Welcome to my blog!

Why I’m getting on the blogging bandwagon…

Every girl deserves to feel great about her body, regardless of what size she is. All ladies deserve to be healthy, feel awesome, and eat delicious, wholesome foods. I want to help you guys do that! Life should be about maximizing enjoyment, minimizing stress and reaching our health and wellness goals. This blog is a duel nutrition and psychology blog with a large serving of my recipes on the side. The health and dieting market abounds with myths that have zero foundation in science. I’d like to use this site to clear up myths I spot in the media, on TV shows and elsewhere. It IS possible to eat mouth-watering meals that are just as good for us as they are tasty. The notion that healthy equals boring needs to thrown in the trash like last seasons IT bag. Healthy is hip and my goal is that this blog will be a testament to the truth of those words.

Healthy is IN. Unhealthy fad diets are OUT.

There is certainly nothing more important than taking care of our health and it is much better to be a size six and eat a healthful diet than a size zero and starve or not eat enough nutrient-rich foods. It’s easy to take our health for granted when we are young and feel well in the moment, but if we don’t take care of our bodies now, odds are we are going to pay for it down the road with health ailments such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease. There are many ways to get skinny, but skinny certainly doesn’t mean healthy. With so many diet books available, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of conflicting advice. Yet, what we eat each day should be part of our lifestyle, a lifestyle that keeps both our short and long term health in mind. My hope is that the words that flow from my brain to the keyboard will provide increasingly more insight on which foods our bodies love (and why) and which foods we need to drop because they will simply never be hot.

Happiness Comes From the Inside

And of course, in order to be completely fulfilled with our lives, we’ve got to soak up as much of the stuff that makes us excited to wake up each day as possible. How can we make each day as enjoyable and special as it can be? I’ve always been a huge fan of positive psychology. When I took a positive psychology class in college I think my professor thought I had no life because I would always be at his office hours asking him questions about each reading assignment. I thought those reading assignments on gratitude, healthy relationships, authentic happiness, what it means to truly flourish (just to name a few topics) were fascinating and they certainly added sparkle and shine to my day! My bookshelf at home is loaded with just as many books about happiness as it is with the most beautiful cookbooks. Long story short, I can’t create a blog about body image and nutrition without tackling the issues that pertain to living our best life and maximizing the beauty we can find in each day.

Recipe fun!

I believe I need no explanation here for why there will be plenty of easy, delicious recipes for you to try. We’ve gotta walk the talk and learning how to prepare healthy meals that taste great is a huge part of enjoying a healthy lifestyle. The recipes you will find here are 100% vegan and sugar-free and quite a few will be gluten-free. Suffice it to say that I won’t post anything that has not been well taste tested and approved by myself, my family and my friends. My desserts are always fruit sweetened with the occasional use of Stevia or maple syrup. I never use processed flours and all of my recipes call for ingredients you can find in your local health food store. What separates my recipes from others in the vegan cooking blog community is that I rarely use oil or sugar and instead turn to healthier, alternative options. When there is a will there is a way, I say! Cooking is no exception.

You might be wondering why I prefer certain ingredients over others and I’ll gradually be adding more posts to explain to you why. It’s an incredible feeling to know that each ingredient nourishes your body rather than contributes to ill health, not to mention that nutrient-rich, plant-based lifestyle is awesome for the planet and animals too!

Looking at the big picture

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all focused on the stuff that really matters- such as participating in activities we enjoy, finding passions that make us smile from ear to ear, helping others in meaningful activities, and educating ourselves about important issues going on around the world- rather than focusing on the number that shows up on the scale or whether or not we can fit into our skinny jeans? The idea is to feel energetic, be healthy, stress free and at peace, all factors which contribute to living our best life in the present and for years to come. By focusing on health rather than weight loss, I think we can all develop a healthier relationship with food and be comforted by the knowledge that we are treating our bodies with respect and love. A natural result of educating ourselves about proper nutrition is that we will find our ideal weight AND our self-esteem will rise. When we take care of ourselves in all aspects of life, health included, feeling positive and good about who we are is a fantastic byproduct.

My above sentiments come from looking at the big picture of what adds value to our lives. Looking back at our lives a year from now, a decade from now, thirty years from now, what will we wish we had spent more time focusing on? Odds are the number on the scale is not what is going to come to mind. Hopefully what comes to mind will be the moments spent with the people we care about, the times we spent having the most fun, and the ways we’ve contributed to helping the world and the people we share it with. Whenever I worry about something small, I think about whether or not it will truly matter in the future.

When it comes to the superficial stuff, we are definitely our own worst critics. I hope this blog will be a source of inspiration that we can beat that wicked, mostly nonsensical self-doubt and let a shining light of positivity wash over us. It has been my experience that taking a good look at the big picture works wonders at washing negative thoughts away so that they really are gone with the wind.*

*I have a habit of referencing my favorite books, movies and TV shows in my writing because I think they are awesome and, as such, they readily come to my brain when writing. Just figured I would let you know. Wasn’t Gone With The Wind, amazing? If you haven’t seen it you really should.