If we had just two words to describe Sally Obermeder they would be: national treasure.
Time and time again, breast cancer survivor and media personality Sally will candidly recount her gruelling battle with the lethal illness in a bid to combat the devastating impact breast cancer has on Australian families.
And it’s been a monumental almost-12 months for the 44-year-old, with the Obermeder family not only celebrating Sally’s five-years-cancer-free milestone, but they’ve also added another beautiful baby to their brood: now-10-month-old Elyssa, born via surrogate in the U.S.
“Oh, Elyssa,” Sally begins telling us, beaming. “She’s very cute and very smiley!”
Here, the mum-of-two, TV presenter, web-trepreneur and AVON ambassador reveals the mind and body advice she is already beginning to pass on to her eldest daughter, Annabelle, six – and why we all need to take what she’s saying on board.
You are what you eat
After I finished all of my chemotherapy, that’s when I started on green smoothies.
The thing for me then was basically is that my body had been annihilated by all of the treatments and I needed to get better. At that point, Annabelle was a bit under two and I felt like I had a lot of demands me; technically, I was ‘better’, but I was still incredibly sick.
I wasn’t fighting cancer anymore; my body was ruined by all of the chemotherapy and surgeries I’d had.
Every day I will have one, of not two, green smoothies – and Annabelle has been on green smoothies as long as she can probably remember, too. Even though they’re green, she will still have them because they taste yummy!
The secret to getting our kids to eat their greens/drink their green smoothies? [My husband, Marcus Obermeder, and I] don’t make them taste like vegetables (like, adding fruit). We’ll also pop them in iceblocks for Annabelle to enjoy (we spoon-feed them to Elyssa).
But don’t worry – it’s not all green smoothies for Annabelle. Of course, she gets to eat lollies, too!
Love yourself as you love others
I’m really big on kindness – to others and yourself. While I was sick, I was really kind to myself; you’re very obviously going through something so you’re quite compassionate with yourself because things are so obviously tough.
But I have found that the further I have come along from cancer, the tougher my inner-dialogue has become.
I recently asked my sister, Maha: “If you were to write down your inner-dialogue, would you ever say it to anyone else?” The answer? NEVER.
The importance of being kind is something I tell Annabelle a lot; that it’s really important to know that whoever you are is OK. You don’t have to change. THAT’s my big thing with her.
However, it does backfire occassionally…
Annabelle is a REALLY slow eater; it can take her three hours to eat her dinner [laughs]. The other day I said to her, ‘You need to eat quicker?” And what did she say back? ‘I am who I am. I love myself for who I am and that can’t change… [laughs].
