I have always been asked the question, how did you get started with your career, what got you into nutrition?
I never really had a sob story or a health crisis that propelled me into this field. What prompted it was simply a passion for living well and eating well. This has carried me throughout the last 10 years or so. As I was growing up, my keen interested for eating well inspired me to become a personal trainer, holistic nutritionist and natural chef. Having opened up my food studio, I got the chance to share my message for eating plant-based wholesome meals at home through cooking classes, workshops, community events and retreats.
I was vegetarian at the time so this made sense. I felt great and my values around promoting a plant-based lifestyle (aka vegetarian) was easy and of full integrity. This way of eating worked well for me and there was a demand for eating more plant-based. This is what my audience wanted and what I wanted to share. This not only landed me a book deal but many other opportunities to spread my passion and my message to the world.
As the years progressed things started to shift. I wasn’t feeling my vibrant self, I couldn’t be the living example of my so- called healthy plant-based diet anymore. I slowly started to open my mind up to the possibility of eating animal protein. As you can imagine, after 7 years being vegetarian, this was a long and difficult process. It took me time to fully wrap my head around the concept of eating foods that I thought I would never eat again. You can read more about the beginning stages of this transformation which I summarized in this post last year.
The changes that were starting to take place in my body were telling me that something had to give. My perspective started to change as my knowledge and understanding of my diet as I knew it started to transform. As a young nutritionist, I was eating according to what morally felt right. This made perfect sense to me and my audience embraced my perspective. I had always strived to be vegetarian growing up and I succeed, this diet had always appealed to me on an intellectual level. However, as the evolution of my knowledge continued grow, I started to understand that this diet wasn’t making sense for my body on a foundational level. I started unravel these tightly wound beliefs that were so wrapped up my core being.
Due to the concern of loved ones, health practitioners and my own intuition telling me that something wasn’t right, I began experimenting with new way of eating. For almost two years now, I have been testing and re-testing different foods and how my body responds to them. I am now eating foods that are enhancing my body and my health, not what I think I should be eating. I am in the thick of starting to get a grasp on some specific health challenges that have come up. I will be sharing more in future posts.
What I have come to learn throughout this process is that years of being on a diet based on grains and beans may have damaged the lining of my gut. This has potentially has set off a cascade of autoimmune reactions in my body. This is all still to be determined.
With all of this said, I now have a completely different view of what foods I require to thrive. The core of my diet will always be based on organic, unprocessed and whole foods. These deeply rooted food values will never change. However, my staples are now coming from animal protein, healthy fats, root vegetables, leafy greens and some fruit. Some would call this paleo, which in essence it is. Lately I have been experimenting with a version of the paleo diet called AIP (auto-immune protocol), which is really helping me to re-establish a new stronger foundation for my body. Of course, I don’t like labels and that is why I am calling this my REAL FOOD MAKEOVER.
So what is the real food makeover?
This is my new series where I will be posting recipes, insights and tips on how to live and eat for
I have been having so much fun creating new recipes which I will continue to post on instagram. I hope you are excited to join along as I transform and function on new fuel. Where once grains and beans were my jam, now the focus is on other real food sources that are serving me on a new level.
I am upgrading an already great “diet” to an even better one. Real food will always be the focus, as this is something I have never compromised on for as long as I can remember.
I hope you are ready & excited for deliciousness coming at you from every angle. Stories about healing my body through food. New books, websites, people, products and restaurants that I will be discovering along the way. In addition there will be lifestyle suggestions on how to live better, bringing in modalities from movement, sleep, mindfulness and more! Be sure to follow the hashtag #realfoodmakeover on instagram & twitter.
Other major “life” shifts…
To give you full perspective, not only am I experiencing a shift in my body physically and my eating habits but at the same time I am going through a huge shift in my passions, goals and dreams. I just recently wrote this piece which tells my story in greater detail.
Teaching cooking classes up until this point has been a huge part of who I am. It has been wonderful working with so many incredible people in my food studio, inspiring them to eat better. This has been my path for years. Now it’s time for a change. It’s time to let go of having my own physical space and move on to new and bigger projects that still carry my same message forward – to eat well and live well. As I discover new areas of growth and focus, I am excited to get my hands dirty all over again.
All the experiences that I’ve had up until this point have all been centred around creating communities. Now I want to go beyond the four walls of my studio and reach people on a global level. As I continue carve out my own health journey I want to bring people together through the common goal reaching ultimate health.
I have been fortunate enough to form tribes in so many different ways over the years and my newest tribe has formed from co-hosting The Ultimate Health Podcast with my partner Jesse. This has been fulfilling on so many beautiful levels. Not only has it allowed me to connect with the best of the best health experts in the world such as Dr Bruce Lipton, Deepak Chopra, Arianna Huffington, Dr Christiane Northrup, Dr Mark Hyman, Dr Josh Axe (to name a few) but it has also allowed me to learn, grow and draw upon new areas of insight related to my own health and healing journey. This has happened in ways that I can’t even begin to describe, but I will do my best during the course of this series.
I am excited for you to continue along with me throughout my journey.
Get Inspired to Eat Well and Live Well with me!
How to stay connected!
Since you are reading this, then you are already part of my tribe. I want you to continue to stay connected and find out what is happening next. I will be unravelling new projects overtime which I can’t wait to share with you.
Be sure you are subscribed and following The Ultimate Health Podcast as this is where I will spending most my time. I will be expanding the podcast into a global community which is growing extremely fast. Make sure you join our ultimate health community to keep up with what is happening week to week and meet others that are like minded!
Subscribe to our weekly podcast here!
Follow @marniwasserman on Instagram
Follow @ultimatehealthpodcast on Instagram
Get access to previous episodes and resources here – www.ultimatehealthpodcast.com
LISTEN to these PODCASTS that share my transition from vegetarianism story:
