I’m a pure food chef, author and coach on a mission to inspire a global awakening around our food choices and the profound impact they have on our physical, emotional & spiritual health.  I work with restaurants and private clients all in the name of changing the face of healthy eating—making it more accessible and pleasurable than ever before.  I am the author of three cookbooks: Pure Pleasures, Cupcake Heaven & Raw Food Juice Bar, filled with satisfying and sustainable living food recipes.

The foundation of my work is conscious nourishment—helping you cultivate awareness of the foods that truly serve your well-being in both body & soul.  With this essential awareness, we can make our highest foods choices.  Since many factors contribute to your unique needs, I do not believe that there is only one perfect diet for every individual.  I do however believe that everyone can benefit from a diet high in living plant foods. It is these foods that bring us to new levels of health, happiness, vitality and radiance.

I am currently training with The Four Winds Society, as a practitioner of shamanic wisdom and the healing arts of the ancient Americas.  Combining these timeless teachings with my live food experience, I am honored to bring a uniquely holistic approach to my work.

I am also the Co-Founder of Nourishing Our Radiance, along with Melissa Geiger.  We created this site to connect, support and strengthen a community of visionary women who are dedicated to realizing their potential, creating positive change in the world, and restoring balance to our bodies, souls, communities and planet.  This community has become a new outlet for me to share my work on a deeper level, connecting the path between physical nourishment and emotional & spiritual health.

My story

I discovered my healing, my bliss and my purpose by becoming truly nourished through living foods.

This is my love story. How will you write yours?

Then:  

Just a few years ago I was living an ordinary life, bored, stuck, sick & tired.  I had a raging case of candida (full-on systemic yeast overgrowth–pretty, I know) that was sucking me dry.  Years of doctor recommended antibiotic use and birth control pills, a junk food vegetarian diet and a seriously negative outlook lead me there.  No energy, no hope, no joy.  I ran from practitioner to practitioner in hopes that they could fix me.  I was on a new special diet every month.  I ran credit cards high on tests and supplements with no results.  I got mad, sad and jaded.  5 years sick, 26 years old, and I wondered “Is this really my life?”.

Then I heard a message.  “Try raw foods”, the messenger (my brother, Justin) said. “Boost your immunity.  Become alkaline.  Cleanse.  Take the reins.  Only you can heal yourself.”  He read me a passage from David Wolfe’s Sunfood Diet Success System:

“There is a psychology necessary to heal chronic candida.  Candida is associated with subconscious self-destructive feelings of rejection and a lack of self-worth.  Negative, self-destructive thoughts destroy good bacteria in the intestinal tract and allow candida to proliferate.  Positive, self-confident thoughts help good bacteria proliferate in the intestines.  An emotional cleansing is required to overcome chronic candida.”

Wow.  I was floored.  I had been wrapped up in a vicious cycle of illness causing depression and depression causing illness and so on.  Not anymore.  My ordinary life was about to get turned upside down into the extraordinary.

I made a plan, bought books and filled my refrigerator.  I went raw overnight.  I stuffed my body full of greens and said goodbye to processed foods and addictive snacks.  It was close to winter and I was cold and challenged.  But somehow I knew– “This is it”.  I’m not going to tell you it was easy the first day, week, month, or even year.  It was work.  I was sick and deep in my personal mess.  I needed time to let go, on all levels.  My body was pushing toxins out any way possible.  I was crying, a lot.  The emotional release trumped anything that happened on a physical level.  I went to therapy.  I prioritized.  I set goals.  I manifested a new life–a healthy life where I worked for myself, everyday in joy.  I quit my job.  I moved over 1,000 miles.  Everything began to flow, for the first time in my life.

Waking up, discovering that you are truly happy for the first time in years, that you are healthy beyond any “normal” standard and knowing that you took control and created this reality for yourself, is beyond empowering.  I heard my calling and found my purpose.  I was now the messenger sharing the words that pure, living food nourishment can radically enhance every aspect of your life.

Now:

You don’t just discover a magic trick like this and keep it to yourself.  When you realize the secrets of health and happiness, you are pretty much required to share.

Chances are, parts of my story are familiar.  Our society is lacking nourishment on so many levels.  I can’t say it loudly enough.  I want you to have this, too.  I want you to become truly nourished.  I want you to wake up everyday and say “I love my life”.  So this is my purpose.  Share the food that healed me, that turned me on, that woke me up, and make it taste better than you ever thought possible.

Today I’m a pure food chef, author and educator on a mission.  I focus on living foods and their relationship to our health, happiness & beauty.  I share my work in a fun, accessible way through innovative recipes, that are both luscious and simple.  I’ve worked with restaurants and private clients all in the name of changing the face of healthy eating.  I write books and articles and photograph wildly gorgeous plates to share with you.  I want to inspire your deep nourishment, allowing you to reach levels of health and happiness that you never thought were possible.  I want to be your messenger and I want you to write your own love story to keep spreading the word.  We all deserve to feel the absolute joy of being truly nourished by pure foods.  It’s your turn.

Though I’m a wanderer at heart, you’ll currently find me loving in Santa Cruz, CA.