How I got here

Welcome to my new blog.


I must admit I feel a bit nervous starting a blog, for several reasons:


1. English is my second language, and though I love writing and have been told I write well, I don't feel like an extraordinary person when it comes to written expression in English


2. Writing a blog on nutrition is not the most poetic style of writing, implying that whatever talent some of my friends have recognized in my writing may actually not be reflected in this blog


3. I am not a nutritionist and have had no formal education in nutrition. What I know has been gathered along the way from reading books, blogs and articles, talking to people, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries and experimenting in my kitchen while paying attention to my health and my body's responses to food.

So why do you want to write a blog on nutrition, you ask...? Well, my journey starts a long time ago, when weight loss was the only aspect of nutrition that was interesting to me. I have tried this and that diet, lost 5 pounds here, gained 7 there, and yoyoed up and down pretty much since my teenage years. However, though I still try really hard to maintain a healthy weight, my focus has changed over the last few years, from being thin to being healthy. The first trigger for me was my mom being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2009, right after the birth of my second child. Thankfully, the cancer hadn't spread and she was able to fully recover after a chemotherapy and radiation treatment. During her chemo, mom saw a nutritionist who put her on a strict diet for three months: no meat, hardly any dairy except for greek yoghourt and goat cheese, no alcohol, no sugar and only high quality cold pressed oils. She taught her about the need for a balance in our diet between acidic and alkaline foods, and my parents started changing some lifestyle habits pretty radically. Other family members followed in her footsteps and noticed some radical health improvements.


Prior to that, another family member had been diagnosed with high PSA levels, indicating a high risk for prostate cancer. He started juicing daily and went on a vegan diet. Within a few months, his levels were back to normal.


Another family member with numerous health issues found out she and her daughter were gluten intolerant, in addition to some life threatening allergies to tree nuts. She did a lot of research and also modified their diet, eliminating the main allergens, such as gluten, soy, dairy, sugar, nuts and eggs. After two years on that diet, her daughter's immune system was transformed and she was able to reintroduce several types of nuts with no adverse reactions.


Needless to say, with all this happening in my family, I became increasingly aware of the link between food and health, and started doing some research, reading up on it, and trying new things. After several rounds of elimination diet, I have discovered that certain foods don't sit well with me and avoiding them has greatly improved chronic conditions I was suffering from for years.


The changes happened progressively and I am not rigid about my diet, but the more I learn, the more I lean towards a more plant-based, organic, raw, whole foods, less processed, less sugar, kind of a diet.


I LOVE cooking and one of my pleasures in life is to host and cook good foods for my friends. That's a huge part of my love language. It started with friends asking questions about recipes, what I put in my salad dressing, or how I made that salad... to more specific questions about nutrition, and an interest in knowing what is healthy and what is not, and how to even know that, how to shop, where to begin...

So here I am, mostly for my friends. My goal is to write a blog for people who want to make healthy life-style changes in the way they eat, but who don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen and can't be bothered to go to specialty stores to buy all the weird items. I will do my best to make this blog accessible, sort of like a "eating healthier for dummies" (no offense) guide. I am a learner myself, I am open, and I am humble and teachable. So if you stumble upon this blog and disagree on some things, or know better, I'd love to hear and learn from you, as long as you say it with a smile :)