Roz Purcell on staying thin: ‘All I ate were vegetables and coffee’
Model Roz Purcell has made something of a second career for herself with her love of cooking, but her relationship with food wasn't always so straightforward.
Nowadays, the 25-year-old has her own food blog, Natural Born Feeder, where she shares recipes for everything from paleo Ferrero Rocher muffins to dairy-free creamy chicken and broccoli bakes.
However just five short years ago, the model was surviving on a drastic low-calorie diet to stay as thin as possible.
"Five days a week I would just eat veg and at the weekends we would splurge on cupcakes," she said of her stint in the US after winning a contract with Donald Trump's modelling agency.
The former Miss Universe Ireland restricted her diet to drop the pounds, keeping her hunger at bay with copious amounts of coffee.
"I can never drink Starbucks again because I was using it to suppress my appetite,” she told the Irish Daily Mail’s TV Week magazine.
"It reminds me of being really hungry. I came back and realised I would never go through that again."
As for exercise, these days Roz uses a mix of high-intensity interval training, cycling, swimming and boxing to stay fit – a stark contrast to her former regime which consisted of non-stop running.
"I would run and run and run maybe 14 kilometers every day and downing coffee," she said.
"Models train like athletes now, that’s just the way it’s gone."
Speaking about her love of boxing to SHEmazing! recently, the model said her first attempt floored her – but she adored every bit.
"The first class almost killed me. Afterward I felt like I needed to go lie down for the rest of the day.
"But now I’ve found my stride and I’m loving it."
