Kathleen Ebbs is a successful entrepreneur and model/influencer with a purpose and a maturity beyond her years. A girl who actually thinks about what she does, before she does it (sounds simple but if we're honest, this eludes most of us).
Here are 7 reasons she doesn't fit the usual insta-fluencer mould and how she stays healthy.
1. She started her smoothie business at 17
While most of us were out partying and making important decisions like the black skirt or the black skirt to wear out on a Saturday night, Kath Ebbs was getting up early and setting up her Smoothie Bowl Shack market stall (she still runs this) at Glebe Markets every Saturday. Talk about an entrepreneurial spirit! They also do events like music festivals Splendour and Falls.
"I knew school wasn't for me but I didn't want to waste my time. I had the idea of starting a stall at the markets and spent the rest of my time at school getting it up."
2. She gave up alcohol as a teenager
Find someone else who made the mature decision that getting hammered every weekend and smashing yourself into oblivion wasn't for them before their 18th birthday. Go on, we'll wait.
"I didn't want to do that anymore, I didn't see it going anywhere. For me, personally it was serving me less, rather than serving me. If you don't want to drink, be firm about your decision when people ask if you're drinking, and say 'no' in a way that's direct, kind and firm and they won't neg you. If you say it in a way that's not so firm, they'll start trying to get you to drink."
3. She's all about balance
"Health for me encompasses mind body and soul. I eat to nourish and move my body every single day consciously and also focus on my mind and self care. For so long I was caught up in the physical aspect and then I realised that true health was living consciously. So being conscious about what you're putting on your plate and listening to your body but also being conscious of your life decisions like how you treat other people, how you resolve things, whether you choose to listen to people. As well as the products you buy, the companies you choose to invest in. I feel like that all comes under health because health is very multi dimensional and we can get lost in the physical sense of it."
Exercise
"I come from a background of dancing and hard exercise and I do love hard workouts but I'm trying to be conscious of what my body wants and if it doesn't want to go and do 50 burpees then that's okay and I can do yoga. So I do a mix of running, yoga, circuit training and resistance training, about six days a week. One of those days might be a walk, it just depends on what I feel like.
Food
"I really listen to what my body wants cause you hear all these things like "don't have breakfast" or "put butter in your coffee" but I try hard to ignore all that and listen to my body. I stick to a wholefoods diet, so for breakfast it's a smoothie or a smoothie bowl with steamed cauliflower and cucumber, the Beauty Chef Glow Powder, pea protein, spirulina, chia seeds and a handful of berries with almond milk. If it's a bowl I add half a banana and less liquid. Or sometimes I make bread out of seeds so I'll eat that with avocado.
Lunch is a salad with roasted veg and avocado. And then dinner is the same, salad and protein and if I've been active some kind of carbohydrate. Then I always have dessert. Which is dark chocolate or even a smoothie bowl, it's like icecream. If I snack it's on nuts, seeds or bliss balls."
4. She wants to use Instagram for good
"I didn't want to be someone posting photos of myself and not giving anything of value, so I started a health blog too and that formed the base of the content for Insta too. I post recipes and my latest thoughts on things that are important to me."
5. She talks about her anxiety openly
"Mental health is a big thing for me, I've had chronic anxiety for years and it's about learning boundaries for yourself and learning when you need space and when to say no. At the end of the day if you want to spread positivity you have to be in a good frame of mind.
I take self care time every day, and I need to re-energise at night. If I don't get that I find that I'm not in a good headspace, so I have a good nighttime routine and morning routine that set me up. Night: I put my phone down by 7.30/8pm, and try to get into bed by 9.30 and unwind. If I have to go out that's fine but I try and put a cap on that.
Morning: I get up early and meditate and journal. Journaling feels so real, writing it all down helps your rational brain understand what's going on. And then exercise too. I took ages to learn to meditate and I'm no guru, I listen to Gabby Bernstein's guided meditation sometimes."
6. She's ditched chemicals
"I try not to use chemicals at all in my beauty routine, and don't wear make up unless I have to. I feel like skincare is also about what you put into your body. If I'm eating well, my skin looks good too. So natural perfume is a great fit for me and the same with my hair."
7. She's environmentally conscious
"It's an environmental decision not to eat red meat, chicken or dairy. I'm a conscious eater and I make that decision because that's the biggest thing I can do right now. I'm also conscious of my plastic use, I use a keep cup and take my own water bottles around but I'm not a saint all the time. It's a process for me and I'm becoming more aware of what I can do all the time."
