A couple who met after moving to Bali have revealed how they have only eaten fruit for more than three years – and say they ‘feel high’ from their natural diet.
Tina Stoklosa, 39, from Warsaw, Poland, explained how she first discovered the fruitarian diet when she was looking for a pre-Christmas cleanse five years ago.
She said she quickly found she had more energy after trying it for a week, described how she was so happy she ‘felt high’ from her diet.
Two years later, the interior design architect decided to move to Bali to fully commit to her fruitarian lifestyle without distractions from the Western world.
She found that she soon lost weight, going from 13st 1lb to 8st 1lb, and a UK size 16 to an 8, despite struggling with conventional dieting back home.
While in Bali, she met her toyboy fiancé Simon Beun, 26, from Izegem, Belgium, who messaged her after discovering the fruitarian diet himself.
Tina Stoklosa, 39, from Warsaw, Poland, (pictured with a cempedak fruit in Bali) has revealed how she has only eaten fruit for five years, after trying the diet as a pre-Christmas cleanse
Tina met her fellow fruitarian fiancé Simon Beun, 26, from Izegem, Belgium, (pictured with an array of fruit in Bali) after he got in touch with her through Instagram
The couple now only eat sweet fruits, consuming between 2,000 and 4,000 calories a day – while quenching their thirst with fresh coconut water.
They say they haven’t brushed their teeth in two years as the fibre from the fruit cleans them, and claim other benefits include curing depression and other chronic illness.
Tina explained how her fruitarian diet has helped her maintain her weight, after struggling with food.
‘I have been overweight most on my adult life. Engaged in cycles of binge eating and dieting in turn only growing bigger and feeling more helpless with each year. Despite my successful career in interior design I was single at 36,’ she said.
Tina and Simon (pictured together), who now live in Bali, claim there are many benefits to being a fruitarian, including having more energy
Simon (pictured with a durian fruit in Bali) explained how he decided to go fruitarian while training for a marathon, and becoming inspired by a frutiarian athlete
‘Whilst researching a green smoothie recipe for the first time – I found a girl online that only ate fruit, and then I found a whole group of people online eating this way and calling themselves fruitarians.
‘The vast majority of them looked incredibly healthy, and had so much energy they chose to be endurance athletes. I was intrigued, and decided to do a week long pre-Christmas weight loss cleanse on just fruit.’
Tina said she quickly felt the positive effects of eating just fruit, even after just a matter of days.
‘I felt amazing that week – light, optimistic, even high, I was walking 30cm above the ground – it felt like I was in love with everything. This diet was worth it even just for the mental game,’ she said.
‘I decided to never go back to “normal” food. Easier said than done, [and in the] first two years I caved into cooked food hundreds of times.’
However, Tina says her diet has helped her to cope with the weight issues she has struggled with for most of her life.
Tina (pictured showing off her muscles) explained how switching to the fruit-only diet has helped her maintain her weight
Tina (pictured before she switched to a fruitarain diet) explained how she quickly went from 13st 1lb to 8st 1lb, before changing to
‘Since I was a pre-teen and until I was 36, my sole focus in life was getting thinner, the aggressiveness of my pursuit sharpened by the fact that the more I dieted – the more overweight I became,’ she said.
‘I engaged in periods of overeating, purging and restricting for over two decades, stuck in this evil cycle, none the wiser with each rodeo. Eventually I reached over 13-stone which is five-stone heavier than I am now.
‘Not that it matters now – now that the weight is gone for good, I never even think about weight related stuff, which is why I talk about it so seldom. What’s interesting, now that my body has reached its ideal weight, my weight hasn’t changed the slightest in three-years.
‘With little to no exercise I am able to eat as much as my boyfriend – a twenty-six-year-old male – and not gain any weight. Perks of the fruitarian lifestyle? Certainly. Weight maintenance is just so easy on fruit.’
Previously a vegan, Simon said he found the transition to a fruitarian diet an easy one.
He explained how he discovered fruitarian while training for a marathon during his last year of college.
Tina (pictured buying durian fruit from a seller) said the secret to maintaining her extreme frutiarian diet has been getting her favourite fruit of the moment and the best quality fruit at every meal
Tina (pictured buying durian fruit from another seller) said that in her experience tropical fruits are the sweetest and tastiest
‘To get inspired and improve my results I was watching other athletes on YouTube,’ he said.
‘One day I discovered Michal Arnstein, a famous fruitarian athlete, who in his video opened up the truck of his car which was full of watermelon and bananas. “This is what I’m gonna run this ultra-marathon on”, he said.
‘This got me intrigued as he looked amazing, was extremely energetic and always finished the hardest endurance runs in the world in the top three.
‘I was open to all sorts of experiments with my diet health and athleticism, so I went fruitarian overnight.
‘I felt amazing and my running improved so much I never looked back!’
Simon met Tina after finding her Instagram page, which she set up to document her new lifestyle.
Tina (pictured left at 23, and right at 38) says her extreme diet has helped her look younger, as well as helping with her weight loss
Tina (pictured here before she was fruitarian) explained how she had struggled with her weight until she switched to her extreme diet
He messaged her through the social media site, with the pair meeting up in person six months later in Bali, where they fell in love.
The couple say the benefits of the fruit diet are limitless, and they even claim that it can cure cancer, depression and chronic illness.
Despite their high sugar diet, Tina has not brushed her teeth for two years now as the fibre cleans them.
‘The benefits are weight loss, you can eat unlimited amount of fruit every day, increased sleep quality, crazy amounts of energy.
‘Feeling more connected to nature, to yourself and others. Feeling like you are getting younger each day – from a scientific standpoint you are on this diet,’ said Tina.
‘It cures depression, cures so many mental illnesses, relieves anxiety. Cures all chronic digestive issues. There are thousands of personal accounts of people who have cured cancer on this diet.’
Simon (pictured in Bali), who was previously vegan, said he found the transition to a fruitarian diet an easy one
Simon (pictured before he went fruitarian) explained how he discovered fruitarian while training for a marathon during his last year of college
Simon (pictured before he went fruitarian) discovered the all-natural diet on YouTube, and says he’s ‘never looked back’
Despite the claims, doctors have previously warned that a vegan or raw food diet will not cure cancer.
However, Tina said the claims of the raw food diet are numerous, commenting: ‘[There are] huge savings on health insurance, medical care drugs, alcohol, cooking equipment and ingredients, cosmetics – once you introduce minimalism into your diet it spreads onto other areas of your life.
‘The diet challenges everything we believe about food and our culture which is centred around cooking food – so once you’ve broken down that taboo you feel liberated to challenge other ideas that you thought are fixed in our society.
‘When you eat whole fruit the fibre in the fruit cleans out your teeth. I don’t wash my teeth either. When I went for a check-up after three years, the dentist called two other dentists to show my teeth to them – my teeth were in such good condition she couldn’t believe it.
‘But please don’t try this with dried fruit – as this sticks to your teeth and makes them rot.’
Tina and Simon share their fruity adventures in South East Asia on their YouTube channel, Fit Shortie Eats, as they hunt down the most exotic fruits to try.
Tina and Simon fell in love after Simon moved to Bali two years ago. The couple now share their lifestyle on their YouTube channel
The couple explained how they enjoy eating exotic fruits, which they say are the sweetest, including the dragon fruit (above)
Giving her advice for others who want to try the lifestyle, Tina said: ‘A very important part of this is getting our favourite fruit of the moment and the best quality fruit at every meal.’
‘You cannot do this diet on apples if you hate apples, you cannot do it on average quality fruit either as you will not get enough calories or nutrients to feel satisfied.
‘As a general rule tropical fruits are the sweetest and tastiest which is what encouraged our fruit-based travel to the tropics. We travel from one region to the other following the fruit seasons, so far choosing to stay within South East Asia.
‘Sometimes we spend the larger part of the day hunting for fruit. Some we buy with the locals some we forage in the jungle ourselves. There is nothing more exciting than this for us. What we noticed is that the higher the quality of the fruit the better, the more ecstatic we feel.
‘When I eat average fruit, I feel average. When I eat amazing fruit, I look in the mirror and think “who is this amazing person looking back at me?”.’
She continued: ‘If I could just ask you to make one change – eat fruit as your breakfast, you will already feel better. Once you get the hang of it, substitute lunch for just fruit too.
‘If you have serious illnesses to cure or are overweight, consider a fruit-only diet for 30 days and watch the unbelievable results.
‘At the very least don’t consume animals – it is consuming flesh that is the root cause of all disease in this world, everything about our anatomy screams that we are frugivores, which is why people are getting so sick consuming animals.
‘Focus on eating your favourite and top quality fruit every time. Give yourself a couple of years to transition fully to raw vegan, it’s not going to be easy but it’s so worth it.
‘Once you go raw vegan, considering living in the tropics at least part time, and go to fruit festivals, you don’t want to be a loner we want to support you within our fruity loving tribe.’