Get to know me / announcement!

Hello! Wowser! It has been a long time since I’ve shared a post that hasn’t been a photo of my food! With this in mind I realised recently that I have been using my account to share my plant based meals for almost 4 YEARS so I thought it may be time I share a little about myself and not just what goes in my gob! So here goes!

My passion for healthy living and plant based eating came after I was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia on my 21st birthday. I went through 6 months of daily intensive chemo therapy and roughly 2 years of maintenance oral chemotherapy. I lost my hair, my weight fluctuated like crazy, I had absolutely no energy and I was miserable. After a while I started to regain my energy and some normality to life. I joined a local gym and got stuck into researching how to properly look after myself. And in doing so I fell down the huge rabbit hole of plant based nutrition and haven’t looked back since. Changing to a plant based diet lifted my spirits and gave me the energy I needed to start living my life to the fullest again. After experiencing the shift in myself, I knew I had to start sharing this with others somehow and thus, A Wholesome Serving was born!

After my body went through so many ups and downs, I have realised that I thrive when I am active. I find it hard to sit still for long periods of time and sometimes find it difficult to have full rest days. Movement is my medicine and I am so grateful to have recently found a place where I can push myself to it’s full potential, work up a sweat and smash out an intense workout with the best bunch of people. If you have followed my feed for a while you would have no doubt heard me talk about Earth to Body gym. “Green Vibes. Strong Tribe. Long Lives” is their motto and I 100% feel aligned to this. Finding this support network has been a game changer for not only my physical health but also my mental health. I’ve made amazing friends, had the opportunity to work alongside owners Chrissy and Adrian on nutrition workshops and honestly cannot rate this community high enough.

I have worked in healthcare for the past 11 years. I started off as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in a Pathology Lab and now for the past 7 years have worked as an Operating Theatre Technician. I’ve had a couple of other part time jobs along the way but somehow keep getting drawn back into what I’m currently doing. It can be a stressful environment to work in but also very interesting as I get to see many different operations and work with lots of skilled professionals.

After high school I got accepted into a photography course, however decided to defer for a year as I didn’t feel I was ready to study again straight away. In that time I ended up getting a job which I enjoyed so I never ended up going back to study photography. Years later once nutrition had become an obsession of mine, I decided to enrol in Uni and got accepted in a Bachelor of Health Sciences where I majored in Nutrition and Food Sciences. I enjoyed Uni as a mature aged student (at 26!). Juggling study with shift work was hard but as I was learning about what I loved it didn’t feel like a drag!

A Uni placement of mine was at a local council where I assisted a staff member (also a plant based dietitian outside of his work at the council) in running a 3 week plant based eating program. Along with some other students/volunteers, I got to do presentations on topics such as what’s included on a plant based diet & the benefits, how to convert your favourite meals to be plant based, virtual supermarket tours and cooking demos. This program is also what prompted me to create my first eBook. We were giving out resources and recipes to participants on loose pieces of paper and it struck me that chances are these papers are going to get lost or thrown away so wouldn’t it be better if they were all neatly put together in a book?! That’s when ‘A Wholesome Serving: The Ultimate Guide to help you transition to a Plant Based Diet’ was born.

All this brings me to my final point. I feel I am ready to take the next step in inspiring others to enjoy plant based meals. Simply sharing photos of my meals isn’t enough anymore, I want to work with individuals one on one and guide them through their transition to successfully adopting a plant based diet. So I’m putting the word out… do you feel like or know of anyone who could use some guidance transitioning to a plant based diet? Are there any PTs or health professionals out there who would like to collaborate or feel their clients could use some assistance with their nutrition? If so, please get in touch with me! I’d love to start getting the ball rolling on the next step of A Wholesome Serving. It may start off as something casual in the beginning as I find my feet but it’s a step I’m looking forward to taking and would love any help or assistance from my supporters! (Scroll for some epic meal inspo!!).

If you got to the end of this, thank you! Please reach out to me with any comments, I’d love to hear from you!

Maxine.

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