Hi! I’m Emma!
My healthy living journey took me on a fairly radical diet change, and for a food and cooking lover, this was hard. Finding recipes that are free from sugar (even natural ones), grains, dairy, soy, anything additive or unnatural is really hard. So I had to get creative! Here I hope to share recipes I created that have made my life and health so, SO much better. And hopefully they can help others too that are on a similar heath journey!
I decided to take my health seriously
I was nearly always sick as a teen and young adult, bouncing from one cold or flu to the next. Doctors mostly just prescribing antibiotic for various bouts of tonsillitis and other infections. I had frequent and painful stomach cramps, migraine headaches, loose bowel and often nauseous. Not to mention the constant fatigue and lack of energy and head fog that came with it all. But I honestly thought this was normal. Isn’t that just life? Everyone around me also got sick and tired. “Solider on”, and all that. Right?
I thought I ate well and lived a pretty healthy life
My mother is wonderful and has always supported and helped me growing up with cooking incredible, healthy meals; she is my biggest cooking inspiration. I was always told to not eat too much sugar. I knew we all need to eat veggies and exercise. It wasn’t a personal decision to actually live it though, so when I wasn’t eating mums cooking, my choices weren’t great.
Food needs to be more than just a filler
During my years of working full-time and being a young, independent adult I was definitely not “fuelling my body”. Arnotts assorted creams in the break room, my “usual” at the local cafe of a dripping with fat toasted wrap and Chinese takeaway lunches soon became the norm. I was thin and worked hard in a fairly physical job, so I really didn’t think much about what I was putting into my body. As long as it tasted nice, and was quick and convenient, that was all that mattered. I think for a lot of us, trying to live our busy lives, maybe we can all relate?
The crashing point was my wedding day.
A few days leading up to my wedding, I had my usual stomach pains, but the worst I’d ever had. I was trying to paint signs out on my parents back lawn and I was literally having to lay down every couple of minutes to rest and breath through the pain so I could get them done. I laugh about it now. But I think that was the point I realised I needed to get answers.
The final drip in the bucket was waking up the day before my wedding with one of the worst bouts of tonsillitis I’d ever had, which led to a cut short honeymoon and a doctors appointment instead. I’m not sharing this as as sob story, I’m sure I’m not alone in any of this! I’m sharing this to hopefully paint a picture of where I was, and to better share how incredible the change has been!
My Healthy Living Journey Began
I tried seeing various doctors, but most simply wanted to fix the symptoms with temporary measures and patch ups. I appreciate this is their way of helping, but I wanted to find the reason for it all, not just mask the symptoms.
My mother-in-law and various other people I knew were seeing a naturopath and were having huge success with their health. So I tried that path, and my eyes were opened!
Through a process of elimination diets, supplements, reducing chemicals in my home and trying to learn to deal with stress and life better, I have seen huge improvement! Nothing is a quick fix. All of it takes time and practise and persistence, but I promise you, it’s worth it.
I’m not here to give health advice – I’m not a doctor
Please note, I am not trained or qualified in anything health or nutrition related. I’m sharing purely from my experiences and from what I am continuing to learn. I have been gathering as much information as I can from doctors, naturopaths, and specialists, and every podcast and blog post in-between, however, my recipes and advice are still only based of my own understanding. My hope is that this blog will be a place to share encouragement and support through recipes and what I have learnt so that others out there on a similar journey can feel better too!
