For as long as I can remember I have been passionate about food and my body’s relationship to it. I used to love going to my friends houses to peek in their fridges and cupboards. Somehow, even then, I was curious to discover the story of their food choices because I knew it reflected something personal about them. My mother was (and still is) an “intuitive” chef, who taught me how to cook from the heart rather than from recipe books. Though it made it hard for her to replicate delicious meals, I learned the importance of trusting myself in the kitchen. I wasn’t always so in touch with my relationship to food.
I struggled with body image issues in high school and can recall weighing myself and allowing the number on the scale to control how I felt about myself. I would test my body’s limits by trying out various fad diets and I noticed each diet book had conflicting information. Was dairy good or bad? Should I eat three or five times a day? Was raw food better than cooked? I went through a phase of refusing even my own mother’s delicious foods because I was “macrobiotic”, “vegan”, “on South Beach” or whatever diet book was currently a best seller. I had strange uncontrollable cravings for ice cream, but I would scarf down entire bags of almonds until I was sick because I thought it was the “healthier” choice. I also believed that if sugar and fat were bad for me, than sugar-free artificially flavoured products were great, even though they left me feeling bloated and nauseous. After all those years of experimenting with my body and seemingly eating the “right” foods, I realized I felt even more lethargic, bloated, stressed out and unsatisfied with my body.
After graduating with a B.A in Human Relations and Counselling from Concordia University in Montreal, I knew I wanted to go into the helping profession, but I was still passionate about food and cooking. Fortunately, I discovered a program in New York City, at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition that combined my two passions. In my journey to become a certified Holistic Wellness Coach, I learned more about my own relationship with food than any diet book could ever teach me. I discovered how to heal myself using food, and after years of feeling bloated and in pain, I found the foods that worked best for my own unique body and lifestyle. I learned that I was the expert of my own body, not the authors of the latest diet book. I learned how to replace the artificially processed foods which claimed to be healthy that were actually making me sick, with REAL whole foods. I also learned to trust myself in the kitchen and cook intuitively just like my mother always had.
This was revolutionary! None of the experts I listened to ever talked about bio-individuality, how can one diet can’t work for all of us if we are each built so differently. Remember that saying,”One man`s food is another’s poison?” How can any one diet work for our entire lives if we are constantly changing. Diet also changes according to season, age, and lifestyle so although you might be a raw foodist in Hawaii, try surviving a winter in Montreal on that diet! As we change, our diet will have to change along with us. I guess these concepts would not be best sellers, because every expert’s career is based on wanting you to believe that they have all the answers, and what you need is somebody else to tell you what is best for you.
I now work one on one with clients helping them discover the foods that work best for their individual bodies and lifestyle choices. There is a saying that, “how we do anything is how we do everything” and in that sense, how we eat and how we see food is a reflection of how we relate to life. Do you rush the process and finish the meal before you even notice it’s gone? Do you eat until you are stuffed because you think life is too short to deprive yourself? Do you eat to reward or punish yourself? Do you see food as good or bad, and punish yourself for eating “bad” foods? These are all questions that come up in working with my clients because discovering a balanced realtionship with yourself is not about having all the answers- it is having the courage to ask the critical questions. It is not about judging yourself for wanting to eat slice after slice of cake, but it is about asking yourself, “what am I really feeding?”
I have worked in schools helping elementary and high school students learn about healthy eating, and stress management techniques. I have also enjoyed working within my community, teaching healthy cooking on a budget to neighborhood food banks, or leading cooking workshops and seminars at yoga studios. I lead regular slow food brunches at La Khaima restaurant, and I continue to enjoy helping clients discover a lasting relationship with food- because after all, that is the longest and most important relationship we are ever going to have in our lives.
