After an intense decade of work and being a student, my body asked me to take a break. I needed to recharge so I took a much-needed "sabbatical". During this time, my own health took a tumble as well. And when consulting with a group of peers the suggestion was for me to lose weight, though my main issue was gynecological in nature. This was my first time experiencing what weight stigma looks like. From here on, it was all like a domino effect... 
 

I discovered radical self-love, and intuitive eating. I confronted the fact that my relationship with food and my own body was broken. It had been for a long time but didn’t quite face it until then. This also brought to light how I was promoting “diluted” diet culture messages mascaraed as health promoting. Faced up the weight stigma and fatphobia believes I still held.
 

I am still working on healing my relationship with food and my body, knowing this will be a long-term journey.  But I am making a conscious decision to avoid diet culture related language and content in my practice and daily life. Thus, my practitioner role continues to evolve with my personal experience and growth. And so, I redefined myself as ‘Your anti-diet Herbalista’. 

​

So, what do I mean by "anti-diet Herbalista"?  It means that my approach includes gentle nutrition and health promoting behaviours. Not fad or restrictive diets, nor fear mongering to eliminate foods with no need - I mean if you are allergic to nuts, you shouldn’t eat them! But if you are not, there is no reason to eliminate them based on a single component of their chemical composition. 

It also means that when we work together, we look at ways to improve and build upon your preferences, while also being mindful of your cultural traditions. Because despite what diet culture has led us to believe, our cultural foods matter and are nourishing. Part of my own journey too has been to rediscover those foods, flavours and pleasure that diet culture had told me were "wrong".