SBS 6 star Wendy van Dijk has walked around with bad skin for years, without knowing exactly where it came from. Eventually she found out. “That’s really important.”
Many people know Wendy van Dijk as a presenter of superficial programs, but she is so much more than that. She is also a health preacher and positivity guru. She has built a whole platform around that, which she also wants to continue when her television career comes to an end, for example now that her husband has stopped as her boss.
Wendy’s quest
It’s Wendy’s passion. “I like the combination so much because I really enjoy my TV work, but if that were to stop, I hope that everything else can continue in this way,” she says in the Weekend.
Health has always been extremely important to Wendy, but she only started to delve into nutrition at a later age. “As I got older, I started my own search for which food suits my body, what I can tolerate and what gives me energy.”
Lactose allergy
That quest has made Wendy a different kind of person. “I think: beauty comes from within and it shows in everything. If you move well and pay close attention to your diet, tailored to what works well for you, you will shine. I used to have skin problems, I didn’t know I had a lactose allergy, just to name a few.”
When you learn things like that about yourself, everything gets better, according to Wendy. “If you find out at a certain point and are good to yourself, by putting on the brakes in time, for example, you will come a long way. Happiness actually means that you know what works for you, that is very important.”
Cottage cheese
And cottage cheeses or yoghurts with lactose? So they don’t work for Wendy. Since she left all that in the fridge, she’s grown a lot as a person. From the inside. And she tries to pass that on to her children. “I have taught them both from an early age: follow your intuition, listen to your gut feeling.”
Her children are now just like Wendy. “I’m not a big fan of ratio, more of feeling. I notice that they have both developed that intuition enormously. That’s how they talk, like, ‘I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right.’”
A bit like what Angela de Jong has with all her programs, so to speak.