My Story

Hello! I am Viviane, qualified SAFS Nutrition Coach and certified Metabolic Balance® consultant.

As a small child, food, but particularly the act of cooking, really fascinated me. To this day, I take great pleasure in preparing elaborate meals for my family and friends. I love experimenting with ingredients, and bake my own sourdough bread every week.  I thrive on the feeling of knowing what goes into (most of!) my food, and I care deeply about the food I purchase, where it comes from, and how it’s grown or reared.

Just now I realise how fortunate I was growing up in a time when most of the food we ate was organic and local.  But times have changed, and we’re now living in conflicting times when it comes to food.  It’s the age of lab-made ingredients, nutrition-limiting fad diets, and unscrupulous food manufacturers who skilfully sell us what is essentially junk, marketed as “healthy”.  

I too got sucked in, and when younger (and naively susceptible to questionable health claims) went through phases of buying fat-free only foods; living strictly off my university cafeteria’s salad buffet for weeks on end; cutting out all animal protein without ensuring I was getting enough and proper protein from plant sources; to treating myself to frozen yoghurt with every meal since it was “healthy”.  It didn’t take long for some of my questionable (health) choices to catch up with me. I was first diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes hyperthyroidism, in my early 20s, and then in my mid-30s came the BIG shock.

Over the course of a few days my joints had become so inflamed and achy that I could barely move. The diagnosis: an aggressive form of rheumatoid arthritis, yet another autoimmune disorder. Sitting at the doctor’s office I could hardly believe it. I was young. Non-smoker. Only very occasional drinker. I worked in fitness and was definitely more active than most. I ate a healthy and balance diet (or so I thought). How was this possible?

Naturally, I don’t think that my autoimmune disorders were caused strictly by the way I ate. With disease, there is often more than one factor or trigger in play.  There is autoimmune disease in my family, so genetics played a role. But I would be foolish not to accept that environmental factors, so diet and lifestyle, too, played a key role.

It has been now a few years since I stopped taking my medication for rheumatoid arthritis entirely. While my diet prior to the diagnosis was far from unhealthy, there was definitely room for improvement, and reducing inflammation through what I eat has become my main priority. But food is as much about health as it is about pleasure, so I allow myself everything, and I really mean absolutely EVERYTHING my heart (or rather tummy!) desires. The key is, like with much in everything else in life, moderation.

Easier said than done? Actually, it doesn’t have to be. There’s no one-way to be healthy, and it’s my job to help my clients through the changes that they can realistically make, stick with, and feel really good about.  Because in the end, it’s not a choice between being happy or healthy – they really are the same thing.

I look forward to being a part of your journey into a healthier, stronger and more balanced version of yourself!