Registered Dietitian Christine

Healthy Selfie Blog by registered dietitian Christine Bou Sleiman (MS RD CLT)

My passion for nutrition and wellness started when I was just 15 years old. I had been suffering from many health issues, including terrible heartburn, gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD), signs of an ulcer and crystals in my gallbladder. I tried so many prescriptions and over the counter medications but nothing would alleviate my ailments. I was tired and frustrated with feeling sluggish and pained most of the time and I was determined to find a way to use food as my medicine. I started reading nutrition articles and books and educated myself as best I could to find a cure that worked. After reading about the benefits of a plant-based diet, I eliminated all meats from my diet and significantly reduced my intake of processed foods. These small tweaks in my diet substantially helped reduce the discomfort I was living with. From that point on, I was convinced that food was medicine and began my lifelong mission to help others recognize what a powerful resource food is to our health.

Health is a state of Body, Wellness is a state of Being.

J. Stanford

Even as a dietitian, after I had my first son, I had fallen victim to retaining that extra 10 pounds between pregnancies. After I had my second son, I was the heaviest I had ever been, I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin and felt tired most of the time. I was bloated after meals and would have occasional bouts of heartburn but could never figure out the root of why I was feeling this way.
Being in the health and wellness industry since 2004, a few of my colleagues that were certified in LEAP had told me all about the benefits of the program and how life changing it was for their clients. Their clients had been suffering from a number of symptoms related to inflammation, digestive issues, migraines, chronic fatigue, etc. I was instantly

Eat Healthy, and Live a healthy lifestyle. Online Diet consultation by Registered Dietitian Christine Bou Sleiman

intrigued by the LEAP program and couldn’t stop myself from entertaining the idea of trying it out myself. I heard about such positive success stories from my colleague’s clients that I knew I had to take the LEAP (sorry, I had to) and give it my all to see just how successful this program would be for someone like me.
Within the first few days of starting my personalized LEAP diet, I noticed just how much better I felt. I didn’t feel the usual bloating after eating every meal and had noticed I had significantly more energy. I lost 30 pounds in 3 months and have kept it off ever since. That was 2 years ago.
Although losing the weight was definitely a plus, I always say to my clients this is not a diet to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely will lose weight, but what I get really excited about is how transformative this program is to your body, inside and out. Aside from the elimination of bloating, heartburn and other benefits LEAP have afforded me, I have lived with Keratosis Pilaris on my upper arms my whole life. This is a skin condition that causes dry, rough patches and tiny red bumps that have always made me so self-conscious about wearing tank tops or exposing my upper arms. Every dermatologist I met with had told me that this condition was hereditary and there was nothing I could do to get rid of it. The only short term ‘remedy’ they gave was to scrub my arms with a loofah and put Retin-A on them to reduce the redness. However, when I started the LEAP program and avoided my reactive foods, it helped reduce the inflammation in my body and the redness on my arms was noticeably reduced. I was so impressed and amazed by how food completely changed my life.
My instincts had always told me that food is the most powerful medicine.I hope that my story inspires you to take the LEAP with me on your life-changing health and wellness journey.