“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”—modified from Edward Stanley (1826-1893) from The Conduct of Life
Hello to the blogging world, I’ve been thinking about joining you for a long time now, I can’t believe I’m finally here. I wanted to start by sharing the quote that impacted me deeply and changed my life forever.
I was raised by my very southern grandmother, who cooked …. you guessed it ….. southern food. Some of the staple meals I can remember were fried okra (never liked it), cauliflower “soup” (cauliflower cooked to mush with tons of butter and cheese- I liked that one!), and fried spam (that’s right) and a host of other fried foods. We were also on a tight budget so vegetables and fruit mostly came from a can or frozen, except for the oranges that came off our three orange trees.
Somehow I stayed active enough in high school to burn all those calories (plus taco bell, starbucks, doritos, panda express….). The first couple years of college I didn’t have a car so I was walking a TON and working out, but eventually I did pack on the freshman 15 (okay 20). Around the end of my junior year I set out to lose it, and to make a long story short… realized I had NO idea what to eat or how to cook.
Like many people I went for pre packaged items, calorie counted, and fought my way through the hunger. I ate less than 1,000 calories a day and hit the gym, the weight fell off which was motivating, but I was ALWAYS hungry. This clearly didn’t make me a very pleasant person to be around. I eventually learned that vegetables were unlimited foods so I started eating more. At first, frozen or from a can and then slowly learned how to prepare them one vegetable at a time. I realized that I didn’t know the first thing about how to feed myself. At the same time I was taking a biochemistry metabolism class as part of minor and that is where my nutrition hobby became a full time love affair.
When I heard this quote I knew that I had a chance to help people like me that didn’t know the first thing about nutrition, cooking, feeding themselves in healthy satisfying way. I was accepted to the Masters of Public Health Coordinated Dietetic Program at Loma Linda University …. and the rest is history. I’ve spent the past two years in the program and at the end of this summer I’ll finally be ready to become a Registered Dietitian. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and joining me on life’s crazy journey with all my cravings for hobbies like cooking good wholesome filling fantastic nutritious….. food, sweating through body strengthening and enlivening workouts, and having a blast!
[…] experience for me because I’ve never had grits (despite my southern cooking upbringing- read more about that here) and I’m usually pretty adamant about not eating red meat. However, this was a special […]