The Mighty Steph Chung

Dairy free? Gluten free? What the hell does Steph eat anyway?

let’s find out.

Hellooooo beautiful people. I’ve been slacking with the cooking and nutrition lately. It’s just so easy to order seamless every single day bc fuck doing dishes. Can’t think of anything worse than doing dishes. Anyway, this week we’re gonna steer it back to food and nutrition. This post is a bit lengthier than the others but I really find this kind of stuff interesting.

I truly hate the word “diet” because there is this assumption that it’s something that you follow to lose weight, but actually a diet is just the way you eat. The reason fad diets don’t really work is because they’re not sustainable and we are all so different. So one particular type of diet may not work for everyone. I couldn’t think of anyone better than Steph to interview for this particular topic.

Steph is my very best friend & this week happens to be her birthday. Don’t forget to shoot her a birthday message. Steph was born in Hong Kong, but grew up in the UK and eventually made her way across the pond to the US for college. Now she lives [in a beautiful apartment] in downtown Manhattan while managing a busy work schedule as a VP @ Blackstone. *Casually trying to write about Steph without shattering my own self esteem. I mean the woman is a superhero!!* Apart from having a badass job, she is the most active person I know. She is always on work calls or working out! Running, hiking, biking, literally everything else, and of course tennis - which is how we met.

Last year Steph moved back home to Hong Kong for some time and developed a bit of a rash. We had no idea what could have possibly been causing it because she hadn’t drastically changed her diet despite moving all the way across the world. On top of the rash, she had this never ending migraine and she couldn’t sleep. Not to mention that she was working NYC hours while living in HK. Disaster. Anyway, the doctors thought she had mono or some sort of virus but the test came back negative. It was such a stressful time because she was literally so uncomfortable, and she has a relatively high pain tolerance and for her to mention it like that, I knew it must have been really bad. There was literally nothing I could do to help, the doctors really didn’t have much information so she decided to go to a naturopath.

A naturopath is someone who practices alternative medicine, focusing on self healing and non-invasive practices. For the rash, they gave her Poison Ivy and then gave her a food sensitivity test to find out what the heck was bothering her/causing this. The way she explains it is pretty unique so I figured I would leave it whole for you to hear from her directly:

I took the IgG food antibody test – which is a blood spot test that measures antibodies to 100 or so commonly consumed foods. It turns out that my gut was in bad shape (candida overgrowth) and it wasn’t processing food properly. I was also highly intolerant to dairy, gluten, eggs – and moderately intolerant to pea, soybean and surprisingly halibut and tuna. I went on a strict “reset” candida diet for 3 months which meant cutting gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol and coffee from my diet. It was initially a tough diet to follow, but I started feeling the positive effects almost immediately. I got my energy back. My rash went away, there was no more bloating (I didn’t even know this was a thing), my skin was brighter, and my mind clearer, I was also sleeping a lot better. And most magically, 2 weeks in – the chronic soreness in my left knee which I’ve had for over two years went away (I think this is from cutting dairy). I didn’t grow up with any allergies, and always “thought” I ate healthy - learning to eat right for my body was the most important lesson I learnt. Also for the first time in my life – I stopped making excuses and finally learnt how to cook.

So what does a day in the life of Steph look like in terms of meals?

 I typically wake up at 6am, work from 7:30am until around 7/8pm, I workout twice a day before and after work - this is my typical schedule:

First thing in the morning: warm water, multivitamin, and probiotic/superfood supplement (taken alone or in veggie smoothie) – I take Morning Complete or Athletic Greens

• Breakfast (after yoga/workout): Oatmeal with oat milk and coconut oil (I add coconut oil to everything, it helps to keep me full)

• Mid-Morning: Matcha latte with oat milk and coconut oil

• Lunch: Big salad almost always from Sweetgreen

• Afternoon: Acai bowl (berries, oat milk, dates, collagen protein powder)

• Dinner: Tofu stir-fry with cauliflower rice

• Before sleep: Magnesium, melatonin and night tea

The saddest part is that Steph literally survived off of eggs, bananas and sparkling wine up until this point in time so I really had no faith in her being able to maintain this diet. Not only did she maintain this diet for 3 months, but now it’s like month 7 of this new way of eating for her! Absolutely crushing it. Except for when we ate donuts on my birthday and she woke up with “gluten face” (yup, that’s a thing) lmao. Here are some of her favorite healthy swaps to make the diet work.

All of these substitutions are amazing. I don’t need to make these swaps like Steph does but I have found that I like some of them better than the original or traditional item

Except for alcohol. I’ll always be team tequila.

New diets aren’t always fun and a lot of times it takes a long time to see the desired results. I asked Steph what the worst part of this new diet was and definitely going out to dinners and events can be tough since literally everything has gluten or animal products. Such events rarely have vegan or vegetarian options much less gluten free or dairy free items. On the flip side, she mentioned that there are two amazing vegan spots near her apartment that she frequently orders from because she can have almost everything that’s listed on the menu.

“There are gluten/dairy free versions for most foods, even dessert! It just requires better planning, and that’s a small price to pay for good health!”

Sure, the diet is strict, but now 7ish months in, Steph is reaping the benefits like no other. I think that finding the best diet for your body and lifestyle is something magical almost. Everything starts to click and the positive effects trickle into the other facets of your life.

Court-side on Arthur Ashe at the US Open 2019