FOOD PHILOSOPHY
I believe in Hipprocates when he said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.
The food we eat should be used to fuel our body, brain and spirit, heal illness and disease and be enjoyed. Ok, I’ll admit it – Hipprocates may not have been thinking about enjoying food when he wrote this. But, I’m realist. There are very few people that will take medicine 4-5 x’s a day if we can’t stand the taste or smell of it. So YES, we need to enjoy healthful food so we can heal, change our life, increase energy and feel better! You can more about my personal food philosophy here.
MY STORY
I love food. But,I think my fascination with food is a little different than many folks in the culinary world. For 13 years, I had an eating disorder, bulimia nervosa,that could have killed me. Then one day when I was at my lowest point in life, I experienced a divine intervention from the Holy Spirit when He delivered me from the illness. Ever since that day, I’ve committed myself to helping people learn to eat healthy, love themselves and adopt a healthy lifestyle. I used to work hard at being perfect, eating perfectly and doing the perfect things, but that made me tired, impatient and unfulfilled. Now I focus on being kind,having fun,enjoying family and living with purpose.
After overcoming my Eating Disorder in 2004, I founded LoveMyBody, a non-profit that promotes positive body image and healthy self-esteem. I got married in 2005 and my husband and I went on a whirl-wind of baby-making (boin-chick-wong-wong) and had 4 kids by 2011. Along with our kids, I’m also a full-time “bonus mom” of an amazing kid. When my kids were born, I left corporate consulting to become a stay-at-home mom, to take care of our kids. My oldest son was born with a speech delay and at 2 developed seizures, asthma and severe life-threatening food allergy (that was a busy year). Because of my background working with women and girls that have eating disorders and now being faced raising my own kids that have food allergies, in 2010, I founded Healthy Little Cooks, a fun cooking and nutrition company for kids and their families. In 2014, I published 5-Minute Lunchbox, a hybrid recipe book and meal planner for people who want to create healthy lunches in five minutes or less and went on to create kifoodie, an influencer membership for kids and people in the kid-centric food industry.
I’m a self-trained cook and foodie, but went to school in 2012 to become a Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert. This taught me how to use the nutrition in our food to heal, think clearer, increase energy, and fight menopause, disease and other biological issues. Our family’s proudest moment is that through changing my son’s diet, he no longer suffers from seizures, turrets or asthma symptoms – and in 2015, he won the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge #Kids State Dinner and we met President Barak Obama and Michelle Obama.
In In my family, we have gluten, nut, tree nut, grain intolerance and dairy allergies, so not only do I teach about healthy eating, food allergies and picky diets, I live them. As someone who suffered from an Eating Disorder, gave birth to 4 kids, had 2 miscarriages, went into early menopause and experienced thyroid issues, I understand the psychological, physical and social impact that food has on our bodies, minds and in our culture. As a mom of five kids ages six through 15 (4 boys and 1 girl), I also understand what it feels like to struggle with how to feed a family healthy, quick and budget-friendly meals.
To learn more about the programs close to my heart, please visit Healthy Little Cooks and kifoodie.