more about Ayurveda and how he got well in the video below.

I am looking forward to hearing more about your thoughts or personal experiences on reversing aging naturally.  Thank you for reading my blog.

#reverseaging #bluezoneproject #longlife #longevity #holisticwellness #ayurveda #EGAjuiceclinic #juicing #circadianrythms #bodytype #ashwaganda #tumeric #moringa #amla #antioxidants #foodasmedicine #foodismedicine #letfoodbethymedicine #hippocrates #naturalhealing #naturaltherapies #curingchronicillnesses #antiaging #anti-aging #goldenmilk #goingoffmeds #glowinggoodhealth #juicefast #howtoloseweight #howtoregainenergy

Many of us believe that eating fruit is good for us.   Rich in vitamins, phytonutrients, anti-oxidants and fiber,  it's a healthier way for most of us to end our meals.   A nice piece of fruit also finds its way into our tummy's as a natural snack. 

But what about fruit juice?  Is it good for us?  And how much sugar is there really in a single glass of OJ? Watch this the vlog and let me what you think!

 #sugarinfruit #fructose #sugarinjuice #howmuchsugar #OJ #orangejuice #freshlysqueezed #fruitfiber #cuttingbackonsugar #diabetes #eatyourfruitwhole

A few weeks ago, I came back from work with two large muffins and a cookie.  The baked goods had been bought from a global, well-known chain of cafes that also sold coffee, tea, quick meals, salads and baked goods.  The food always looked relatively fresh. The muffins were even kept in a chiller and the cookies in a nice old-fashioned glass jar. 

They had been bought at lunch time for the working team, but unfortunately, we were too full to eat them and so I brought them home. 

At 1:30am (yes, I left the office at a very late hour that day), I was looking for comfort food, and decided to have ½ a chocolate chip muffin.  It absolutely hit the right spots for me in terms of taste and texture that night! Yum! I rarely have cakes, muffins and cookies as I am gluten intolerant but as I believe in eating in moderation, and having the occasional treat, I happily went for it that evening as I was exhausted from work and wanted a naughty sugar-and-starch hit!

I crashed to sleep right after, and woke up in the morning. My first thought was, “Oh no, I left the un-finished muffin on the table … I bet it’s teeming with ants by now.  Ugh!” 

​Now, I live in Singapore and in our tropical climate, ants, cockroaches and insects are a part-and-parcel of life.  So, when I walked past the previous night’s half-eaten muffin, I was stunned to find that there wasn’t a single ant in sight nor were there any cockroaches.  Shocking!

So that got me wondering, “What on earth could have been added to the ingredients that even ants and cockroaches no longer recognize the muffin as food?”  

​So the next night, I foolishly decided to eat ½ the cookie and placed the remaining ½ out for the ants to have a feast.  Again, when I woke up the next morning, there wasn’t a single ant or cockroach around the cookie. 

​Now, I was beyond S-T-U-N-N-E-D.  I also started to worry about what sort of chemicals I had ingested when I had eaten that ½ muffin and ½ cookie!
 
In the video at the start of this blog, you see me with another cookie, bought from the same globally established chain of cafes. 

It’s now four nights into my experiment and no ant, nor creepy-crawlie wants to eat it.  I’ve moved that chocolate chip cookie around the house, left it on the floor, near trashcans too but no, they really, really don’t want it.  

What did I finally resort to doing?  I left a crumb directly near a trail of ants.  Any luck?  Well, watch this next short video. 

Besides the expected list of flour, butter/oils, sugar, flavourings etc., are you curious as to what is typically added to common every-day baked goods?  The processed food industry often adds chemicals, which slow down spoilage, preserve textures and of course extend shelf life by preventing mold and bacterial growth. 

A quick google search yielded this list of food preservatives used in baked goods like bread, cookies, cakes, muffins: 

• Butylated hydroxyansiole (BHA) – a waxy yellow solid used to prevent oxidation
• Butylated hydroxytolune (BHT) – white powdery substance added to packaging, fats and oils and is often found in shortening.
• Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA) – retards oxidation as a chelating agent for metals in the food.  

Gosh, I can’t pronounce these words easily --- can you?  If we have difficulty pronouncing our food ingredients, perhaps we should avoid eating them altogether.  

I am now quite curious to see how long the cookies lasts in Singapore’s humid, hot weather.  If you are as curious like I am, please continue to follow my blog to see how long it lasts before it goes moldy!  It’s now four nights since I started the experiment.  Stay tuned for more ... 

Thank you for reading my blog! :)

Most of us mom’s would have become familiar with the term colostrum. What is it you may ask?
Well it’s found in early mother’s milk for newborns. It is baby’s first food and helps baby build its
Immune system. Good stuff indeed.

But did you know that colostrum is no longer just for tots? Indeed, colostrum is now being
packaged as a wonder-supplement for adults. Several years back, it was not a mother, but a
male friend who introduced me to it. “It’s great for your immune system but when I took it, my
skin improved,” he said. Now, that got me intrigued! So besides thinking of it as just baby’s first
food, I wanted to know more. What exactly is in colostrum? Colostrum has over 90 immune
factors (immune cells and antibodies), over 80 different growth factors, a host of proteins and
Vitamin A. So what does all this good stuff do for you and how can you benefit from taking
colostrum?

Here are five reasons to add colostrum back into your life.

1. Strengthening the immune system. According to one study, up to 70% of the immune
system’s cells reside in the gut. Often, when we have a weakened immune system, this
is the result of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Studies have shown colostrum
to be excellent in healing gut inflammation, thereby rebuilding or maintaining a strong
immune system.

2. Improving moods. There are an increasing number of studies linking mood to the gut
response. When we address and heal gut inflammation, this indirectly improves mood by
encouraging the brain to produce dopamine and serotonin.

3. Supporting weight loss. Colostrum has also been shown to help the body turn to its
fat stores for fuel, instead of the proteins in muscles. This can help in weight loss.
Besides this, it has also shown to help stabilize blood glucose levels, leaving one feeling
less hungry and less fatigued.

4. Healing wounds and reducing recovery time. People taking colostrum have been
shown to have faster wound healing. This ranges from cuts to burns. It helps the body
in managing potential infections, thereby reducing inflammation and scarring associated
with the wounds. More athletes are learning about its benefits too in muscle recovery
time. This means that after a hard day’s training, the athletes need less time to recover
from aches or injuries. Interestingly, in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, the Australian
swim team took colostrum supplements and attributed their wins in part to this
supplement.

5. Improving skin. Supplementing the body with colostrum has been shown in studies to
provide the body with more human growth hormones and other growth factors, including
epidermal/epithelial growth factors that prevent skin aging.

So if you like me are now intrigued by colostrum and want to add it to your nutrient plan,
perhaps you could wander down to your local supplement or health food store. It’s usually
available in a capsules. Alternatively, you can find it in a format that resembles milk powder,
which is then added to water.

Lastly, here’s a clip I came across today on colostrum.  Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-36285079

​Thank you for reading my blog!

References:
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colostrum
http://www.secrets-of- longevity-in- humans.com/colostrum-benefits.html
http://www.icnr.org/articles/skin.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515351/

Most of us know that having lemon juice in the morning with water is good for us. Many people drink lemon juice squeezed into warm water, hoping to lose weight.  Other’s believe that it helps to keep the body’s PH level more alkaline, thereby preventing a host of other potentially chronic illnesses.
I started adding lemon juice to my morning water to encourage myself to drink more water each day.  At the time, I really didn’t like the bland taste of plain water.  Lemon juice turned out to be the answer and it’s certainly got me drinking my 6 – 8 glasses each day.

Then I discovered just how good the rind and pith and membranes were for you.  So I found a way to incorporate these into my daily lemon water.  Here are 5 reasons why you really need to be keeping the rind, membranes and pith!

1. The rind is richer in Vitamin C than the juice itself.  So why throw it away?
2. The rind is also rich in phytonutrients, which makes absorbing the Vitamin C even easier.  Some studies show they enhance and prolong the positive action of Vitamin C in our body.  
3. The bioflavionoids in the rind can assist with capillary function.  Some studies found them to be highly effective in preventing and treating varicose veins!  They also have been shown to help athletes recover more quickly from injuries.  Additional studies show that the bioflavonoids have also been shown to help significantly reduce the level of infection for common colds and the flu.
4. The natural fiber from the rind also keeps me full longer as it slows down digestion and keeps more blood glucose levels more stable too.  Pectin in the lemon fibers has been shown to promote weight loss too.
5. The type of fiber in the rind has been shown reduce cholesterol levels – especially the low density lipoproteins (LDLs) which are the bad type of cholesterol for your body. 

Interested in incorporating the rind into your water?  Here's what I do each morning. 

​RECIPE FOR MAKING LEMON WATER
Ingredients: 
1/3 lemon
25 fluid oz of water / 750 ml of water (preferably filtered)

Method
Roughly chop the lemon and remove the seeds. 
Place with a quarter of the water into a blender and blitz for a 1 minute (or less)
Add remaining water and mix.  Enjoy!

If you like additional freshness, you can add more mint leaves into your glass.  
What's interesting about preparing lemon water this way is that the water no longer tastes sour but has a clean, slightly bitter but refreshing taste. I try to drink most of the water by 11 am and if not, I sip it through the day. 

CLOSING TIPS
- Worried that your dentist will disapprove?  Drink this through a straw!. 
- Worried about the residual pesticides on the rind?  Buy organic if you can.  If you can’t look for a natural vegetable and fruit cleanser.  A brand I like is ETLNo.9.  It’s an all-purpose green cleaning formula and I use it on my fruits and veggies at home.   

Thank you for reading my blog. :)

P.S.  I know I was supposed to blog more about eating a range of foods but I hope you don’t mind me going with the flow today.  I really wanted to talk about lemons!  

In my last blog, I mentioned that I had added larger portions of complex carbohydrates to what I ate in exchange for cutting out sugar from my everyday eating.  By doing this, I unexpectedly lost weight.  So in today’s blog, let’s discuss what caused this.

GLYCEMIC INDEX AND GLYCEMIC LOAD
When you consume carbohydrates, your body produces insulin.  And insulin is often nicknamed the “fat storage hormone”.    However, not all carbohydrates are the same and a key difference comes from where they lie on the glycemic index (GI) and the glycemic load (GL) which adjusts for a standard portion size of that food.

Low GI foods, when consumed produce a small rise in blood glucose levels. Your body produces less insulin in response to the lower blood glucose levels.  Conversely, high GI foods produce a higher rise in blood glucose levels. Your body produces more insulin to get the blood glucose level back to its optimal range.  In the latter case, this means more glucose is stored away as fat in the body’s pool of fat cells. 

COMMON MEAL TIME CARBS VS. SNACK TIME SWEETS
What did I do?  Quite simply, I added more meal friendly carbs like potatoes and peas and cut back on snack time sweets and candy. 

While most people would say that this would be obvious, let’s do just a quick comparison to show why this isn’t so straight forward.   

If you look at the table above, it is clear that by volume, I was eating more food by introducing more peas and potatoes versus seven tiny sweets.  However, comparing standard portions of peas and potatoes to the sweets,  the former had generally less carbohydrates than the sweets.  The glycemic index was also lower, as was the glycemic load.   So swapping out my nightly sweets for extra peas and potatoes changed my body’s insulin response.  Therefore, although foods like the potato with butter was higher calories than the seven small sweets, it did not lead to weight gain as one would have expected.

On a regular basis, I ensure that when I have carbohydrates, I combine them with protein, vegetables and oil.  Why is this important? For that, here’s how combining food groups can change the glycemic index of the meal.  Here’s a simple example using potatoes.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE GLYCEMIC INDEX WHEN DIFFERENT FOODS ARE EATEN TOGETHER?

Pure oils and fats, including butter are not on the glycemic index because they do not have carbohydrates.   This also means that when I have the potato with butter or olive oil, the average glycemic index of the meal is lower.  This combination results a slower surge in my blood glucose levels compared to when I have the plain potato on its own.  When I have the potato with the skin, the skin takes a longer time to digest and results in yet a slower surge in blood glucose levels and insulin. The same effect happens when you add protein to your meals.

HOW TO LOWER THE GLYCEMIC INDEX IN EVERYDAY MEALS
When I discovered this, I changed how I ate.  I used to eat mostly carbohydrates and vegetables, and used to restrict the amount of fat in my diet.   Then I started ensuring that nearly every meal I ate contained a fair size of protein, along with some carbohydrates and good quality oils.   While eating a balanced meal is important, I realized that this way of eating would allow me to eat a wider variety of foods and food groups, stay full and not suffer wild swings in my blood glucose levels.

If you are a pasta or pizza fiend, what can you do if you can’t give these up?   If you are going to order the pizza or pasta dish, add a salad with extra roast chicken, turkey, beef or eggs.  Eat a quarter or half at the most of the pasta or pizza dish.  If you are out with friends, share the pizza and pasta.  If you on your own, save the rest of your pasta or pizza for later. 

Here’s an additional example if you like your Asian noodles.  On the days I feel like having noodles and I am out, I usually ask for extra portions of meat, fish and vegetables to be added to the dish and pay extra for these.  Most of the time, I may not finish all the noodles as I have already filled up on the extra protein and vegetables.

Wanted to know the additional benefits of eating this way?  Read my next blog!

Thank you for reading my blog! :) 

Title Photograph:  
Courtesy of Thanksgiving-Stock-Free-Image-08112015-image-182

Additional sources:
https://www.caloriecount.com
http://www.glycemicindex.com
http://ultimatepaleoguide.com/glycemic-index-food-list

​

SO,  WHAT HAPPENS TO HUMAN FAT WHEN WE LOSE WEIGHT?

Did that question stump you?  As someone whose weight had yoyo-ed up and down at different stages in my life, I was really curious where my human fat had gone. 

By the way, the photograph you see of me on the left was taken when I was 30 years old in 2001 at the Spring Ball, while at business school in the US. The me back then dieted often, counted calories and was always worried about my health.  On the right,  you have the "new me",  taken last month: 20 pounds (9kg) lighter and three clothing sizes smaller and eating a lot more without worrying about gaining weight.  

People who knew my in the 1990s don't usually recognize me. When they finally realize that it's Swee Lin, they admit that they no longer recognize me because of how much weight I lost. 

My book, 10 EASY HABITS OF EATING WELL, BEING WELL  is coming out very soon. I do not pretend to be a technical expert or guru in food and nutrition.  What I am is a layman who has researched and read voraciously on a topic which I am deeply passionate about. As a researcher, I can synthesize a lot of information from different sources and share the findings in simple, accessible everyday language.  I wrote the book because people kept asking me what I had done to lose the weight when I clearly eat well and enjoy food.  And no,  I do not go to the gym that often.  I hope that more people can benefit from what I have learnt through the years and tested on myself.  
 
For this blog, I decided to go back to what I enjoy best!  Researching, reading and life-long learning! Having sifted through tons of information when writing this book, I wanted to share a delightful, funny, informative video featuring Biochemist,  Ruben Meerman.   While I was very tempted to summarize the findings, in this case, I didn't want to have spoilers that would distract from the journey which Ruben takes us on. So, please enjoy this clip:  THE MATHEMATICS OF WEIGHT LOSS

​
​

Image courtesy of Flickr


As a teenager, I read voraciously about oils and fats.  At the time, oil/fat was my #1 diet enemy.  Why? Because fat makes you fat, right?   Or so I believed. 

The medical and research community continues to adjust its way of thinking about what is a good fat and what is a bad fat. Here's a  brief recap. 
 
1970s through to early 2000:  mono saturated fats were good for you, polyunsaturated fats were better for you and saturated fats were the worst of the worst!   Examples of oils that are high in mono saturated fats include olive oil, peanut oil and sesame oil. Polyunsaturated fats were fats like soya bean oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oils, rapeseed oil and safflower oil.  Saturated fats were fats that were mostly animal based – lard, butter, ghee (clarified butter) plus any of the solid white or yellow fat found around meats.  A plant based example would be coconut oil.  Quite simply, if the fat solidified itself at in the fridge, it was likely to be saturated. 

Good and bad cholesterol – the basics: Good cholesterol, (HDL) protects against heart disease.  Bad cholesterol, (LDL) causes damage and is linked to heart disease.  When you go for your annual medical checkup, and test your blood for cholesterol levels, doctors also check for your good and bad cholesterol levels and the relative ratio to assess a person’s risk to heat disease.
Monosaturated fats raise HDL and lower LDL.  Polyunsaturated fats, typically the vegetable oils, were believed to be relatively neutral to both types of cholesterol.  Saturated fats on the other hand were believed to increase your LDL and lower HDL – so that was considered doubly bad.
Emerging strongly is a shift in what constitutes good fat and bad fat.  Nearly all research unanimously agrees that monosaturated oils like olive oil are still good for you.   However, what has shifted quite strongly is the perspective on polyunsaturated oils and saturated fats.  The thinking has reversed. 
 
Butter vs margarine?  Which is better?
For years, we were encouraged to give up butter in favor of margarine because butter was bad for you.   The opposite is now being promoted – that butter, especially butter from grass fed cows, is better for you and does not lead to oxidative stress in the heart and arteries.   However, margarine, a polyunsaturated fat that was marketed as a healthier alternative, has been shown to cause oxidative stress and damage to arterial walls.  The same is being found for other polyunsaturated fats such as rapeseed oil (also known as safflower oil), sunflower oil and soya bean oil.
 
Animal fat is okay for you?  Really?
We are also finding out that animal fats, especially from organic sources, are less likely to do us harm than hydrogenated vegetable oils.  So go ahead, it will be alright for you to start having a little of the fat in your beef when eating a good steak. I started eating the fat off my striploin for the last year.   The trick here to eat in moderation but it’s now alright to enjoy a little of this “bad” stuff!

So far, it hasn’t resulted in any weight gain for me.  In fact, because fat takes longer to digest, I stay full for longer.  So guess what? If you give this a try, the good news is you shouldn’t’ be reaching as quickly for your next snack out of hunger!

CLA
Guess what else I have up to in my kitchen?  I can’t believe that I rendering and saving some of the fat in grass-fed beef for cooking!  I’ve another good reason for doing this.  Remember these three letters:  CLA.  They stand for Conjugated Lenoic Acid.  The best and most natural sources of CLA are in grass fed animal fats.  While commercial  sources in the form of supplements are usually derived from vegetable oils, CLA from grass fed animal fats are supposed to be the most effective.   

According to various research reports, the beneficial properties of CLA include weight loss – in other words, eat fat to lose fat! According to a number of studies, CLA is supposed to increase your resting metabolic rate i.e., the rate at which you burn calories, even if you are sitting still or lying down.  Simply put, you will burn more calories while sitting still if you have been consuming CLA. 

Additional studies being conducted are assessing CLA’s hypothesized benefits in improving immune system functions, decreasing heart disease, reducing Type II diabetes risk and allergies, and even improving muscle strength.  I can’t wait to see what these studies find and will share them with you as they emerge. 

Thank you for reading my third blog. :)

1980s and 1990s: 
Stick to a low fat.  Low fat diets, especially those low in saturated fats, prevent heart disease.
Does any of this sound familiar? 

Thus, as I began reading about nutrition and calories in the 1980s, I began my targeting the most obvious culprit: FAT!   I embarked on a “low fat” and “low saturated fat” craze.  Out went full cream milk, full fat cheese, regular stir-fried vegetables, meat, chicken and fish.  “Too much oil, too much saturated fat, too many calories!” I thought.  In came 0.1% low fat milk, low-fat cottage cheese, raw or steamed vegetables (healthy but devoid of flavor), boiled or steamed meat, chicken and fish without added oil or salt. What happened when I ate out? Much to the annoyance of my family, I would ask for bowls of hot water to “rinse off” as much of the oil or sauces.

Guess what? I wasn’t exactly healthy despite these changes.  I fell sick often and my skin, especially on my legs, was dry and scaly.  And my skin didn’t have a healthy glow either.  It looked eerily grey-green-white!  (Years later, a friend of mine would coin the term “corpse grey” for me.)

So what had happened?  I had created a nutritional imbalance in my diet.  I didn’t realize that many essential vitamins, such as Vitamin A, E, D and K, were fat soluble. By removing as much “fat” as I could from my every day eating, I was also not getting the full range of nutrients I needed.  

 
Fast forward to the 2000s: 
Go ahead, add fat back into your diet! 

What a u-turn!  When I first read the articles and the research recommending this, I was in complete shock.  Apprehensively, I went ahead and added a lot more fat back into my diet and stopped worrying about its caloric content.  

​Where did I start?  I began with the oil which was widely believed to have the best benefits: olive oil. Olive oil is a monosaturated oil, which means it lowers your Low Density Lippoproteins (LDLs) a.ka. "bad cholesterol", while it raises your High Density Lippoproteins (HDLs) a.k.a "good cholesterol"! 

At least 2-3 times a week, I add 1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil at breakfast with my eggs and salad. I also use it quite liberally in stir fries, roasted meats and vegetables.  It adds great flavor and the added fat, keeps me full for longer as it takes more time to digest than carbohydrates. 

I was worried that I would gain weight on my “higher fat” diet, but I didn’t.  I was worried that my blood cholesterol levels would change for the worse.  They didn’t.  My good to bad cholesterol ratios improved.  I even tried cutting back on exercise too to see if I would gain weight. I didn’t.

Oh and my skin looks better now!  Would I ever deliberately want go back to eating the “low fat” way?  Absolutely not!  Adding good fat back into my every day eating is just one of my eating essentials. Good fat is good for you. 

Contemplating how best to add more fat into your diet?  Besides olive oil, what fat should you consider? Which are good?  Stay tuned for my next blog. 

Where did this journey to being well begin? 

At 10, while being measured by a tailor for a mouse costume for a ballet performance, I was made aware for the first time that my measurements were not “mouse-like”. I was certainly larger than the other girl-mice in the performance.  It didn’t matter to the tailor that I was 2 to 3 years older than the other “mice”, I just had a large waist according to Madam Tailor.  So the 10 year old in me, sucked in her tummy during measurement taking, only to end up with a tailored costume that looked even tighter on me than it should have.  I looked more like Porky Pig on stage than a mouse.  Looking back, I can see the humor in this! 

At 12, I started one crazy diet after another.  At 12 I stunted my growth.  At 12 I wanted to understand how to lose weight and keep it off.  Unfortunately, I didn’t keep it off. I would lose the same 2 kilos (around 5lbs) and regain it over and over again.  Sometimes, I would gain an extra 2 kilos after I stopped my diet.

As I approach my 45th birthday, my weight and body are stable. I like my size. I like my weight. I like my health.  I am 1.6m tall and generally weight 46-47kg on most days.  I seldom fall ill, even when I am around people who are down with colds and fevers.  I like the surprising amount and wide variety of foods that I can eat – not just salads, but hearty foods like chicken, steak, burgers and fries.   And I enjoy being well.

​If you are interested in finding out how I reboosted my metabolic rate and rebalanced key hormones in my body that now allow me to eat more and much better than I have in years,  follow me on my blog as I reveal what I did and what I do now to maintain my overall well-being.