My life story fueled and shaped the way I coach and help men and women to transition from a life of exhaustion and health problems in the hamster wheel to a life where they finally come first. I walked the same road. I cannot tell my story of how I became a coach without going back to my childhood.

I grew up as a happy, energetic, always busy kid in the countryside inspired by a deep love of nature, healhy, natural food and the healing powers of plants and a natural surrounding. Ballet classes and devouring books were also on the agenda. I was fortunate to grow up in a semi-selfsufficient farmhouse my mom, a gifted pianist and my dad, a dentist, bought and restored from the ground up. I felt truly at home there walking for miles in the fields, building camps in the nearby forest and taking care of my little garden, our animals and the little house my dad made for us in one of the sheds where I started making my first food, creating herbal soaps and brewing magical herbal potions which luckily back then I didn’t sell to anyone. I genuinly enjoyed taking care of plants, animals and also people as I was always the one defending and helping friends in need. My mom already warned me: ” be careful, love or you will burn yourself up always taking care of others first”. Of course I didn’t listen.

After the unfortunate divorce of my parents we were forced to sell the house and moved with our mom to a nearby small city. My life completely changed from being in nature to living in a busy community.  I watched my mom working long days and late nights teaching piano in two schools. I later found out she always thought she was a bad mom and felt so guilty as she was always away in the evening leaving us by ourselves. But still she managed to make us dinner everyday. No matter what. She always thought of us first and put herself last. She never really found new love as a result and I remember her being lonely. She too didn’t listen.

During puberty I continued my passion for classical ballet, training at least 5 times a week while combining this with Latin-Modern languages in school, being the lead singer in a band, socially and politically active, babysitting and cleaning to get some extra cash. In ballet I learned how my body worked, how to create a lean, strong body and how to present myself with good posture on stage. I also experimented with other techniques like Callanetics, Martha Graham style, jazz ballet, running and weight lifting. Being active was in my nature.

I eventually went to university and got my master’s degree in Political and Social sciences majoring in public administration… I thought I was going to change the world. As a hobby I started reading everything I could on healthy living and cooking as during college I gained quite a few pounds as my way of living changed.

My master’s degree didn’t turn into an instant career in public administration which would have been the most obvious and logical thing to do. Instead I bought a renowned health food restaurant at the age of 24. That’s where my passion for healthy living, food and also helping and serving people started to take shape. I worked hard 6,5 days a week for 6 years. Halfway I got pregnant and gave birth to my daughter Gina. Motherhood changed me but also burned me out. I was burning the candle at both sides taking no maternity leave and working myself to the bone: literally. I lost way too much weight (don’t envy me for that as I felt exhausted and my brain was clouded), developed a series of health problems and worst of all: I lost about 30% of my once beautiful long hair. Something had to give and I eventually sold my business to try a different lifestyle. I started listening…

I transitioned into health food catering, cooking shows, writing recipes for health magazines and dieticians. l had more time to also dive deep into my health problems which were more serious than I thought they were. Yet, I kept on working. After all, entrepreneurs and ambitious women don’t give up, don’t they? Just until that final crash where I decided that it was time to take a break. I accepted a job at a major city being a project leader for a variety of European Commission funded projects which required a lot of travelling but at the same time gave me the comfort of a steady job, having weekends and opened my view to the world. I learned a lot from working in a large organization (+5k employees) and in politics. In the meantime, I continued to study on health and nutrition and writing as a food writer and hosting healthy food workshops. I also found out that being in a sedentary job, seated almost all day had its impact on my body. I gradually gained quite some pounds, never being fat but still not at all what my body was like before. My body looked flabby and not at all toned. I wanted to do something about it and I started looking for ways to get more activity into my day and developed micro-exercises to perform at my desk and during hour long meetings. It worked. I was on to something.

But once an entrepreneur… I loved my job, but I loved being an entrepreneur and doing my thing more. I quit my job and took a leap of faith to start a new business not quite sure what it was going to be. I wrote a book about my health problems and my hair loss and one of the chapters I called: “Take You Time” which planted the first seed for my method on self-care which was one of the explanations for my health problems and hair loss. I was on to something. And this time I was going to LISTEN.

The book became a product line starting with a high-end handmade hairbrush collection and further shaped my healthy living coaching practice. Running two businesses with passion made me forget again to take care of myself. I also felt horribly guilty that I wasn’t a good mom being an entrepreneur.

Shortly after my book and my product line were out in the world my mom suddenly got ill. It turned out she had a very advanced form of cancer. She died 3 weeks later. At the same time also, my marriage came to an end after a couple of years of ‘trying’ to make it work in a Living Together Apart situation. That year turned out to be my worst year ever where I had all major life events in a short period of time. I buried my mom and my marriage, I sold my beautiful house and at the same time had to clear and sell my mom’s house where I grew up. On top of that my business wasn’t doing that well in the beginning. This time I knew I had to listen, but I thought I could keep on going for a while. I was wrong… I completely burned myself out and compromised my health. I remember bursting into tears one day on a work-related occasion, I had never been so unprofessional. This time I had to press PAUSE for real and the pandemic forced me to stop. It was financially the worse time ever but at the same time the best time to completely RESET. This time I was going to hold on to my promise with regular PAUSE and RESET moments. Because, yes, I too need to remind myself to do that to thrive.

A method was born and 20 years of professional and life’s experience evolved into its current form: TAKE YOU TIME. A 7-pillar method for health and self-care. I believe that self-care is the foundation of good health, healthy weight and happiness. It’s the method I developed for myself finding an easily flowing balance between physical and mental health and pursuing my career.

3 books helped spread the word about my method:

– The complete guide to healthy hair (Het complete boek over haar)

– Walk yourself slim & happy (Wandel je slank en gelukkig) (a BESTSELLER!)

– Move yourself slim & happy (Beweeg je slank en gelukkig)

I work way less than before, my business is thriving and flowing with ease. I enjoy every single day. No more pushing myself to the limit. And the funny thing is my life is better in all areas. Higher levels of productivity, better health, a relaxed mind, healthy weight with ease, …

It all started with taking care of me.

It all starts with YOU too.  

This is how you can press PAUSE and then RESET with me. Don’t worry if you don’t know where those buttons are. I’ll know where to find them and we will press them together… for good.

If you are curious to know more, would like to book me as a motivational keynote speaker at your event, would like to interview me, need a guest-blog or want to work with me as an influencer for your brand or want to work with me as a coach then please send a mail to …