The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

IS it really possible to change your life completely within the space of just 30 days? Author of the New York Times best seller “It Starts With Food” and Whole30 programme co-creator Melissa Hartwig will tell you how this Thursday.

In a health seminar to be held at the College of the Bahamas’ (COB) Harry C Moore Library from 6pm to 9pm, Ms Hartwig will be the special guest speaker.

The event is being hosted and sponsored by the college’s health coach and founder of ‘Watch Your Mouth’ Sandena Neely and Charles Johnson of G-Fit Performance.

According to their official website, since 2009, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig’s critically-acclaimed Whole30 programme has quietly led hundreds of thousands of people to effortless weight loss and better health, along with stunning improvements in sleep quality, energy levels, mood and self-esteem.

At this week’s seminar, Ms Neely and Mr Johnson also plan to launch their respective health initiatives – Ms Neely’s “Watch Your Mouth – Change Your Life One Bite At A Time” coaching company and Mr Johnson’s health and fitness challenge known as The ONE (Optimum Nutritional Experience). The ONE concept is to use the community as the primary focus of health, fitness, and educational experiences, all built on a solid foundation of real food and healthy nutritional habits.

In an interview with Tribune Health, Ms Neely said she decided to launch her company at the seminar because it is still the beginning of the new year, a time when persons are normally setting health and fitness goals. She said “Watch Your Mouth” aims to help to meet their needs through her coaching services.

“I am a lawyer by day and a health coach by heart. My personal testimony is that I had a 43-pound weight reduction since changing my eating habits through the Whole30; I’ve dropped four dress sizes,” Ms Neely said.

“But much more than that, I feel awesome, naturally energetic. I have the most restful and restorative sleeps than I’ve had in 10 years; my metabolism is back on track; my digestive issues have decreased significantly, and my skin is looking and feeling amazing. The ‘non-scale victories’ have been a testimony in and of itself and I’ve seen positive, life-changing improvements in a medical condition called hidradenitis suppurativa (a chronic skin disease) that I’ve been battling for the past 15 years that caused me to have 11 surgeries and procedures.”

One message she particularly places emphasis on is the fact that Whole30 is about so much more than weight loss. She said it is a nutritional reset to a healthy lifestyle.

“The programme helps you to focus in on what foods are doing to your body and the way you do this is by eliminating certain food groups for a period of 30 days or more in order to see how the food affects your body,” Ms Neely said. “In the Bahamas, we have lots of persons who are plagued with chronic noncommunicable diseases and what they would find is that everything starts with food. There are certain foods that we have in our diet, especially in the Bahamas, that are contributing to some of the problems that we have on a day-to-day basis ranging from low energy, fatigue, indigestion and other digestive issues.”

She said the Whole30 concept helps people to zero in on what their triggers are. This will be Ms Neely’s first time meeting Whole30 co-creator Ms Hartwig and she said she is grateful that the best-selling author accepted the invitation to share her Whole30 knowledge with Bahamians.

In a quote sent to the local organisers, Ms Hartwig said it is always a pleasure to travel outside of the United States and see how people are changing their lives with the Whole30 in other areas of the world.

“I’m so excited to share my personal views on the programme’s background and preparing for your 30 days physically and mentally, and how move past the focus on weight loss to transform your life in unexpected ways in this special interactive event,” said Ms Hartwig.

Kimberley Rolle, director of Athletics at COB, said they are partnering with this initiative because they want to focus on healthy lifestyles over the college year, particularly for the COB community – students, faculty and staff.

“This is a good opportunity to start our series off because we are going to do more of the same in the coming year, whether it is with G-Fit or other entities that we can partner with. It’s a push to really educate our populace about healthy living,” Ms Rolle said. “This event is important because generally we like a fast fix with everything we do verses asking how do we adjust our lifestyles to reflect healthy living. This session on the 19th will really help persons along that way. If they can commit over the 30 day period, it will transform their lives.”