On the 5th of May the second World War came to an end in The Netherlands. This year 75 years ago. An important day in history, a day to celebrate nationwide.

At this very day we have another celebration going on in our home, our wedding anniversary! Today 23 years ago my husband and I got married in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California USA. We married at the beach, just the two of us and the wedding officer. I would like to tell you a little bit about my husband, my soulmate and best friend for the past 28 years.

I had met my husband in my brothers backyard during a bbq in 1992. A broad shouldered guy (former body builder), curly hair, intelligent and with a great sense of humor. He seemed to have it all! There was one but. He was a heavy smoker, something I didn’t appreciate at all, but as they say, love blinds. So we started dating and it soon turned out that I had found my soulmate. On top of that bliss, my soulmate decided to quit smoking. From one day to another, to never look back again, showcasing his strong willpower and determination! Great successtory it seems, however this quitting of smoking had a major downside. He started gaining a lot of weight. And when I say a lot, I mean something like 30 kilo’s. He became a fat man unhappy with his body and nothing he tried seemed to work.

In the meantime he asked me to marry him and I said yes, wholeheartedly. In all honesty, I wasn’t happy that he had turned into this overweight man, but behind that belly he was still the same guy I’d met five years before, so I trusted that all would be fine in the end. When we got married he was actually at his top weight of 112 kilo’s! He almost didn’t fit into his wedding suit which we had bought a month or so before we left for the USA.

I remember thinking on the day of our wedding “I do hope he will lose weight in the near future”. After returning home he came to a point were he was fed up with his body. He was determined to turn it around. At that time (we talk 1997) there was this Frenchman by the name ‘Montignac’ who talked about separating carbohydrates and fats during meals. This seemed to work and he gave it a try. Next to that he started running, short distances at the beginning, feeling utterly uncomfortable. After three months of sticking to the Montignac rules and exercising he had lost 25 kilo’s!!! He started to feel confident and happy about this transformation and was even thinking of doing a marathon. And he did, in 1998 we left for the USA again. This time for the New York Marathon. He as a participant, me as his pregnant supporter. He finished in 4 hours and 40 minutes.

We continued the Montignac diet up until the moment that we changed our lifestyle to a plantbased one in 2012. During those years he ran countless marathons in different countries. But his interest shifted to doing triathlons. We agreed that he could as soon as we were past the diapers stage of our youngest son (where training for a marathon is time consuming, triathlon training takes up almost all of your spare time). And so he did. He took a swim coach in order learn how to swim properly, bought a bike, dowloaded a training schedule and of he went. He participated in his first Ironman Triathlon in Zürich, Switzerland with me and our four young sons as his biggest fans and supporters. Another 9 Ironman Triathlons all over Europe and the United States followed, with the ultimate goal: qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

My husband is 56 years of age, fitter than ever, slimmer than ever, stronger than ever and more determined than ever to reach his goal. But his discipline, his willpower and his resilience have never changed. Something I am in awe off. I admire and respect him greatly for that. No doubt in my mind he will qualify in the near future! When that moment comes, we will all be there to cheer him to the finish line.

It’s clear that we have plenty to celebrate today. So I prepared this delicious and gorgeous plant based chocolate cake with lovely violets from our own garden. A treat for that special person in my life, my husband, with whom I hope to spend many years to come💞.

Click here for recipe