STORY OF HANK WATT, CO-FOUNDER
My parents met in medical school. My grandparents met in medical school. Up until college, everyone thought that I was going into medicine. But I knew early on that the last thing I'd ever become is a MD.
In my 20s, my parents were diagnosed with cancer 18 months apart. Going through that taught me a lot. You can always look back and say those were the days. But if you don't have your health, you don't have a lot to look forward to.
It was time for me to create myself and I needed to make some changes. I needed to make my health the priority it should have been. I had a lot of excuses why I was 250 lbs and a size 40. It was time to eliminate those and reduce the harm I'd caused.
The thing about being an emotional eater is that you're constantly facing cravings. Will power and self-discipline have nothing to do with it. Sometimes all you can think about is taste. If I was going to succeed, I'd have to forget about controlling the cravings and figure out how to control my taste.
Lucky for me, I had a new friend who had been making healthy food taste delicious for years. His family's restaurant, Planet Raw, was famous in San Francisco, Santa Monica and West Hollywood. If someone could help me, it'd be my friend, Juliano.
Juliano ordered me these red berries I'd never eaten before. I had to try them because they sounded unreal, like the beans Jack used to climb the beanstalk. They promised to turn sour and tarty food sweet! How had I never heard of this?
He made me a super healthy juice and took a sip. He made the bitter looking face. I ate a berry and took a sip. I couldn't believe it - it tasted different to me - it was so sweet! I started making a liter of this juice every day and lost 60 lbs in about 6 months.
Today I'm 170 lbs and a size 32. Now I crave salads and smoothies and my sweet tooth is happy! Juliano and I are raising awareness about the ledidi berry that we now call Nature's Wild Berry. See some reactions and discover new recipes @ instagram.com/natureswildberry