Q&A with Desiree Lourens:

We sat down with Desiree who placed third in the Women’s Transformation category of our Sleekgeek 8-Week Challenge. We wanted to find out the secret to her success and she was happy to share it with us.

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Please give us a short history of your journey to health and fitness before the challenge.

In 2016, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. With this, I had to start with an intense search on what I had to do to make this as comfortable as possible. Because this is a mental disorder, food was one of the issues. I ate how I felt. And mostly I was not doing so well. It was hard to start eating healthier, but I did. To start is the hard part.

What prompted you to join the Sleekgeek Transformation Challenge?

I had been hearing about Sleekgeek from cousin. She is a team leader at Sleekgeek. I wanted to join, because of her amazing transformation with Sleekgeek.

Give us a quick overview of the nutrition and eating plan that you followed during the challenge.

I am a firm believer in blood type diets and plant based. I cut out most carbs (no bread, no rice, no pasta, no quinoa, no couscous), dairy and sugar. No processed food. I stuck with fresh foods, i.e fruit, vegetables and meat. I used plant based products i.e nut milk (lactose intollerant). I followed an intermitted fasting of only eating 2 meals a day, with one snack between breakfast and lunch, which was usually popcorn.

Give us a quick overview of the training and exercise plan that you followed during the challenge.

I love running and OCR Training. I have been training with a coach for a year now. So, it was a lot of running, strength and stability training.

If you could give 3 pieces of advice to future challengers, what would they be?

Food should be enjoyed. No guilt afterwards. Keep it fresh and processed free.
Never doubt and never give up.
You can do this. You are not alone.

Why should people enter the challenge?

The motivation of losing weight and looking great isn’t all that this challenge has to offer. You learn to see, taste and smell food in a different way. One that does not make you feel worse about yourself, but makes you want to continue. You learn that your body loves exercise, it just needs to take it slow and build up. The most important is the support system. My team was the best. Our leader even more so. We continued to post and support one another. Through the good and the bad times. You build the most amazing relationships with the most amazing people. All with the same goal in mind…to be better and healthier versions of themselves.

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