My journey into the world of healthy eating began when I started working in a health food store at the age of 16. There, I was introduced to the idea that food can be used to heal -- someone might switch from an all wheat diet to a gluten free diet and be healed of digestive woes. Another might find comfort from joint pain by including ginger and tumeric into their diet. And so a life-long passion and subject of research began. By this point, I was already lactose-intollerant and allergic to food coloring. Flash forward about ten years: After a month of antibiotics for a double kidney infection, my body was getting out of whack. My stomach was not working like it should, I gained about 30 pounds for aparently no reason and I was miserable. After realizing that the antibiotics probably changed what I was able to digest, I took a food intollerance test. Sure enough, my system could no longer process wheat, gluten, soy, and a bunch of other things. Luckily, I had experience cooking gluten free as part of a homeschool group I was teaching, where two of my students could not have gluten or wheat either. Before this happened, I loved cooking. Making a meal was something I cherished, and experimenting with ingredients and flavors at the end of a long day brought me solstice. Now, I had new ingredients to get creative with: millet, amaranth, quinoa, oh my! So, now my stomach felt better, but I still was not able to shake the excess pounds I had gained. I tried every diet, worked out almost daily, with the scale not budging. Then, by chance, I was lucky enough to meet an ayurvedic consultant who helped me balance my meals, remember HOW to eat, and cleanse my system. It worked!
Here I'm documenting my journey into a gluten-free, ayurvedic-based, vegetarian cooking and health experience. I'm not saying that vegetarianism is how everyone should eat. If you can eat wheat -- by all means, go for it. If tumeric isn't your thing, don't worry. I am not preaching, just sharing and exploring.
