I just love meeting new friends who make positive changes in other people’s lives and who do it from the heart. Karly is a perfect representation of “walk the talk”, yet in her perfectly gentle approach. Karly’s purpose is helping others to change their lifestyles and educating them on all things clean and healthy! She feels, and I agree, that health and fitness bring happiness, more energy and positive energy into our lives.  It sure was an honor to meet with her and interview Karly Kallis of Clean Eating Survival Guide.

Karly’s website and incredible eBooks help others to live a healthy lifestyle and journey, breaking through struggles and spreading the word of health and fitness to those around!

Karly also shares with us one or two fantastic paleo recipes, like her delicious Tahini Slice, and is teaming up with me now to give away her newest eBook to a lucky few!

— Meet Karly!

1. We first met when you asked me to submit recipes to your wonderful Clean Eating Survival Guide compilation cookbooks, Clean Snacks and Clean Breakfast. Where did the idea for your cookbooks and website come from?

The idea to develop a cookbook and start my own website actually came when I was in an unhappy place, working a job that I was not enjoying and was certainly not passionate about. I’m a great believer in creating your own happiness and I knew my passion was helping people with their diet, which was not what I was doing at the time, so every lunch break I had at work, I would work away on my website and cookbook!

2. You are a personal trainer and a self-described “clean food addict”. What has led you to become so involved in health and fitness? 

I first joined a gym when I was 14 years old, when I had body image problems and tried ridiculous ways to lose weight and look “good”. I slowly became addicted to how great it felt to exercise and keep to a good diet and how rewarding being healthy felt. That’s where my journey started!

3. Have you always been into clean eating or was there a transition in your life that made you decide to develop this lifestyle? 

I have always been into “eating healthy” but it has only been the last few years where I have started clean eating, which in my opinion means eating nutritious, whole foods and ditching all your popular diet foods like artificially-sweetened protein bars and diet products. I’ve never felt healthier, and I believe eating clean comes with so many health benefits too!

4. While you are not paleo, you do eat healthy and clean food. What are your diet guidelines and beliefs? 

I have just recently transitioned to the vegan lifestyle, which I’ve found to come with many health benefits. I do however follow some of the paleo guidelines, like avoiding gluten, most grains and processed foods. I also enjoy coconut oil and coconut milk, which is a popular paleo ingredient! My guidelines are pretty basic, and I try to stick with eating whole foods and avoiding sugar and processed foods when I can.

5. What are some of your favorite clean foods and go-to ingredients? 

My favorite clean food would have to be almond butter and my famous ‘goodie balls’ I make up every Sunday for treats during the week. These are also paleo too and pretty much only consist of nuts, dates, cacao powder and sometimes I’ll add some coconut oil. Some handy ingredients I always have on me in the house are – coconut flour, coconut oil, nut milk, maple syrup and some seeds and nuts to nibble on when I am in need of a snack!

6. What made you decide to transition and try Vegan and what have your results been? 

I decided to try out the vegan lifestyle for numerous reasons, mainly because I wanted to include more fruits, vegetables and whole foods in my diet. I train 5-6 times per week and was following the “body building diet” as we call it here in Australia, which basically means eating broccoli, brown rice and chicken for every meal and maybe some oatmeal or eggs for breakfast. I got great physical results from this but I was lacking a lot of nutrients as I wasn’t getting a great variety in my diet. My skin was dry, I had little concentration and low iron. I found when I switched to the vegan lifestyle, I HAD to eat a variety of foods to up my calories since I was not getting my usual calories from animal protein. This has really helped, and I feel the best I’ve ever felt since being on this diet!

 7. As a personal trainer, what are the questions you get from people most often?

I get asked the question “Will weights make me bulk up too much?” quite often from a lot of women.

8. And what are your answers to those questions? 🙂

Weights will change and sculpt your body in a flattering way and should never “bulk you up”. It takes a combination of diet and exercise to bulk up, and doing weights at the gym definitely won’t do this. Weights will get rid of cellulite, sculpt our tummies and give us a beautiful shape so don’t be afraid of doing so!

9. What are some other plans for the rest of 2014?

I have just started my YouTube channel where I will be showing everyone how to make some of my delicious treats as well as providing videos to answer some of the common questions I get asked! I am also designing an active wear line, starting with workout singlets, which is also very exciting!

10. My final question that I love to ask: Is there anything else you’d like to say or add?

I’d like to thank you, Tina, for kindly interviewing me and sharing my nutritional updates and allowing me to share what has worked for me. I know you are Paleo-ish and it means a lot to me to meet someone who also respects other beliefs and shares what works for them on their website, like you do.

I’d also like to share my YouTube channel, which can be subscribed to, as I will be posting my delicious recipe videos there! www.youtube.com/karlykallisxo. Thank you, Tina.

Thank you Karly!!!

From my kitchen to yours,

Tina Turbin

If you have any questions or suggestions just email me at Tina (at) Paleomazing.com.