What does your eating pattern look like?
“For three years now, my eating pattern has been completely focused on balance. I eat very varied and my diet mainly consists of a lot of raw fruit and vegetables. I really like that. I also just eat bread and I sometimes alternate that with crackers or something tasty like banana pancakes. Sometimes I go for a vegan meal and on other days I eat meat again. I think it’s important to get a little bit of everything.”
“So I actually eat an intensely healthy and balanced diet, but I also like chips sometimes. Yes, I’m still a woman and I also have a week like that every month, haha! So yes, I really sometimes eat chips or a candy in between. As long as it’s in moderation.”
Are you currently at your target weight?
“Yes absolutely. I currently weigh 56 kilos and I’m 1.65 meters. That’s actually perfect as far as BMI is concerned, but I think it’s much more important to feel good in my own skin.
“When I was pregnant with my youngest child, I gained a lot of weight. That didn’t go away after that and I’ve gotten sicker and sicker ever since. I suffered from rheumatism, eczema, depression, intestinal complaints, stomach complaints, esophagus complaints and so on.”
“Because I have created a balance in my eating pattern and lifestyle, I have lost 24 kilos. I don’t suffer from all those complaints anymore and people now say to me: ‘You look like 34!’”
Do you use any medications or nutritional supplements?
“I try to solve as much as possible with the power of nutrition. Food and herbs are my medicines. I do take supplements to get enough vitamins and minerals.”
What is your golden tip for healthy living?
“Listen carefully to yourself and to your own body. That says it all.”
What is your greatest sin?
“I really love fries and frikandel special. You can really wake me up for that. Nice thick blobs of mayonnaise on the side, delicious! I am and will of course remain a Brabant Burgundian. I don’t really see it as a sin though. More like a reward, I think.”
How often do you exercise and what do you do?
“I walk for at least 30 minutes every day. I then combine that with meditation. In this way I actually escape the hustle and bustle of my own company and four children.”
“Walking is of course also a very big fat burner. Sometimes I also do yoga or fitness training, but I don’t really have a rhythm. And the housework can also be a good workout!”
Do you find yourself inspiring others with this?
“Yes, there are people who say: ‘I want what you do too!’ And then I tell them to just do it. They often have difficulty with such a major change at first. When they finally do, they say, “I should have done it sooner; I feel so good.’”
“But I also often get negative reactions. For example, people sometimes say that they would rather not go out for dinner with a rabbit. It is also sometimes said that my lifestyle resembles an eating disorder. Well, I can tell you, I’ve had those in the past. My lowest point was 46 kilos. I had anorexia at the time and I just don’t want to go back to that.
“Especially people who already knew me during my eating disorder quickly become concerned when they see me busy with my lifestyle. But this really isn’t an eating disorder; this is purely taking care of yourself.”
“I overcame that eating disorder on my own. My environment told me to just start eating more. I don’t think they understood that I wanted that too, but that it just didn’t work out. I couldn’t get the food. Finally I decided to go to a magnetizer. He then told me that my heart would fail if I continued like this. That was of course very frightening, so I forced myself to eat, until I gag.”
“With my business I now help many other people who have an eating disorder. After all, I know how difficult it is to get rid of that and how to flip the trigger. In a stressful period you sometimes hear that little voice: ‘Don’t eat that.’ But I now know very well how to deal with it.”
What is your biggest pitfall?
“I don’t actually have any pitfalls, but I think that’s also because I don’t impose anything on myself. For example, I don’t feel guilty if I don’t exercise for a day or if there’s a snack on the table.”
Do your children do the same as you or do you have different rules for them?
“They do the same thing in themselves, but I don’t force a lifestyle on them. I also just have sweets and cookies in my cupboard.”
“My children, except for the youngest, all have their own sport. And that’s not a must either, that’s what they choose. They also love our vegetable garden and we regularly go to the forest; walking and playing with branches. I think that children belong in nature and should not just stay behind the screen of an iPad. But mine are sometimes behind that, you know.”
More about nutritional supplements
Earlier we spoke to nutritionists from the Nutrition Center about nutritional supplements, we wrote about how healthy vitamin pills really are and we answered the question of whether supplementing with vitamin D makes sense.
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