“I didn’t recognise the stressed out, sick person in the mirror,” says Julia, looking back to when the man she had loved for her entire adult life walked away from her. “So, I stopped looking at her.”

Her marriage breakup left Julia literally on the kitchen floor, hurting, depressed and at the start of a seesaw existence between too skinny and too fat. “When it happened, I lost a lot of weight. I went from a healthy size 14/16 to a 12. I was skinny, but it wasn’t a healthy skinny.”

Taking medication for her depression resulted in a weight gain that pushed her right up to a size 20. “I went from being skinny and miserable to fat and happy!”

It wasn’t like Julia – who is one of New Zealand’s foremost Christian music artists – hadn’t tried different ways to lose the weight. “I quickly realised that the food you put in your body affects your mental health as much as the whole journey itself”.

“I’m an early celebrator. So, I’d lose two kilograms and be celebrating – ‘yeah! I’ve nailed it! Now I can chill out!’ And next thing I’ve put it all back on again – I’m not very good at staying the course.”

“When I remarried last year, we had these beautiful wedding photos, but instead of completely enjoying them, I caught myself wishing I was thinner and healthier.”

Having journeyed through a marriage break-up, depression, weight loss and weight gain and a wedding at the beginning of winter, Julia says she was ‘ripe for a healthy evangelist’ of some sort when she came across the ‘Simply Lose It’ concept – three pre-prepared meals a day based on the Low Carb Healthy Fat (LCHF) way of eating.

“I’m not good at staying the course, but three months didn’t seem that long. Plus, a glass of dry white wine, LCHF bread with butter and soups, curries and lasagne – that I could definitely do. I did my research and found that the science is really on the side of this way of eating.”

Julia started on the Simply Lose It programme and loved not having to plan or cook meals for three months. “I didn’t have to think about it for six days a week, and on our one day off I’d do something really simple like salmon and salad.

“For once I felt clear headed. I lost 10 kilograms and once I started eating differently it got easier to start exercising. I discovered hot Pilates, which I really love.”

Now that Julia is off the Simply Lose It programme, it’s been really easy to carry on with the low carb healthy fat way of eating. “It’s a lifestyle, not a life sentence. So, if we’re out I’ll have a burger without the bun – you don’t have to eat like a rabbit to lose weight and be healthy.”

Among the big realisations for Julia is that what you eat affects your mental wellness.

“Your food will change you inside and out,” says Julia. “Food is only one part of the bigger picture, but it’s an important part. For the first time in a long time I’m in a good place, I feel content – most of the time!”

"Simply Lose It is like an educational programme that sets you up for a lifestyle, not a diet. It’s the only weight loss eating programme I know where the objective is to get you off it as soon as possible.” – Dr Caryn Zinn, Dietician, AUT academic and co-author of the bestselling book “What The Fat?”, which presents the scientific case for how to live a low carb healthy fat lifestyle.

For more information about the ‘Simply Lose It Programme’ and low carb, healthy fat way of eating, call Heather Deeble on 021 151 2330, email hello@simplyloseit.nz or visit https://simplyloseit.nz/