One of the keys of any journey is to know its destination. The journey will always be one of faith and the hope of knowing you will reach it. At the beginning of 2016 I decided I was going to get fit and healthy. I joined a gym and started to exercise (without really changing much in my diet). I then had a business opportunity that would move me to Cape Town. This is where the journey of my fitness really started to take shape and certain things opened my eyes to help me on my way to success.

On the 10th of February 2016 I moved my business, my teenaged daughter and myself to Cape Town. I can only say it is a journey that will forever remain part of my life. I joined a gym straight away and kept on moving towards my destination of being fit and healthy. When I look back at how little knowledge I had then, I can only fall back on my belief that when you truly desire a certain goal, the right people and places are put in front of you to help you along the way. Things where slow and I wasn’t seeing much of a difference, so I decided to get help from a dietician. What a wakeup call. There were many tests and when the results came back I was in shock. How did I get myself so unhealthy? As a young person I worked as a fitness instructor and looked after my body and managed what I ate. Over the years, life in general can leave you focusing on many things but the one thing that is most important – your health!

I did very well on the diet , although I found it to be time consuming.  For diets to work you need to stick to them – not always easy. So it was a yo-yo effect of losing and then gaining. Problems began to happen in the business venture and within 1 month I was left without a business and into a civil court case. All the strain began to pile up and very soon I found myself losing focus on my destination. I just knew that staying focused on my own was going to be a battle. I Googled for group fitness classes and found a CrossFit in Hout Bay. Both my daughter and I joined, but after my first class my thoughts were, “I’m too old for this”. I had to remind myself that being fit and healthy is required at any age. As I progressed in the classes it brought back memories of younger years and I began to love the weights and high intensity training as well as the social community that Crossfit offers. I went on to join their winter challenge and moved onto the Banting diet, which was part of the challenge that was before me.

Both my daughter and I can honestly say that not only have we found a training regime that works for us, but also a diet that has changed our life. Banting is more than just a diet, it is a sustainable lifestyle. The process began slowly at first, not losing weight at all, but I kept sticking to the motto “fit and healthy”. I did not want a quick fix but a lifestyle. While training at CrossFit, I met Nicky Perks who gave me the much needed guidance I needed to succeed in my new eating lifestyle. At this stage my head was swimming with many questions that I needed answers for, but Nicky was there to answer them and provide me with information that transformed my thinking of eating. Nicky was interested in my weight loss and through her interest and my interest I have grown substantially over the past year. One of the things I found was as soon as I upped my fat I began to lose the weight.

Prior to Banting I would consume 10 cups of coffee daily with 180ml of milk and 3 spoons of sugar in each cup, bread, more sugar. Learning how many carbs were in the food I was eating was a real eye opener. I had to learn to embrace things that were natural for me to reject, like fat.

The next step was to come off my ppi’s (acid reflux medicine). My first attempt was unsuccessful. My second attempt went much better as I found more natural alternatives to heal my gut. I am now officially off my medication and I have lost a total of 6kgs and dropped 7% body fat. I am much closer now to my destination and I have learnt to stay focused. I am hopeful that the results will keep pouring in.