I grew up with two family gardens in Cleveland, Ohio, and lived in an ethnic community. Both sets of grandparents came directly from Europe, and their traditions were fresh. I loved the garden. As a child, I would sit on the wood boards that divided the rows of vegetables and stare at the string beans, corn, tomatoes, and carrots. I was curious what was under the carrot’s green tops, so occasionally, I would pull it out to see and try to stick the carrot back into the ground before my mother realized what I had done. Unaware that the carrot would not continue to grow.

Or I would pick rose petals and place them on my lips to pretend I had lipstick on. Our backyard garden was not only a source of nourishment but an educational facility. My mom and grandmothers especially had an innate knowledge of where to plant what. The gardens flourished year after year.  It was always cooler in the garden than in the rest of the yard too.

I think it was my love for those vegetables that help me develop into a vegetarian later in life. To this day, I love being around growing vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Perhaps it’s the organic aspects or that they are sprouting new life that inspired me.

From those early years, I built a foundation for eating healthy. Even during high school, I sought out organic in Cleveland. There was one co-op, and it wasn’t always the freshest.  When I could drive, I drove to apple farms and also looked for spring water as often as possible.  I remember walking down the aisle of the local market (remain unnamed), telling my mother, “There are chemicals in the food.”

Our backyard garden allowed me to think differently about food. Instead of packaged food off a metal shelf, I picked food directly out of the garden. I developed an awareness of eating organic early. As my career developed, nourishing food was the center point and how particular foods provided health benefits. For five years, I juiced everything. For another five years, I ate only raw. My go-to nourishment is purified water. So you can see my eating lifestyle is about nourishment.

I studied herbs and homeopathic healing. I learned massage and body-work, meditation, and alternative healing became the cornerstone of my life. One of my key points as a Wellness Coach has always been, “Know who cooks your food.” Mostly we eat out for a quick, fast food dish, and we don’t even think about who cooked the food unless, of course, you’re eating at Subway.

I’m not a chef or claim to know anything about cooking. People always ask me if I can cook. My reply is, “I can read.” Reading a cookbook and being a chef are two different ways to cook.

Cooking Is Intimate

Cooking food is intimate. It’s a way to show love and to nurture others. My grandmother picked all her vegetables from her garden to make a soup; that was her pure love expression. I think this is why we love good food because we get nurtured in the process.

Who cooks your food? Do they smoke? Guess what; the tobacco and toxins are going right into your food. Even if they don’t smoke for an hour or two before cooking, those toxins are in their body and energetically passing them onto you. Nicotine addiction can show a lack of self-respect. Certainly, it shows a lack of self-love because if they had self-respect and self-love, they wouldn’t toxify their bodies with so many chemicals.

Who cooks your food? Are they angry? Was the chef yelled at or fought with a co-worker? Guess what; that anger is going right into your food. Yep, it’s evitable. If not anger, perhaps fear. Any emotion the chef is experiencing goes directly into your food.

The two emotions I appreciate are happiness and love. I can feel it sometimes when a plate comes out—the food is beaming with energy vs. being slopped onto a plate with no consciousness. Gordon Ramsey often points out, in the show, Restaurant Nightmares the difference between chef’s attitudes that care vs. the chefs who don’t care and what the food looks like to the customer. I’ve seen it myself over the years.

Next time you sit down to eat out, look around can you see the chef? Is the chef on a break smoking a cigarette?  Does the chef care enough about themselves to come to work clean and happy?

Eating organic and healthy are ways to show love to yourself.  Next time you think about going out to eat, take an extra few minutes to ask about the chefs or do research before eating at a particular restaurant. You owe it to yourself to know who cooks your food?

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