South Mag South Issue 71 | Page 38

LIFESTYLE CHANGE TIME FOR CHANGE THE NEW YEAR IS ALWAYS THE BEST TIME TO START FRESH AND BEGIN NEW AND HEALTHIER WAYS OF LIVING. THESE PROFESSIONALS MAKE IT THEIR BUSINESS TO KEEP US SOUTHERNERS IN SHAPE BOTH MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY. BY JUSTIN JARRETT H PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREA KINNEAR Even as a 24-year-old graduate student, Claudia Deen couldn’t avoid the dreaded “freshman 15” when she left her native Venezuela to study at Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010. “I had access to all these things when I moved here, things I never had access to n Venezuela,” Deen recalls. “I could go to Kroger and get all these snacks and eat whatever I wanted.” After gaining 16 pounds – a significant amount for her petite frame – and experiencing frequent skin breakouts, she decided it was time to dump the junk food. Almost two years ago, she took the next step and adopted a plant-based diet. When she cut out dairy, the breakouts stopped, and she believes leaving behind meat has helped reduce the symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome, which she 38 S OUT H M AGA ZI NE.C OM was diagnosed with in her early 20s. And despite her concerns about moving to a mostly vegan diet – if you’ve connected the dots from Deen to her famous butter-loving mother-in- law, you’ll understand why it’s only *mostly* vegan – she didn’t experience any setbacks to her distance- running training. In fact, she has completed five marathons since making the move away from meat, and she’s training for another one in Jacksonville in December. “It hasn’t had any negative effect,” Deen says. “It’s been all positive. I just feel good.” Deen feels so good about the life changes she has made that she’s carved out a career helping others do the same. When she married celebrity chef Bobby Deen in 2013 and left her advertising career to return