It’s 1am, I’m wide awake, my mind is racing and I can’t get back to sleep. I’m thinking about cauliflower, the issues surrounding brassicas are big in my life ! So apart from insomnia and a weird pre occupation with seasonal vegetables what else do I bring to the table here ? I’ve got an absolute passion for good food, simple really. I don’t align myself with any specific type of eating regimes. I’m not vegan, I’m not plant based, I’m not paleo… I don’t even think I’m gluten intolerant…is that even possible ! What I am is really focused on making my food as full of good stuff as it can be and super tasty to boot ! I’ve also got this belief that there is food everywhere ! New Zealand is such an incredible country, oysters, cockles, chestnuts, walnuts, berries, mushrooms, citrus, fish, venison, pork, seasonal vege, fruit, watercress….and on and on it goes. All these things can be added to what we eat to really boost health and well being and the act of gathering or creating the ingredients is all part of the adventure !
Like most people; my journey on the nutrition highway has been one that has had a lot of potholes, detours, breakdowns and toilet stops ! I spent a large portion of my early life putting as much crappy processed food as I could get my sticky little fingers on into my pie hole (nothing wrong with a good pie by the way !) and it wasn’t until the birth of my favorite daughter that I really started to look at what my family were eating. I was shocked at what I discovered. Iconic brands and food that I ‘trusted’ were not what they seemed to be. Products targeted at my daughter, labelled good for her, were purely and simply not. That was bad enough; but to then discover that some massive brands spend billions of dollars working out how to seduce our taste buds with salt, sugar and fat to keep us coming back and eating more and more was the nail in that delicious, moreish but ultimately unhealthy coffin !
So then what ? Then I went insane and tried to white knuckle my way through what I was eating. No sugar, no fat, no meat, no dairy (what was I even thinking !) Food became the enemy. I was suspicious of it all and I became a pain in my own ass let alone my friends and family ! I was a total food bore; I would share my own guilt about processed food at every opportunity and was nicknamed the ‘sugar police’ by my favorite daughter ! Being so regimented about eating became “my thing”. Meanwhile I was missing out on some of life’s greatest pleasures, I was miserable and it’s lonely eating lettuce in the dark !
I needed to move forward, so I started to look back. I found the cook books that belonged to my grandmothers who were both big influences for me growing up. One granny was very high society and loved cooking and entertaining and the other a pioneering woman who grew her own food, bottled, preserved and toiled to get by. All the recipes and ideas about food they had collected were around ingredients that were local or in a lot of cases they had sourced or grown themselves. They knew what they were eating from it’s very origins and with a lot of the preparation they didn’t alter those ingredients too much at all. It was simple. I love that I can use the knowledge that they shared and keep that skill and passion as a part of my life.
My biggest hope with what I’m doing is that I can inspire and encourage others to do the best they can every day. It doesn’t have to be all at once. Every tiny little thing you do to improve your health is a stunning thing and should be chalked up as a victory !
This part of my journey is just beginning and I’d love you to come with me as we learn how to create the best health we can for ourselves and for those that we nourish and love. It’s really the only way to go, so I gather. x
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