Freelee the Banana Girl
Freelee the Banana Girl
Freelee the banana girl, or Leanne Ratcliffe, is an Australian YouTuber known for eating 51 bananas a day. She is also author of an e-book, international speaker and educator, and an online Raw food coach. Together with her (now ex) partner, Harley Johnstone, she created the Raw vegan website 30bananasaday.
Early years
Leanne before going raw vegan
Leanne in a YT video
She grew up on a farm in Queensland, Australia with 6 horses, 2 cows and lots of chickens.
"But like almost all Australians, we were clogged up, undercarbed, dehydrated meat and dairy eaters."
On the farm her family often grew Organic fruits and vegetables and she had a small banana plantation at her doorstep.
"Dad always used to measure our height against the banana bunch and encourage us to eat a banana every time we passed the bunch hanging in the kitchen.
Unfortunately we also drank a lot of milk from our cows and ate a lot of fish, because we lived in a fishing community."
When she was sixteen she started working at McDonald's and feasting there a lot.
"I put on about 10kgs/22lbs, my skin became a hot mess of oily bumps and my health went down the toilet.
But, it got even worse."
She began dating a drug dealer, and with all the free drugs available she became regular user of ecstacy, speed and cocaine.
She became Anorexic and Bulimic, and dropped nearly 20kg/44lbs in one year.
"Becoming a skinny bitch was my new full time obsession, regardless of whether I was healthy or not.
Even though I was now a walking toothpick with anorexia, it was never skinny enough for me.
This period of my life screwed up my health a lot, but one day the shit hit the fan and I finally reached a point where I just couldn’t take it anymore.Even
though I was a personal trainer, I hardly looked the part and my lifestyle was just straight up unsustainable. I
was calorie-restricting and over-exercising like a mofo; I was propped up on stimulants and drugs, and my diet was a train wreck."
Eventually she crashed, quit her relationship and became depressed.
All the weight she had been fighting to keep off piled right back on again.
"I became a systemic candida feeder, and had acne all over my face, shoulders and chest.
I felt gross.
I had chronic digestive issues with foul explosive diarrhea.
My energy was almost completely gone, I felt like a dehydrated sloth on Xanax.
Many mornings I couldn’t even get my depressed ass out of bed, and would make up excuses to my clients, who I was supposed to be inspiring to health!
I was in a hole and suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome."
Changes in life
Leanne's transformation
Leanne's transformation on a raw diet
She decided to change something in her diet, so she had gotten herself off recreational drugs and alcohol, and then she gave up coffee, but the big changes in her life and her health started in 2006 when she came back from a trip to the Greek Islands where she ate all sorts of junk food over there and came back looking and feeling "like a fat depressed blimp".
"My digestion and skin was worse than ever, and I lacked so much balance within myself that I was bordering on suicidal.
As a personal trainer, I was disgusted with myself.
I was meant to be fit and healthy, vibrant and inspiring … I was anything but."
Largely motivated by desperation I started to pull my life together.
Through my work with various clients I realized that exercise was just one aspect of health and optimal nutrition is also a crucial factor when it came to getting great results … and I certainly wasn’t giving it enough attention.
(...) Eventually I was put onto Dr. Doug by my friend Nadia at a raw food picnic and ended up eating bananas only for ten days.
During those ten days I experienced such a massive shift in my health and well-being that I couldn’t go back.
I knew this lifestyle was the answer for me.
After spending thousands of dollars trying different diets like Aurveyda, the Blood Type Diet, The metabolic-typing diet, Atkins … I had finally found my Holy Grail!
I remember one day seeing a Gastrointerologist for 15 minutes, which cost me around $250!
All he could tell me was that my gut was inflamed and that a new drug was coming out soon that would relieve it.
I was SO over it all by then that I just shook my head and walked out."
At the end of 2006 she watched a movie called “Earthlings" and in January 2007 she became a full fledged Vegan, and never looked back.
"I had no idea what really happens in order to bring meat and dairy to our frugivorous bellies.
After waking up to the evil reality, I began to see the ethical side of veganism, and now this is a big part of my life and why I am vegan."
Then she learned how to do the High Carb Vegan lifestyle, and soon her fitness levels began to rise, although her weight fluctuated for the first few years, since she had to go through this healing phase, but then the weight started coming off effortlessly.
Since 2006, she has lost about 20 kilos (about 40lbs) without ANY calorie-restriction.
"I quit being a part time candida feeder and my skin cleared completely up.
Fluffy fruity floaters graced the toilet after years of diarrhea and constipation.
My energy went through the roof!
And now I am fitter, leaner, sexier, and healthier than ever before!"
Education
Leanne stretching
She studied Dietetics and earned certifications in Nutrition, Aerobic conditioning, Weight training and special populations from the Fitness Institute of Australia. Though Freelee has earned some qualifications in health and nutrition, she says her current diet came mostly from undertaking her own independent research.
"It’s mainly self-study, mainly my own research but I have an advanced certificate in nutrition - which is completely irrelevant to how I eat now.
I also went to college after graduating high school and studied dietetics, which it’s funny because my teacher was actually obese, and she was teaching us about nutrition.
‘It’s like going to a homeless person on the street and asking for financial advice."
Career
Freelee the Banana Girl
"I wanted to spread the good vibes and see happy, healthy fit bitches dominate this meaty planet so I started making youtube videos as a way to get my message out there: you can get fit and healthy and save the animals and the planet at the same time!"
In 2007 she started a YouTube channel called F r e e l e e, which has over 700,000 subscribers and 200 million views. She is known for her passionate and often controversial videos about Veganism. In 2017 though, she decided to terminate her channel,refresh her content and focus on topics beyond veganism. Hence, she created a new channel called GoFreeYourself, which focuses on Sustainable living, Minimalism, and living a simple life. She makes videos about money-saving, making money online, reducing consumption and tree houses. Fans have been praising her new channel feel and are happy that she's focusing on more positive, optimistic videos.
Nickname story
Freelee was created in 2007 as a combination of Freedom and her name, Leanne.
Diet
Leanne buying fruits
Leanne with bananas
Leanne surrounded by bananas
Leanne's body
Leanne eating raw pasta
Leanne and fruits
She says that that despite what people may think when they see her athletic body, she hardly sticks to an intense fitness regime, claiming that her incredibly lean figure and toned muscles can be attributed mainly to her unusual diet.
"I’m too lazy when it comes to fitness…I like to do the bare minimum.The
great thing is that some people think, oh you know, you must work out all the time, I bet you do like a marathon every couple of days and I’m like no, I’ve never done a marathon, and the fact is that it’s diet, it’s 80-90 percent diet and the rest is fitness. I
would definitely not call it a lot. When
I was on the other diets I was doing a lot, I was training twice a day. But
now I would train every second day, for about half an hour… I go jogging or maybe bike riding."
She is the creator of Raw till 4 program, which focuses on eating A LOT of raw fruits (especially bananas!) and vegetables, no Animal products, little to no fats or seeds. You basically eat Whole, unprocessed Raw foods until 4pm. Then you are allowed to cook and eat certain beneficial foods, but again, without oils to help flavour and cook the food. [1]
It's not a diet, because there is no calorie restriction.
Instead it's about eating as much as you physically can.
Women should strive for a minimum of 2500 calories on the raw till 4 program.
Men should strive for at least 3000 calories.
Water is very important and you will need to drink plenty here- about 3 – 5 litres a day.
You should always drink a lot before meals, especially before the cooked dinner as the cooked food will take water away from you.
Freelee basically eats 'mono-meals' consuming up to 15 bananas for breakfast, 20 mangoes for lunch and nearly 2kg of potatoes for dinner.
"Sometimes I might have a 500gram pack of corn pasta, like gluten free pasta... you’ve just got to make sure you keep the salt and the fat low.
That’s what people don’t do and that’s why they think that pasta is fattening because they put things like creamy sauces and oily dressings.
The sugar and the carbs are guilty by association."
When asked if her body is overloaded with sugar from eating so much fruit, she defends the idea saying that the body works better when it has one simple ingredient to digest as opposed to a whole host of different elements.
"It’s not a problem at all because the body regulates how our physiology is actually geared up to eat, because we were designed to be fruit eaters the body just regulates it, it deals with the fructose it fuels every one of the trillions of cells in our bodies and excess is burned up through dietary thermogenesis process where just through your bodies functioning heat is created and then that burns off any excess sugar in the body.
And that’s why I’m not obese after eating so much."
She draws on Asian cultures’ cuisines to prove her point that a high-carbohydrate diet won’t make you fat, so long as you keep fat and salt levels low.
"If you look at the longest lived cultures and the leanest cultures on the planet they’re high carb eaters.
They get most of their calories from rice, vegetables and fruit.
Such as Asian cultures, they get the majority of their calories from carbohydrates, so if you look at Chinese and Japanese [people] they’re the leanest, and they have been since the beginning of time."
Aside from healing her ailments, Freelee says the lifestyle has worked for many of her fellow ‘fruit bats’ including her mum who says her lifetime Eczema cleared up after making the change few years ago.
"Diabetes – Type 2 Diabetes…that’s one that a lot of people don’t believe, that’s a high sugar diet.
It sounds crazy but diabetes is a fat metabolism problem.
There’s a lot more to go in to but there’s a number of people who have overcome Type 2 Diabetes on this lifestyle and there are also a number of people who are Type 1 Diabetic who are thriving on the diet."
How To Live Raw Till 4
Raw Till 4 Program Plan Recipes
DAY 1
Breakfast:
7 Bananas
2 Medjool Dates
2 Navel Oranges
Water and Ice
Lunch:
5 Large Mangoes Or 10 cups of Frozen chunks
Dinner:
2 Pounds Organic Potatoes
Several Large Lettuce Leaves
Freelee’s No Salt No Fat Sweet Chili Sauce
DAY 2
Breakfast
15 Dates
Fresh Mint
2 TBS Organic Coconut Sugar
Water and Ice
Lunch
10 Large Bananas
2 TSP Organic Vanilla Extract
Lots of Ice and at least 500 ml of water
Dinner
One cup of dry rice
Half of a 26 oz Pomi (low salt) chopped tomatoes container
5 oz or so of mushrooms
2 cups of spinach (add them in the last 5 minutes of cooking) [1]
Interesting facts
Leanne posing on a bed
Leanne posing on a bed She travelled to Turkey, Greece and most of Asia
Her natural hair colour is honey blonde
She used to work as alcohol promo girl
She once worked in a stripping club
Her first job was at McDonald's for about a year in 1996
Her favourite colour is Lilac
Her blood type is A+ [16]
She suffered from a range of health problems and was 20kg heavier before committing to the lifestyle seven and a half years ago