Food is an important part of the healing journey.
Gena Hamshaw of Choosing Raw is today’s guest
It can be an outlet for creativity, a source of great pleasure, and a way of practicing deeper values of social justice and ecological sustainability.
Yet, for many of us, myself included, food has also been fraught with challenges.
My own raw foods experience was one of the worst food experiments that I’ve ever conducted in my life, as it’s a very triggering and painful diet for someone with active inflammatory bowel disease, which I had at the time. Even still, the aesthetic of raw foods was so appealing to me. I connected to the beauty and the freshness of it but there was a subterranean component of my attraction to raw foods that was connected to my history of restrictive eating and disordered eating. When I found Gena’s blog I felt like I was looking for something other than what I found at Choosing Raw, something perhaps more restrictive, something perhaps a little dangerous. Gena’s sane and centered approach really supported me and reminded me of the truth: a healing diet is about coming back to center, not about going to extremes.
That’s why I’m so happy to bring this interview to you today. Gena is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, the writer and creative force behind Choosing Raw, and a champion of a truly holistic view of health that includes psychological and physical well-being as well as the power of our food choices to make an impact in the world. Gena has also been one of my guides and role models as I’ve worked to heal the aftershocks of an eating disorder.
In this interview, Gena and I share our thoughts about food, creativity (can you believe she didn’t know how to cook when she started her blog?!), perfectionism, and recovery. I really believe there’s something here for everyone, wherever you happen to be on your healing journey.
Listen in, and make sure to check out her work at Choosing Raw the blog and her brand-new book, also named Choosing Raw.
