Robyn: So I’m delighted to be here with Michelle Chevalley Hedge who is a nutritionist and actually my nutritionist I’d like to say. I first saw you doing TedTalks and thought who is this amazing woman I just love your food philosophy, you’re an amazing nutritionist and you do have a great approach to food

Michelle: Yeah well first of all thank you Robyn for having me on and secondly i think that I should start off by saying that people who love food are my favourite people. So I love food, I come from a big Italian family so food is everything to us, it’s community, it’s connection, it’s energy, it’s all of those things and more. And I’ve worked really hard at positioning myself as the nutritionist that can build wellbeing or build health without hassle. And I quite often don’t mind when people introduce me as the modern day nutritionist, the one who likes a little bit of coffee and wine, at first I remember being interviewed and being introduced like that, at first i thought *gasp* and then I thought no I’m actually gonna own that space because I believe there’s a way to wellness and to have little fun along the way and I actually think that’s the down fault right now going on in the health industry, people were so fearful that they had to make monumental steps to health and wellbeing, when actually it doesn’t have to be at all, it can just be a series of itsy bitsy tiny micro habits that leads to wellbeing.

Robyn: Yeah, it’s about moderation isn’t it, normalising health not just saying now I’m on a healthy program but your healthy program be your normal day to day.

Michelle: Absolutely, I dislike using the word diet in anything, I dislike using detox in anything because both of those give a sense of deprivation or extreme or faddish type of plays and I to normalise that thing, I don’t want mums to say to their kids, go do this low sugar thing or healthy thing, lets just say we’re doing this thing. Because don’t we all want to sleep better, don’t we all want more vitality, energy, productivity, clear thinking and you know that’s whats true wellbeing is about it’s not about a number on a scale, that number on the scale is a great measure of gravity but it doesn’t measure somebody’s good heart, their purpose all of those things that, the ability to connect with one another, those are the things that define true wellbeing. 

Robyn:  Tell me your views on sugar cause we have way too much sugar.

Michelle:  Yes actually my first book is ‘Beating sugar addictions for dummies’ so I’ve been researching the affects of sugar for 12 years maybe even longer. I’d say if there was one thing, well two things that people could start to embrace and change, it is one to move towards real, whole food, unpackaged and unprocessed. Why? Mostly because real whole food doesn’t contain added sugar and it’s added sugar thats the culprit in so many things, physically and mentally. So when we take sugar in, added sugar and most of us are having six, seven, eight times the added sugar in our diets than what the world health organisation recommends, image taking six times the amount of medication, prescription medication but we’re doing this in sugar, so lets say we’re taking all these added sugars in and all of sudden its in our gut and our bad gut bugs go ‘wow this is great this is fantastic theres a party in my gut’ and we create something called dysbiosis in our gut, a big word but just think like IBS like symptoms, burping, farting, constipation all these kind of things people who have these digestive issues they’re not energised, they’re not full of vitality, but once more its our gut that makes 85% of our serotonin, our happy hormone, the very thing people are seeking when people have anxiety, depression and mood disorders so isn’t that remarkable that it’s created here in our gut not here in our brain. So that’s on big factor around sugar, the other big thing we know about sugar is we go from a high to a low in a matter of 90 minutes, so as high as your blood sugar goes up with a sneaky healthy smoothie or healthy muesli bar as high as it goes up as equal as it drops off and as we drop off people move brain fog, low energy or tiredness or brain fogging, the inability to connect to communicate effectively, but often at that low they’re often that person that wants to bang into a vending machine and hope something pops out because you get a massive sugar craving, so that high and that low isn’t just on a energy perspective, mental perspective, all of those things. Also I could say a million things about sugar but the one thing people don’t understand either is that sugar is really disruptive on our hormones so sugar has a massive impact on our liver the same way alcohol disrupts and creates cirrhosis of the liver, sugar does the same with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease there’ll be a lot about that on the news in the next 12-18 months. 

Robyn: We need to get curious is something you often say to me. And I want to ask you about your own transformation experience with food and just building you know how you resilience yourself on a personal level both mentally and physically. So tell us about your story?

Michelle:  Well I am super grateful for my own mental resilience because recently in the last few years my younger brother passed away from cancer as a result from nine eleven, many of these first responders and my brother Greg was a first first responder and a hero and six foot four and bullet proof dirt at the time and a lot of these young men whether they were firemen, police officers or what not are dying of lung cancer. When he had been diagnosed he had just had two twin babies and even though I live here in Sydney and he lives in New York City, I travelled back and forth every 3 weeks to be the wingman. And I initially said Greg we’re gonna have green smoothies, we’re going to do yoga, we’re going to bark at the moon at midnight. And he said Shelly we’re not going to do anything like that, I’m going to have a budweiser and you’re going to have a cheeky pinot and this is how it’s going to go down, so that’s what brought me to write my book, eat, drink and still shrink, because there is a way to wellness without severe hassle or deprivation and I’m a firm believer that there’s things that we can choose and there’s things that just happen. Like Greg out of the blue being diagnosed, he just thought he broke his rib and the oncologist walked in, they all thought he broke a rib and he said ‘you have three months to live’. So my point in that story is don’t wait till next week to live, don’t till next month, or when the mortgage is done or your child finishes HSC. No, live today, live abundantly and start with small, tiny micro habits.

Robyn: I think that’s great advice, A Healthy View is your company, please tell us a little about what you do apart from your work as a nutritionist.

Michelle: Primarily we started as a nutritional practices where we actually see clients and because i have a strong background working at microsoft, i moved quickly in the corporate wellness area, so i do a lot of corporate wellness, school wellness and speaking in those spaces and I love speaking at corporates because when I’m speaking at CBA, ANZ bank or any of these large corporates, American Express I can say I used to be you, I was the time poor person, who understood the needs of managing a family, as well as hitting KPI’s. So lets talk about a way to wellness without hassles.

Robyn:  Okay lets wrap up with what is your top three tips for a healthy life?

Michelle: Okay Top three how are you going to make me condense them into three, Number 1, Eat real whole food, unpackaged, unprocessed as often as possible, if its seasonal, if its local, if its organic as long as its whole food, thats whats important.  Number 2, when you’re eating that way you’re naturally eating low sugar, but point number two should really be avoid added sugar, natural sugars are fine in your fruits and vegetables. And number 3, hashtag no guilt, this is the biggest thing why are people so guilty and feeling badly about themselves, if you have a bad night, no problem, pick up at your next meal.

Robyn: Just wrapping up I wanna say the thing I’ve taken away from you is to get curious about your health, we all deserve to do that.

Michelle: Absolutely 

Robyn: Thanks Michelle

Michelle: Thanks Robyn