Looking Back to Look Ahead
The end of this month will mark eight years since ending my use of the psychiatric pharmaceuticals that had consumed over half my life at that point. I spent the year of 2013 slowly tapering off the various drugs, changing the way I lived, and giving myself the best foot forward I could. At the beginning of that year I was completely unstable mentally, majorly overweight and unhealthy, and living a lifestyle with people who were only comfortable keeping me in that severely damaging space. But that was all about to change.
There were many things that shifted that year, but one of the biggest was the way I ate. I knew when I set out to get off medication that I would need to drastically change what I was doing to make it a success. So I focused on cooking from scratch with an organic, whole food, and plant-focused approach. I started to learn about where my food came from and what it did to my body. And after several years off, I went back to school to study nutrition.
By the end of 2013, things were looking up. I was healing and my mind and body were changing for the better. I weighed 120 pounds, had walked away from many unhealthy situations and relationships including a marriage, and I entered the new year with peace in my heart and a new life ahead of me.
Over the next couple years, I married a wonderful man and started a family, found my faith, and started a new career. But after giving birth in 2015 and navigating through a series of medical and financial challenges as a family, my physical health began to decline and I was suddenly facing a laundry list of new chronic illnesses. And it’s been what seems like an uphill battle with my health for the past five years.
Next month I turn 36 and I have changed beyond recognition from the kid I was back in 2013. But lately it feels like every day is a struggle to get well. The years of damage that were done to my body in my youth have caught up with me and I know that something has to change. The hands of time are ticking and the older I get the more my body fights against me.
So eight years later, I’ve decided to look back again to the tools I found that helped me heal all those years ago in 2013. And looking forward to the hope of healthier days ahead, I’m going to give them another try. With my passion for culinary art that has blossomed in the past couple years, it’s time for me to join the two together so I can get well again. I’m not sure what this will look like, but the kinds of recipes I create may look different moving forward.
Cheers to the next adventure,
Jo
