I love food. Don’t you? Everyone has a different relationship with food fueled by childhood stories, breakups, highs, lows and everything in between.

Something we all can admit is that at some point food has had more control over us then we like to acknowledge. I intended to live a long, healthy life. The thing is, I didn’t actually know what that meant. I just thought if I ate vegetables once a day and ran every now and then that I would be okay.  I didn’t want to be another statistic in a family that has repeated cycles of high blood pressure, diabetes or other food related diseases. I faced the spiritual battle of gluttony and idolatry that became more noticeable in my teen years when I hit my growth spurt. I was 13, 5’8 and 175lbs.. As an angsty teen that felt awkward in skin, I hated how I looked. It didn’t help that I got picked at for because my clothes didn't fit right. Nor did it help that I felt like every girl and guy was half my size. To cope with my poor body image, I ate. I ate anything that was good to my taste buds but not good to me. I was a sucker for bread so that became my kryptonite until I got my first job and no one could stop me from spending my money on candy. After all, it was my money. What started out as buying a candy bar here and there turned into me buying large bags of candy and stashing it under my bed. From there, I would make sure I put candy in every purse, bag, drawer, pillowcase, my locker at school… everywhere. I needed to have access to sugar at all times in case I started feeling down, lonely, insecure or sad and needed a little pick me. At this age, I hadn’t given my life to the Lord so I wasn’t thinking about the Holy Spirit as being my comforter. From the age of 14, until the age of 19, I battled with emotional eating. What changed? I fell into a deep depression and suddenly, I no longer had an appetite. I was eating under a 1000 calories a day and that resulted in me losing weight, fast. I was depressed, tired and weak. Though some of this could have been attributed to my depression, anxiety and PTSD, some of this was because I was not eating. My therapist at the time encouraged me to keep a food diary and that is how I started learning how to track my diet and calories. Now that does seem kind of backwards right? Most people track their calories to lose weight, but that was not my story. How many of you have a story like that though? This is just a part of mine. To learn more about my story, book a consultation with me. I’m sure we can relate in more ways than not.

Exploring the simplicity of food has been one of the most eye-opening journeys of my healing. Here are some of my favorite meals. I hope they become your favorites too.