My relationship with food has not always been healthy. I grew up as a “separatist child.” None of my food could touch, and the plainer the food, the better. When at a party, I was THAT kid eating several burger buns with nothing on them. My main food groups were pasta/bread, dairy, and sugar. My favourite vegetable was corn.
When at a party, I would be THAT KID eating a burger bun with nothing on it. My main food groups were bread/pasta, dairy (milk/cheese), and dessert.
As a young child, I suffered from seasonal eczema. By the time I turned 12, my eczema was year-round and started to spread to my face. My skin had thinned out due to the cortisone creams prescribed by my doctor; so every time I went out into the sun, the affected skin would become cracked and bleed. As a result, I spent the summer of seventh grade sweating in long-sleeved shirts, which left me both very uncomfortable and self-conscious.
By the time I hit Junior High, I stopped bringing a packed lunch to school, and my staple diet consisted of a typical Western diet laden with processed foods, an abundance of refined carbohydrates (white bread, pasta, etc), sugar-sweetened sodas and candies with minimal fruits and vegetables.
A typical day consisted of:
🧇 Breakfast: Frozen waffles drenched in syrup.
🍩 Morning tea: Two doughnuts.
🥖 Lunch: Spaghetti with butter and salt, garlic bread, salad, and a can of Coke.
🍬 Afternoon Snack: Vending machine candy to satisfy my sugar cravings.
🍨 Afterschool Snack: Ice cream sundae w/ sprinkles, swimming in chocolate sauce.
🍗 Dinner: The one saving grace where my mom would cook us a standard meat and three vegetable dinner.
🍪 Dessert: 5-7 Oreo cookies with 1-2 glasses of low-fat milk.
Looking back, it’s no wonder that I suffered from severe acne, eczema, chronic fatigue, and depression at 12 years of age.
At 13, my mom sought alternative help to clear up my skin. I cut out all refined sugar and started incorporating more fruits and vegetables into my daily diet. After about two years, my skin would only break out seasonally. Seeing such dramatic results just by changing the food I ate, put me on a path of self-healing during my teen years and young adulthood that taught me to treat food as medicine.
Now that I have two kids of my own, I am passionate about educating and protecting them from the preventable health problems I experienced as a child. Their diets are far more colourful and nutrient dense. Yes, I let them indulge in treats on occasion, but I emphasize the importance of eating food that is closer to nature and not from a lab or factory.
I hope that through my work, I can educate and inspire other parents, kids, and teens to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet so that they can work and play at their best.
If you’d like to know how to improve your health, want to learn what healthy eating looks like for you, or just don’t know where to start, please reach out today.
I offer complimentary 15-minute calls to discuss how I can help you and your family.