At the start of the new year, many people decide to change their diet – and give up after a few weeks. Health Balance Coach Lea-Martine is not surprised – the topic of nutrition was torture for her for years. Today she wants to help other people on their way.
Health. Nutrition. At the beginning of the year, these two terms waft around us like a gray mist that leads us to fitness studios and health food stores. Resolutions rarely sound really fun. It is precisely these – health and nutrition – that are actually the basis for our whole life. Not just two months a year. That’s why Lea-Martine Lotz has set herself the task of dusting the couple off their old image. “Happy & healthy is the new cool” is the slogan of the health balance coach.
Lea-Martine Lotz has experienced first-hand how nutrition can become an issue of suffering. For years she suffered from numerous allergies, intolerances and histamine intolerance. Until she decided to take her health into her own hands. And holistically. Now she wants to be the person to others who needed her back then. She spoke to BRIGITTE.de about her journey to the right diet – and why we should say goodbye to strict New Year’s diets and calorie counting.
“We always want to take that quick pill and see changes right away. That doesn’t work.”
BRIGITTE.de: Right now, a lot of people are starting to change their diet again. What do you think, what are the biggest mistakes, why such New Year’s resolutions rarely work?
Lea-Martine Lotz: “These are the radical changes. I can understand the motivation that people think, I’ll take my life under control now – but these are quick fixes. We always want to swallow this quick pill and see changes immediately. That doesn’t work, and we’re totally influenced by things that work for others. This ‘what I eat in a day’ social media trend is so toxic. Just because it’s good for Simone doesn’t mean it’s good for me. The important thing is to find a diet that you can implement in your everyday life all year round.”
For example, giving up sugar all year round always sounds like a scary step…
“That’s the problem with New Year’s resolutions: it always has to do with prohibition and renunciation. That’s where we go back into the fight. And as soon as we do that, we’re fighting our body, and that’s a fight we can only lose. Everything we fight we attract like glue. This means that, faster than we can see, we end up back at our unloved starting point. We have to go into acceptance and make long-term, loving changes – and they can only be personal.”
What does loving change look like? And how do I even find out what is good for me personally?
“Take the pressure off. This optimization mania behind it. I think it helps to tune in. A short meditation every now and then. No huge changes, but see what are small things in everyday life that I can change. For example, drinking my warm water in the morning, doing five minutes of breathing exercises, going out for a walk and then always feeling inside: how does that feel for me? Actually, it’s about reconnecting with your own body, seeing it as a friend and understanding its language. is this my way How am I feeling? That means tuning in for me. We have all the answers within us, anything is possible.”
And what tools do you give people who want to find their personal nutrition?
“I recommend a food diary. And it’s not about weighing or counting calories – I don’t do that as a matter of principle, that’s just responsible for us releasing stress hormones. Instead, my questions are: What did I eat and most importantly: how did I do it I felt like it? I can feel it again the next day. That’s the nutrition part, after that I always look at what has happened in recent years and what beliefs and blockages a person is struggling with. So we look at the whole puzzle and not just the individual pieces of the puzzle.”
“I want to be the person I needed back then.”
How did you come to this path? You speak from personal experience, right?
“How I ended up getting my job started much earlier – when I was born, I was a typical allergy baby. You could put me in the paddling pool and I rose up like a little puffer fish. I was allergic to latex, to dog hair, cat hair, horse hair, everything. And it kept getting worse and worse. Until I was 16 and there was a death in the family. That’s when my body snapped. I had circulatory collapse, pain, severe histamine intolerance, allergies, intolerance and non-specific symptoms, so I ran from doctor to doctor. In the end, the only thing that came out was: Yes, I think you’re imagining it. Something was wrong and I didn’t understand what. My turning point came when I was 18. I could hardly eat anything and I knew: I can’t go on like this. I have to change something. I have decided to take responsibility for my health again. From then on everything changed.”
What does this mean? what did you start with
“I tried the vegan diet first. I hated it because meat was one of the few sources of protein I could still eat. But I was like, okay, it can’t get any worse. So I switched to a plant-based diet and first looked: What does my body actually need to survive? Once a week I added a new food that I hadn’t tolerated before.”
You now combine nutrition with mindset. And how did you personally manage to change your mindset? Something like that doesn’t happen overnight.
“I thought to myself: the whole thing has to come from somewhere. So I started to deal with myself, tried to get to the root. I did “inner child” healing, meditation, hypnosis. I got into searched for everything that was good for me in a rush I meditated every morning for a long time. After three months, it was the point where I could eat anything again. That’s when I decided: I have to tell the world about it.”
And how was your business born? You went from being a patient to being a therapist?
“After my studies, I did my nutritionist and mindset coach. And for the last four years I constantly did further training until I started my own business. Then the first customers came and I thought it was so nice to see that my vision from back then worked: I want to be the person I needed back then. A person by your side to help you find a diet that is good for you. And that shows you that you can act.”
Thank you for the interview, dear Lea!