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“One of the biggest reasons I went to uni was because
I watched a lot of family go through heart disease,
dementia and Alzheimer’s. All of those things as a
teenager really frightened me, because I understood at
a pretty young age how genetics work. I knew that, if
I had to watch my grandparents go through that, then
I’d have to watch my parents and then my brother and
then myself. It was always in the back of my mind that
eating healthy, exercising and sleep were important.
“Now I am loving biomed. My electives are all foodbased,
so I am doing nutritional biochemistry. I realised
that I could be potentially capable of doing a PhD in
nutrigenomics, so the effect that our food and body has
on the expression of genes. Doing nutrigenomics would
be a lot of research, but that’s what every PhD is.
“I guess for me, I would probably focus on brain health
and what sort of things an average person would
do if they had the gene for Alzheimer’s and wanted
to prevent the expression of that gene. It’s usually
sleeping between a certain number of hours and eating
a certain array of vegetables.
“Every decision you make, even the first thing you do in
the morning, changes your genetic expression. I know
it sounds hectic when you hear it, but then you realise
that you can actually make a positive impact on your
genes with just the little choices.”
Listening to Shay talk about nutrition and people’s
wellbeing with a spark in her eyes is enough to see
that she has found one of her true callings. With all of
her passion and knowledge, it was only natural for us
to ask what on earth she fuels her body with to stay
so fit. What could possibly be the key ingredient in the
life of someone so active and intelligent in the area of
nutrition? At first, Shay just said one thing – quinoa
oats.
“That’s it! No but for real I would say my diet is 95%
plant-based foods with a bit of fish and oysters. I have
lots of quinoa, grains, seeds, nuts and like a ridiculous
number of veggies. I sort of steer away from the word
vegan because it comes with extra connotations. I’m
not afraid to eat anything if someone offers me a bit,
but I won’t order or buy it.
“My body feels so much more efficient now in my
thirties then it did in my twenties. I think it’s because
I was just eating whatever I wanted and was quite
uneducated in terms of refined sugar and saturated fat.
“I am actually writing an eBook at the moment on
refined sugar, and how we are all so addicted without
even knowing it. What it does to our moods has such a
ripple-on effect to your microbiome and your long-term
health and genes. I get super into this stuff.
“Some people say that if they knew all of this
information about nutrition it would be causing them
more stress about every eating decision, but I don’t feel
that way because I’ve chosen a life where I know I can
have a treat after 16 days of lentils, so I feel even better
eating it.”
It was during her time studying, surfing, working and
living a busy life in the Sunshine Coast when she got
the call to spend almost 50 days in the Australian
outback on the ninth season of Australian Survivor – as
if her life wasn’t vibrant enough already.
Shay said her journey with the show actually began
about six years ago, when she auditioned previously
and got through to the final round.
“They gave me a call and said I’d made it in, but I
was actually in Ecuador running one of my retreats.
I obviously couldn’t do it, and at the time I was
distraught because the timing just wasn’t right.
“Then, years later I get an email from the producers of
Survivor saying they hadn’t found the right dynamic yet
for the 2022 season and they wanted me to audition
just a month before the game started. Because it was
Blood Vs. Water, I called my family to find someone
to go with and I ended up choosing my partner at the
time, Ben.
“We zoom called the producers together and it was
just an organic conversation. They were amazed at the
difference between us, Ben is a huge human, like 6’5,
and I’m like 5’3. The next day they said we were on the
show, so we needed to sort our lives out quickly and
do all of these tests – fitness, health, psyche and just
every test imaginable. They took so much blood – I had
like no blood.
“Originally, we weren’t prepared at all. We had never
watched an episode of Survivor. We at least tried to
watch a whole season beforehand, but Ben kind of
wanted to enter it as is. The funniest and most ironic
thing was that we had this little argument one day
because I was trying to make a fire in the back yard to
practice for the fire challenge in the show, and he was
getting frustrated with me and thought I was taking it
way too seriously. Little did we know he ends up in a
fire challenge and he left the game because of it.”
From impressive shelter building to dodgy challenges
to the length of time it takes to cook rice and
beans, Shay’s personal experiences on Survivor are
fascinating. Hearing her stories made it abundantly
clear how strong, resourceful and genuine she had
to be to make it to the end of the game as a runnerup
– especially with how strangely cut-throat the
season was. Shay said while it was an overall incredible
experience, the biggest negative during the game was
the bullying.
“I’m not really afraid to say it anymore because I used
to think I should be more positive about it. But in all
honesty, it was a lot. There was a really rare dynamic in
the game, and so many people from so many different
seasons have told me it wasn’t normal. If you weren’t
in a clique you were just an outcast, and it was actually
worse than what I experienced in school.