FROM DENIAL TO TRIUMPH

Thanks to a ketovore and carnivore lifestyle, Tertia Botha lost a whopping 65kg and reversed her high blood pressure, fatty liver and type 2 diabetes!

- SHIREEN FISHER

'There comes a point in your life where you’ve tried every diet imaginable, and in my case I started lying to myself,’ says Tertia Botha, a 49-year-old business development manager from Krugersdorp. ‘I convinced myself that I was fine and that there was no need to lose weight. As long as I felt “happy” with myself, nothing else mattered. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t true.’ Tertia battled with her weight for many years, cycling through different diets, each offering a glimmer of hope that quickly faded as the weight returned. At one point she gave up on diets altogether.

She was diagnosed with a host of health issues, including high blood pressure, depression and IBS. And in June 2021 she contracted Covid-19 and became quite ill. She lost her sense of smell and taste, and experienced severe brain fog. ‘Just when I thought I’d recovered, I faced another challenge: about a month after my initial illness, my smell and taste returned in an overwhelming way; everything had an unpleasant odour, almost like chemicals, or a dead animal. I found it impossible to eat meat or eggs, and could only tolerate a limited selection of vegetables. Garlic and onion became off limits. Even to this day I struggle with garlic.’

After her recovery, a string of issues arose, including memory problems and foggy brain. ‘It felt as though my life was unravelling, and I was at a loss to how to fix it. All I knew was that I needed to take action. So I eliminated bread, pasta, rice and most high-carb foods from my diet, and shifted my focus towards healthier eating. I included meat back into my diet because I could tolerate it again, and started eating eggs again too.’