There's this idea that African women are comfortable being "curvy". That they love being Fat and that weight is the last of their worries. In reality, African women are very weight conscious. When it comes to shedding the pounds many of us think of joining the gym and doing strenuous exercises or paying weight loss instructors quite high fees to help us lose weight.

Weight loss is not a complex science, especially if you make the choice to eat well and do light exercises says Tina Nathaniel CEO of Succo Naturale, a company that promotes healthy living and make 100% pure natural fruit juice. Recently I had the honour of speaking with her to understand what weight loss really entails.

According to her certain food and lifestyle choice are responsible for being overweight and making a concious effort to change bad habits and replace them with good habits that will help shed weight. “Many people don’t know that they can lose weight naturally with a proper fruit and vegetable diet I try to let them know that natural fruit and vegetable juices can help meet their dietary needs and promote healthy weight loss”.

Tina who added a lot of weight after having a baby made a decision to lose weight in early 2012 after which she embarked on a weight loss program that started in mid February and ended late march – 5 weeks to be precise. The outcome is an astonishing weight shed of 9kg from 83kg to 74kg. Even her friends were astonished to learn about her sudden weight drop which was both inexpensive and had no side effects whatsoever.

A peep into the life of this young graduate of Agric science from the University of Calabar reveals some ordinary things about her person. She loves to cook like many women, loves reading Christian literature, she also enjoys meeting people and loves fruits and vegetables. This certified Events planner also runs Zalitude an events company that handles venue design and special effects.

So I put it to her that there must be some magic formula in her weight loss program that brought her the kind of results she has achieved or maybe there is something about food that she knows better than most people. Actually all she did was focus on a well researched diet she prepared herself consisting of natural fruits and vegetables, no processed foods e.g pastries and confectioneries, no meat especially and a strict light exercise program which she followed dutifully.

On a parting note I asked for a few words of weight loss advice for Abuja residents, here’s what she had to say “parents should encourage their kids to drink and eat healthy to avoid obesity because it could get worse as the children grow older, a simple meal with your 5 a day (a variety of 5 fruits and vegetables) should be part of our minimum daily dietary requirement to stay healthy. Also people should take more vegetables than fruits because fruits are acidic and can either cause or aggravate ulcers whereas vegetables contain alkaline which our bodies need more. We take in a lot of acids in meat and other foods we eat daily so more vegetable especially carrots, cabbage, garden egg and so on is good for the body”. On what composition of fruits and vegetables, “85% vegetables and 15% fruits but also exercise is important”.

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