Meet Dr Lebogang Masekela, an advocate for awareness, change in habits, and self-love, who was interviewed by the Lifestyle and Tech Team. Dr. Lebogang’s lifelong interest in nutrition, fitness, and weight management began at an early age, as a result of developing eating disorders such as binge-eating and Bulimia. As a result, Dr. Lebogang established Dr. Lebogang’s Nutrition & Wellness to save people from the uncertainty and aggravation of not understanding how to eat properly and to keep them away from the difficulties of poor eating habits and methods of losing weight.
The interview transcript is provided below.
LnT. Who is Dr Lebogang?
Dr Lebogang: I am a Health & Wellness coach based in Ecopark, Centurion. I’m a medical doctor, who specializes in nutrition, weight management and holistic medicine.
LnT: What inspired you to focus on nutrition and wellness?
From a very young age, I’ve always been fascinated with everything “diet” and weight-loss related. As someone who struggled with being overweight all my life, I guess it was inevitable for me to go this route after graduating from medical school. I know first-hand how difficult and frustrating it can be to live a healthy lifestyle or to try and lose weight without the proper tools and knowledge. Initially, I took an interest in studying nutrition and integrative medicine to figure out how to manage my own health issues, but then I quickly realized how much lack of knowledge there was as far as nutrition and wellness is involved. That’s how I decided to start educating people, imparting my knowledge and guiding them to longer, healthier lives.
LnT: What services does Dr Lebogang’s Nutrition & Wellness offer?
Dr Lebogang Our approach is holistic, so the focus of patient management is always 3-fold: we educate the mind, we assess & treat the body, while elevating your over-all health.
We have a variety of services and products at our clinic:
- Nutrition and wellness classes/webinars
- Nutrition books
- Weight management (incl. weight-loss injections & drips)
- Vitamin drips and oral supplements
- Routine health assessments
- Stress management
- DNA testing
- Detox treatments
- Private health talks
- Employee Wellness Programs (EWPs)
- School wellness Programs
LnT: Share a program you have found most effective and beneficial towards one’s health?
Our “Jump-start” Detox Program has had the best results with 99% of my clients, granted that you do it correctly. It’s an intense 2-week detox system made up of 3 Pillars:
- HCG injections
- Nutrition supplements (pills and drips)
- Lifestyle modification or adjustments (diet & exercise)
Dr Lebogang This short-term detoxing phase is recommended for every person who’s starting on a weight-loss journey, or who simply wants to reset their body and optimize bodily functions. It has many positive benefits:
- Helps rid the body of toxins and impurities by detoxifying your liver, kidneys, gut and skin.
- Jump-starts your fat metabolism so you can start burning fat and losing weight.
- Prevents the body from going into “survival mode” (fat storage mode) and resisting to lose weight.
- The sudden boost in energy and vitality, plus the drop in weight is a great motivation to continue with your new-found lifestyle moving forward.
LnT: What would you like people to gain from your nutrition and wellness program(s) that have been set in place?
Dr Lebogang: 4 main points:
- Our diets (nutrition) play a very huge role in our over-all health. You are literally what you eat, so we ALL need to become conscious eaters and mind what we eat!
- “Health & wellness” is a multi-factorial effort. Your mental health and emotional wellness should always be a priority as well, not just your body.
- In the same breath, weight-loss and weight-gain are affected by a number of medical, psychological and lifestyle factors. Diet and exercise being the common factors, but there’s many others major factors like stress, hormonal imbalance, allergies, sleep disorders…amongst others.
- Obesity robs lives! Being overweight or obese, decreases the quality of your life AND it can shorten the length of your life prematurely. 65% of deaths, globally, are related to obesity and it’s complications. It’s a global pandemic. We need to fight for our lives.
LnT :In regards to the brand, “Dr Lebogang’s Nutrition and Wellness”, who is it curated for?
Dr Lebogang : Our main target is black women, simply because we’re the ones with the highest incidence of overweight and obesity rates (compared to men) and we’re also the ones mostly at risk and affected by obesity’s co-morbidities and complications (e.g.: Diabetes and High blood pressure, fertility and perinatal complications).
LnT: Given the current state of the country (The pandemic, Fuel prices, Unemployment etc), what program/method would Dr Lebogang recommend for one to under-go?
Dr Lebogang: Emotional wellness and mental health are often neglected and this can have very negative effects on us. Most people are highly stressed, anxious and even depressed. It’s important to take care of our bodies AND our minds.
Our eating habits tend to change for the worse when we’re going through emotional turmoil. It’s always a good idea to seek professional help whenever you go through life-changing events that cause you stress, depression and/or anxiety. Working through your emotions will help you avoid “eating or drinking your feelings away” with unhealthy, comfort foods or alcohol, which can make you gain unwanted weight and worsen your health.
Our clinic offers “Stress Management consultations” daily, and also group seminars on “Emotional Wellness seminars” on some Saturdays. The aim of these is to assist people work through and deal with their feelings and emotions as stress can have a detrimental effect on your weight and your health in general.
LnT: Do you have anything exciting coming up, that you would like to share with us?
Dr Lebogang: We have a “weight-loss webinar” coming up on the 3rd of September, just in time for spring and for people to start working on their summer bodies. It’s an hour long, from 12:00 – 13:00 at a cost of R250pp. Call our clinic number for any enquiries and bookings.
LnT: Nutrition and Wellness is always perceived as a luxury, what can you tell anyone who thinks that it is a luxury? How can you help them change that mindset?
Dr Lebogang: Nutrition and wellness are the foundation of health so they’re more of a necessity than a luxury. Self-care is the best way to health and as we all know, health = wealth! You simply cannot afford not to care for your nutrition and wellness. If you don’t make time for wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for illness; and treating an illness can be very expensive. Try paying for a few days of hospital admission without medical aid and your whole perspective will change.
LnT: How can Dr Lebogang be contacted?
- Clinic phone no: 078 181 0090
- Call/Text/WhatsApp: 078 181 0090 for appointment bookings
- Follow us on social media:
(Instagram – @drlebogang_nutrition.wellness)
(Facebook: @drbogangnutritionandwellness)
