Salon owner Suzanne Larsen’s health challenges inspired a bold new lifestyle choice. Now balancing a business, a busy family and the country lifestyle, how did calocurb help her lose 13 lb?  

It got the point where I knew I needed a change – for my health, for my family, for me.

In 2017 my husband and two teenage girls moved to a small country town, an hour from the big city. The move was a chance for us all to live a little healthier. A way to swap our sedentary city life for a cleaner, greener, more active lifestyle.

Two horses, two alpacas, three dogs, three chickens, one bird, one cat and a turtle later, and we’ve never looked back. The change was the right one for me and my family, even if it didn’t solve my health problems that inspired the move.

I suffer from hypertension and a genetic condition that affects my blood pressure. As a result, I’ve been overweight all my life.

The doctors tell me I’m a bit of a medical mystery… I’m overweight despite a routine that should suggest just the opposite!

My days start at 5am chasing two very spoilt and pampered horses around the paddock, feeding the menagerie and generally making sure everyone is up and on the move. The 6am commute turns into a full day on my feet at the hairdressing salon I own and run. Working every Saturday as well, I usually spend around 60 hours a week keeping my business humming.  

Okay – I’ll come clean. My diet isn’t great. I really struggle to fit in healthy meals at work and will often rely on quick snacks to get through the day. My danger time is the commute – an hour each way leaves far too much time for potato chips and candy.

And yes, I’ll confess it - I don’t go to the gym. Instead, my Sundays are generally spent outdoors at the girls’ horse competitions, maintaining the land or simply enjoying the country lifestyle we’ve chosen.

Still, 45 lbs overweight? That hardly seems fair.

Like a lot of my friends, I’ve hopped from fad to fad in the attempt to trim down.

Paleo lasted a few months, but making meals work around the salon and my family proved to be a real challenge. I also tried meal replacement powders, but they just tasted terrible! Taking my health and wellness journey to extremes (for me anyway), I even stopped drinking alcohol for six months.

Nothing stuck, and so has the weight.

A month ago, a client suggested I try calocurb. I was sceptical… very sceptical. I’ve been around long enough to see diet fads and wonder pills come and go. I know that a healthy lifestyle starts and ends with the right choices about what I eat and how I use my body. That’s why we moved to country in the first place!

On day one with calocurb, my daughters and I went to our favourite local pizza restaurant. It’s a little ritual of ours and it’s a spot that’s special to us. We each have ‘our’ pizza and so, hot out of the oven, mine arrived. Two slices later, I was done. Comfortably full and ready to say ‘no more, thanks’. My daughters and I still laugh about my ‘moment of clarity’ today.

A month later and I’ve lost 13 lbs.

I don’t put it all down to calocurb – it’s not a magic pill. But it’s been a big helping hand in making better choices about what and how much I eat.

I find I have a new appreciation for what I put into my body and more willpower to resist sugary snacks or large portions – particularly on that long commute home each day. I catch myself looking more objectively at the type of food I eat, taking the time to consider if it’s right for me and, sometimes, just saying no.

What does that mean in practice? I find I’m flipping over the packaging more – reading things like calories, sugar content and ingredients and making choices based on whether they are right for me, not just how hungry I am right there and then.

I know I’ve got a long road to go, most of us do. 5am starts and chasing animals around the property probably isn’t enough exercise for me – and I need to work on that. Likewise, my diet isn’t perfect, but I’m getting there.

Overall, it’s been a great year since we moved to the country, and a great month since I started on calocurb.

I have a renewed sense of confidence that I’ll get there – at my own pace maybe – but I’ll get there.

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