FINDING HER TRUE KETO

Adriana Schourie had been on many diets before she learnt to do keto the healthy way. She has since reached her goal weight and has managed to maintain it.

- SHIREEN FISHER

Now 35 years old, Adriana started her first diet at the age of 11. 'Imagine having such a bad relationship with food, and you're hardly a teenager,' she says. “I didn't know any better, so I'd starve myself every now and again. When I did eat, I'd have big bowl of cheese curls and a slice of cake or ice cream.

'I was broken down as a child - if not by other kids, then by teachers or even strangers who didn't even know me. When I was in Grade 5, a teacher called me Goliath because I was so big. That completely destroyed my self-image.'

Before

Adriana, photographed in 2018, a year that she spent in and out of hospital.

And so began her mission to lose weight. She first tasted success after she got married, with some help from her husband. 'I started calorie counting and jogging on the beach with my husband, who'd met me as a big girl and loved me as a big girl. My weight went from 95 kg to 79 kg – the lowest I'd been in a long time.'

In 2010, Adriana fell pregnant and, eating for two, she gained a huge amount of weight. She thought that breast-feeding would help her shed those pregnancy kilos, but she ended up tipping the scale at 130 kg for almost four months. 'It was during this time that I found out about the Terminator Diet. I saw a woman who'd lost a lot of weight and, looking for a quick fix, I asked her what she'd done. She told me about this low-carb programme where one had to take multivitamins, folic acid and a vitamin B injection.'

After

Now looking and feeling better than ever, Adriana says keto will always be her lifestyle.