Making a decision to be ‘healthy’ is a choice we can use to personally transform our lives as well as the lives of those we’re responsible for, according to Therese Kerr.
The mother of model Miranda Kerr and former CEO of Kora Organics is on a mission to transform the obesity epidemic and offer ideas for improving our personal health and wellbeing as well as the health and wellbeing of our families.
In an interview with Megan Dalla-Camina in the lead-up to the Sustaining Women in Business conference, Kerr explains how being a “pain in the neck overachiever” has driven some of her life-changing decisions. She’s written books on nutrition and is ramping up her own website as a go-to destination for sharing advice on wellbeing.
Married at 17, Kerr had her first daughter Miranda at 18. Her own mother passed away while she was pregnant. “It was a very challenging time. There’s still not a moment when I don’t think of my Mum,” she says. “It causes you to live life to the fullest when someone so close to you passes away.”
But she realised her tendency to over-achieve came down to proving to her mother that she could be anything she wanted to be. “Now I achieve because I want to achieve and I want to make a big difference. That’s part of my story.”
It’s also a story she hopes other women will come to appreciate. “Women are always trying to be everything to everybody and a lot of the time we forget about ourselves,” she says.
Much of Kerr’s desire to better promote health and wellbeing also stems from a major health scare she had back in 2001 when doctors discovered tumors in her spleen. “That was a major turning point for me. I looked at the whole thing and thought, ‘how on earth did this happen’? I always thought I was fairly healthy.”
After some research, Kerr questioned if the tumors may have been caused not only by what she was putting into her body but on to her body also – especially perfumes – and has since sought to carefully monitor what she consumes and the skin products she uses.
“Health happens by choice,” she says. “It doesn’t happen by accident. You have to choose health these days. There are so many highly processed, highly refined, high sugar content food and highly additive chemical foods out there that impacts our bodies.”
Although Kerr’s had her spleen removed, she says that since changing the way she thinks about health and wellbeing her blood cellular age has improved dramatically and is 12 years younger than her physical age. “I honestly feel like I’m 20!” she says.
She now sees achieving wellbeing as being a matter of nurturing your body and mind. “It’s the physical, mental and spiritual aspects. You can’t have true health without combining all of these,” she says. “That includes being accepting of others and living in the space [knowing] you’re perfect just the way you are.
“I believe each individual is an incredible human being. Find your passion, live it daily and let your little light shine because you have more magic in you than you can ever imagine.”
Kerr adds that all she’s ever wanted for her children Miranda, now 30, and Matty, 28, is for them to be themselves, to never judge themselves or others, and to experience “love, passion, grace and integrity”. She says her entire family is extremely healthy and hopes other households can achieve such outcomes by promoting good nutrition early.
Therese Kerr is speaking at the Sustaining Women in Business conference in October.
Listen to the full podcast with Megan Dalla-Camina by pressing play on the media player below, or listen over at SWB.