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
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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