About Me

The story of why I do what I do comes from three separate paths in my life.

The first path began in 1995 was I was diagnosed with cancer. While my own story is fairly mild compared to others, cancer has played a large part in not only my own life but also the lives of people around me. Having gone through my own experience I know the benefits of having positive support around you and I am the type of person who will lean in rather than pull away when someone is going through a traumatic situation.

The second path is my love of cooking. I have been cooking for many years and wanted to understand more about the food I was preparing. I began taking nutrition courses and along the way I learned more and more about the power of food as medicine. I often felt compelled to let others around me know, whether they wanted to or not, everything I was learning and the benefits of eating a healthier diet.

The third path came from my professional life. I spent 25+ years working in a corporate environment and one day realized I was less interested in helping a company’s bottom line and more interested in helping people directly.

Once I realized these paths could be combined together to help people live healthier lives I knew this is what I’m supposed to be doing. 

Meatitate is health and wellness for people who choose to eat an omnivorous diet.

There is a misconception that meat eaters are unhealthy while vegans and vegetarians are healthy. This is simply untrue. The science clearly shows that someone who eats a plant based, whole food diet will definitely be healthier than someone who eats a high fat, high caloric animal based diet but these are the two ends of the spectrum and don’t depict the majority of people. 

It is very easy to be an unhealthy vegan and the reality is most highly processed junk foods are vegetarian. No matter what you choose to eat or not eat you need to make smart decisions when it comes to your health. Unless you have a chronic illness you can eat almost anything you want and still be healthy if you are mindful about what you are eating. If you subscribe to the concept that you can’t be healthy if you eat meat then you are doing yourself a disservice. It’s all about moderation and being honest with yourself and educating yourself.

I’m not anti plant based diet - it is the majority of what I eat. At least 85% of my diet is fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. But we eat for health, for growth and for pleasure so I don’t believe in depriving myself foods that I really enjoy - I’m just realistic about them.

Being healthy isn’t just about our diet. Lifestyle medicine also includes being active, reducing stress levels, sleep management and creating positive social connections. So we focus on food preparation, education and wellness for those of us that eat an omnivorous diet. It’s about being realistic about what you eat, how you live and creating a positive and realistic relationship with food and wellness.