Somewhere in-between having my three beautiful children I started to gain weight. I can’t really blame it on them; it was me who was eating the wrong foods in between being super mum, studying and working I had gotten to the same weight level as when I was pregnant except now I was fat! and I needed to lose weight 🙁

I remember feeling frumpy and going to the shops was no longer fun when trying on clothes, I was now taking in three sizes as in my mind I was still a size 10-12, but I would take in 12-14 and was horrified I was moving up to 16. I often walked out without buying anything at all as I was determined not to be the next size. Then by the time I got back to the car I would be in a terrible mood and felt like just crying.

I had become confused with all of the different diet programs on offer and I had tried many weight loss programs. I started with diet shakes and meal replacements first they seemed the easy way to lose weight… let me tell you it may be fun for the first two weeks to drink a chocolate shake; the novelty soon wore off when I still had to prepare meals for the family and I found it hard when I could smell the delicious meals I was cooking for the rest of the family.

Then I gave the cabbage soup diet a crack…. I may have lost some weight, but I am never eating cabbage soup again for as long as I live. (If you have ever done this you know what I am talking about)

I think next was the Liver Cleanse Diet thinking this was the answer. I did do this diet for some time but it was obviously not fitting into my young family lifestyle at the time. Back to the drawing board for me. I even started to exercise I was busting my butt putting in all the effort, but it made no difference. I don’t know how many times I felt deflated watching people lose weight but nothing was happening to me, in fact, my weight only increased. I had gotten to the stage… Jo just suck it up this is you, you better get used to it!

It was about the year 2000 I went to a seminar on digestion and metabolism… bang I had my light bulb moment, the penny dropped and it started to make sense why I was struggling to lose weight. I couldn’t wait to get home and make some changes to my current lifestyle plan and implement this new idea.

I put together a healthy eating plan for myself and followed it. Wow…I could see the results within the first week, the kilos where dropping, I was finally losing weight you could not wipe the smile off my face. I was now doing a happy dance when I jumped off the scales instead of being sad and disappointed. My clothes were fitting me better; in fact they were getting looser! I felt so much better and I had more energy.

I could not keep this a secret… I had this easy weight loss plan including normal everyday foods. It made sense to introduce the Back to Basics Healthy Living Program and share it with other people who were also struggling and confused about what to eat to lose weight.

It was really important to me to make the meals family friendly, who has time to make different meals for the family… my one rule was to make the meals family friendly so everyone can enjoy eating together.

Over the years I have helped thousands of people get back on track, not just to lose weight but to improve their overall health and well-being.