About

I’ve been blogging for over a year now and I am so grateful to all of you who have been reading.  Especially since you probably have no clue who I am!  When I started out I assumed it would be just be my mom, dad, and boyfriend reading, so I didn’t think it would be important to share any information about myself. But over time I’ve realized that this personal touch is what really brings a site to life.  And so I bring you…About Me:

The Author of Delicious by Nature

The Author of Delicious by Nature

I am a 26 year old Natural Foods Chef in training who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I have lived in California all my life which means I have the distinct pleasure of good weather year round – which is good for both my sanity and my cooking.

I haven’t always loved to cook, but I have always loved to eat healthy.  When I was a little kid I always said that salad was my favorite food – I’m not sure that it really was, but that’s what I said!  Throughout my middle school and high school years I was also conscientious about the foods that I ate thanks to my vegan/vegetarian dad (depending when you asked) and ther rest of my health conscious family.  And Sophomore year of high scool I finally made the switch to being vegetarian.

Unfortunately, to the teenage me this meant eating white rice bowls in the school cafeteria, pizza, and lots of veggie burgers.  I just didn’t know how to balance everything properly and only really ate “full meals” when out at vegetarian restaurants.  I continued to be a vegetarian for the next 5 years, until the end of my Freshman year of college.

This all came to an end after finding out that I was severely anemic at one of my yearly checkups.  My doctor basically put me on iron and sent me on my merry way.  Luckily, my parents were able to set me up with a natural practitioner and acupuncturist that had actually helped them in their quest to get pregnant with me.  She talked about my diet and health with me and explained that some people just don’t do well on a vegetarian diet, especially if they aren’t careful with it.  She directed me to The Blood Type Diet and strongly encouraged me to start eating meat again.

It was a slow transition to where I am today.  I started out just eating chicken, then added some red meat back in.  And while I still don’t LOVE meat, I have learned that it does make me feel good and so am trying to be better about getting it into my diet on a regular basis (not a common problem, I know). 
Unfortunately, over the years I’ve struggled with a number of other food related problems.  I have had on and off severe stomach pains for the last 5 or so years, since the end of college, and have been on a somewhat constant quest to resolve them.  My doctors have diagnosed me with IBS, performed colonoscopies, and the like but still don’t know what it is that’s causing this.

I’ve gradually been exploring other options myself and feel lucky that I am at least not experiencing the debilitating pain that I once was.  What did I do to get here:
  • Cut caffeine, specifically coffee and soda, almost entirely out of my diet
  • Stopped eating any form of artificial sugars
  • Reduced my intake of dairy (depending on when you talk to me)
  • Tried a candida cleanse  for about 4 months – which did help but may have just been from the limited types of foods that I was eating
  • Gone to a 90% gluten-free diet for the last month or so
  • Eating healthy whole foods including almost no packaged or artifical products

I still don’t have all the answers and am still looking for a 100% solution (more on that in the future I’m sure), but I believe that the first two steps are what really helped to start turning everything around.  It’s certainly frustrating, but in a lot of ways it’s also been a blessing, because this ongoing journey has made me realize how much I love food and how tasty healthy food can really be.

The Next Step

I am now at what I like to consider the next step in my journey.  At the end of March 2009, I started in the Bauman College Natural Chef training program, which trains people to cook with healthy, nutritious, whole foods.  I am loving every minute of it and truly believe that this is a subject that really speaks to me.  Over the course of this training I’ve not only learned knife skills and about healing foods, but am also learning about many ethnic foods and will have a whole section on therapeutic cooking for people with special health needs.  I look forward to seeing where this step takes me and how I’m able to apply it to help both myself and others.

My Vision

My main goal, through both this site and my culinary training, are to show people how delicious healthy, whole foods really can be.  Don’t get me wrong, I like a good mac and cheese as much as the next gal, but I don’t like how it makes me feel, especially not on a daily basis.

I still believe that indulgences have their place in every diet, but it’s the everyday choices that really effect the way we feel and how we feed our bodies.  So in all of my recipes I try to work with the healthiest, freshest ingredients that taste good and fuel our bodies well.  My cooking is constantly evolving and I love to hear feedback on the types of recipes that you’d like to see – after all I know it isn’t everyone’s dream (like mine) to spend all day cooking in the kitchen.

What tools and tips do you feel like you need to eat healthy foods?  What information would you like from me?