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PROFILE
“I feel the best I ever S have in my life” Sally Obermeder reveals how smoothies and a sunny disposition helped her bounce back to health after cancer. By Jenny Ringland
ally Obermeder is glowing. At 41, she’s never felt better about her body or her health, and it shows. We could all learn a few things from the journalist, author and blogger, who was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in October 2011, the same month she gave birth to her daughter, Annabelle. “I feel most like myself [now] since being sick, and I definitely feel the healthiest and best I’ve ever felt in my life, full stop,” she says. In fact, Obermeder feels so good, she’s happy to grace our cover in a swimsuit. So how does she feel stripping down to next to nothing for all the country to see? “I feel good. Do I wish I did 1000 more lunges in the lead up? Probably. But that’s OK,” she says.
GOING GREEN
Eighteen months ago, Obermeder started to research ways to fast-track her recovery after undergoing chemotherapy treatment. “I was kind of ravaged from the inside out,” she admits. “I was trying to get well and get better. My energy levels were low, my skin looked sick, my nails had fallen off. I really wanted to feel whole again.” She also wanted to lose the 15kg she’d put on during her treatment. Obermeder’s search brought her to green smoothies, which, although nothing new, hadn’t quite filtered into her world before. “I started [drinking green smoothies] every day and the difference I noticed, and how fast the change [was], blew my mind.” These nutrient-dense drinks are now part of Obermeder’s daily routine. She has a large one for breakfast and a smaller one as an afternoon snack, and is so passionate about them she’s even co-authored a green smoothie recipe and health book called Super Green Smoothies with her sister, Maha Koraiem. “I’m eating more vegetables than I’ve eaten in my life,” she says. “I have tons of energy, and it’s not from having 14 coffees a day.” Obermeder is also now a firm believer in focusing on each moment. “When I get somewhere, I’m focused on what I’m doing,” she says. “I don’t look at emails from anybody else about anything else. If I’m at home with Annabelle and [husband] Marcus, it’s my own time. I try to be really protective of that. “[Previously] I was obsessed with multitasking and felt like I was achieving more, but I found that I was never really anywhere,” she says, adding that she thought this new approach would mean achieving less and being slower. “But because I’m not in this mad juggling state, I’m more efficient, I’m calmer.”
OBERMEDER ON BODY CONFIDENCE IN HER 40S “Look after yourself, eat well and exercise. Then you’re less likely to beat up on yourself. If you’ve done it, you can go, ‘Well that’s cool, I’m doing what I’m supposed to. I’m eating well, I’m having a green smoothie, I’m getting a walk in, I’m going to the gym – that’s all I can do.’ Am I healthy? Yes I am. A little bit of cellulite never killed anyone.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Sally wears: (this page) South of The Border swimsuit; (opposite) Suboo swimsuit; (cover) Duskii swimsuit.
After being given the all-clear from cancer in 2012, Obermeder returned to work in June 2013 as co-host of the Seven Network’s afternoon show The Daily Edition. Around the same time she launched her lifestyle blog, swiish.com.au, which from April 15 will feature an online store. “I was definitely really keen to come back to work – it was a goal that I had to look forward to when I was sick,” she says. “You definitely start to question what you want to do; you realise life is short. It’s not a given that you’re going to make it to 90.” TELE01Z01BS - V1