I was fortunate to be raised by fairly health-conscious parents, we seldom went out to eat and had a lot of home-cooked meals. My parents split when I was a teen, so we started eating quicker meals when my mom took on a full time job, but still valued cooking at home and ate lots of veggies.

In high school, I struggled with anorexia packaged with low self-esteem and was in general a miserable teen. I hated my hair and skin and figured weight was the one thing I actually had control of. I would regularly eat just one meal a day and sometimes fast for a couple of days. Thankfully, that only lasted about 7 months before my misery drove me to realize I was not healthy or happy and I adapted more normal eating habits and started an obsession with nutrition facts and knowing what I was eating. At that time, I worked as a cashier at a grocery store where I spent hours checking and stocking food. In order to keep boredom from driving me batsh*t crazy, I took interest in analyzing food nutrition information and noticing what type of customer was buying what foods, something I still enjoy doing when stuck in grocery lines. I started to become more of a health nut as I realized which foods are better for you and which were crap.

I’ve always been into cooking, but have been really getting into it during the last few years as I mastered new recipes and improved my skills. Cooking, or food prep, has proven to be a great stress reliever for me after busy work days. I’ve also become much more of a foodie avoiding processed crutch foods more such as microwave meals, canned soups, Hamburger Helper, etc. I stopped using canned tomatoes, pre-minced garlic, packaged lemon juice, etc. for fresh and became addicted to the much improved taste and supporting the extensive local produce available in this area.

I love California, I grew up in the Bay Area, but moved to Florida as a teen where I finished school, met my husband and worked for my first major company. We moved to Northern California a few years ago to be closer to my family and because we were sick of hurricanes and humidity.

Even though I’ve always been weight/health conscious, I dealt with off-and-on IBS as a young adult up until a year ago or so. I’ve only been migrating to more raw foods since July 2009, but have already noticed a huge improvement in that area as well.

I’ve also always had skin issues since my teenage years with oily, blotchy skin, acne was a huge contributor to my teenage misery. I like to think the occasional zit makes me look younger, but I’m ready to be done with that for good. And, thanks to being on the pill for years, I also have darker pigment areas under my eyes and on my forehead that have already started to fade.

I am ready to experience all the benefits this diet has to offer and document my journey to better health mentally and physically. Also create new recipes as I attempt to remaster some of my favorite cooked recipes as raw recipes.