We met with Justyna at the Dragonfly cafe, located among picturesque rice fields on top of a hill over Ubud, in the heart of Bali. It was not easy to find the place, the GPS was misleading us, the taxis don’t go there, and if you want to come by scooter, you need to squeeze in between tiny houses. The tourists from the crowded streets of Ubud hardly reach this place, however, we met a lot of people with yoga mats on the way. Several yoga schools are located in this calm area, away from the downtown. You can concentrate on meditation in asanas and then pop in for a healthy, vegan or raw food meal in one of the places like the Dragonfly café.
It is a sunny, hot and very sultry day, over 30 degrees Celsius, early February. A laughing blonde girl with a boy enter the terrace. That’s Justyna and Simon, the couple we know from Instagram. They have been running together the Fit Shortie Eats account for several years.
They describe themselves as Rare Fruits Hunters. They are fruitarians who love to travel and gorge on rare varieties of exotic fruits. They show us tropical landscapes we long for, especially in the middle of the European winter, and halved tasty fruits who often we have never heard of. They convince us that we should surrender to the #fruitmiracle and go on a fruitarian diet.
Crazy about avocado
Why fruitarianism, what was your motivation?, I ak Justyna. I tried to be a fruitarian already when I lived in Poland six years ago. You know, I have always been slightly overweight, she confesses. I have been plump throughout my entire life, I’ve always had additional ten kilos. I’ve been looking for ways to lose weight, trying miracle diets. One day I saw online a girl who was only living on green smoothies. I decided to try myself. Before I started, I was reading for several months all sort of articles, medical opinions, fruitarians’ testimonials, online discussion forums. Finally, I decided to go ahead with it. I was eating only different raw fruits. It was a big challenge. At that time, I was working as interior architect in Warsaw, running from one meeting to another, drinking wine, smoking cigarettes. Still, I managed to eat just fruits for a week. Although I didn’t lose weight, I felt amazing, like never before! As if I fell in love, you know, these first two weeks when you fly 20 centimetres above the ground, or as if you took ecstasy but there was no hangover! A magnificent feeling you never forget. My face looked 10 years younger, I slept well, I was super effective at work. I would do in two hours things that would normally took me eight. I wasn’t hungry!, Justyna recalls with excitement.
This is how it started. Justyna decided that she is not going to come back to the regular diet. For a long time she would eat fruits and, from time to time, something boiled in a restaurant. It was horrible, especially in the wintertime. For months I was doomed to eat bananas and avocados from Biedronka, which was actually killing my social life. New restaurants were opening in Warsaw, meanwhile, I was consuming the fifth kilo of bananas in a week. I knew I had to find the source of better fruits because I wouldn’t be able to live on the ones from supermarkets much longer, Justyna laughs. This is what made me come to Bali.
Read the entire article in the new 21 issue of USTA Magazine. Available here.
text: Monika Brzywczy, photos: Krzysztof Kozanowski
