I lost 100 pounds.

No diets. No gyms.
No forbidden foods.
No counting calories. No joke. 

I was a stay-at-home mom surviving on coffee and ice cream.
I loved watching people on Netflix clean out their fridges and transform their health while I scraped the bottom of another ice cream dish.
Where would I even start?

First of all, I wasn’t interested giving up fat and sugar, my two greatest sources of pleasure.
Secondly, I knew lots of people (with way more will power than I) who lost weight by eating carefully planned and portioned meals and working their butts off at the gym. Not interested in that either.
Third, their weight-loss was only temporary. Stress happens. When life hands us lemons, we tend to indulge in lemon meringue pies.

Dieting doesn’t work.

Measuring every bite of food is unnatural and unsustainable.

I needed true lifestyle change, not the kind where you pretend to be someone else for 3 months or a year, the kind where you actually gradually become someone else.

This blog is for you if:

  • You love to eat.
  • You’re willing to cook.
  • You’re done with dieting and counting calories.
  • You’re NOT in a big hurry to lose weight.
  • You’re NOT interested in starting a workout regimen.
  • BUT you want to be healthier.
  • AND you’re ready to make one super small change to the way you eat or think.

These lifestyle changes boil down to:

  • Eating MORE: fruits, vegetables, beans, greens, and whole grains.
  • Eating LESS: meat, dairy, oil, and processed foods.
  • Having MORE GRACE and PATIENCE with yourself.

My journey has been full of setbacks and hypocrisy. Over the last 6 years, I’ve made a lot of heads shake. My choices didn’t make much sense while I was drawing lines in the sand. I would turn down chicken and say yes to cheesecake. Like you, I have a complicated relationship with food. Over time, I made progress towards a more whole food, plant-based diet, but I still eat till I’m stuffed and eat when I’m not hungry. I can’t put down a bag of Boom Chicka Pop until I’ve poured the crumbs down my throat. I still make batches of cookies and eat most of them before they get a chance to cool. I just make healthier cookies now.

There are no rules. It’s about taking steps. You can try something and go back. You can keep eating cheese till the cows come home.

But small consistent efforts add up. One day, you’ll see an old photo of yourself and realize that you’re a different person, a healthier version of yourself.

If you want to join me on this slow and steady journey to a healthier life, subscribe! I hope to gently challenge your thinking in a way that spills over into all your relationships, especially your relationship with food.

Shaping a healthier lifestyle,
Danielle