Welcome to The Crunchy Mama Blog!
I am so excited to share this unfiltered part of my life!
I want to keep things raw and real and share with you all the things I am going through as a first time Crunchy Mama!
I want to share my journey through my natural and holistic pregnancy! I want to share things I am learning through my personal experience navigating my first pregnancy and also through my profession of being a Registered Holistic Nutritionist who specializes in infertility and pregnancy!
What Does Crunchy Mama mean to me?
It means soo many things!
Natural
Holistic
Alternative
Autonomy
Judgement free zone
Informed consent
Preventive
Feeling my best
Growing the healthiest baby i can grow
Empowering
Educating
Creating a community of like minded crunchy mama’s and mama-to-be’s
I am a huge believer in informed consent for everything, but especially for our health and during pregnancy! My wish for every Crunchy Mama out there is that they can make informed decisions during their pregnancy and as a Crunchy Mama!
I support and love all mamas who are choosing what is best for them and their situation!
“No one is in your shoes, no one can place judgement on your decisions!”
My Story
How I came to be a Crunchy Mama!
I wanted a natural, or “crunchy” pregnancy because that’s the way I live my life!
I had really severe health issues (autoimmune disease and horrible hormone imbalances) all of my life and I was tired of feeling sick. I was tired of just dragging my ass through life. I wanted to start living! I wanted to feel vibrant but most of all I wanted to have a healthy family.
“My biggest fear was that I wasn’t going to be able to get pregnant.”
My biggest fear was since my health was so bad and infertility was on the rise was that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant and have that family that I wanted.
My second biggest fear was that I would be able to get pregnant BUT I would feel so awful during my pregnancy and in motherhood that I wouldn't be me. I wouldn't be happy, outgoing, playing with my kids, growing my business and just being able to enjoy my life as a mom since my health was so bad!
I’ve Always Been Drawn to a more Natural and Crunchy Lifestyle!
I was always drawn to a more natural and crunchy lifestyle. I absolutely love nature and being outdoors. I never liked to take medicine and medication and always wanted to find ways to address my health issues in a natural way. I was fascinated with food and nutrition from a young age, especially since I am Italian and grew up in a home where food was the center of our family! But because I had an undiagnosed autoimmune disease, crohns, for over 12 years I knew, from experience, that the food I ate made a difference in how I felt and how my crohns reacted! (crohns is a digestive autoimmune disease). Western medicine was only able to take me so far.
Disclaimer: I am not against Western Medicine. Remember that big purple sticker up above, this is a judgement free zone!! I think that Western Medicine and Alternative Medicine have different strengths and weaknesses and that they should be used complimentary to each other!
I Hit Rock Bottom…
My health reached rock bottom in my early 20’s and I knew I had to make a life change. All of those thoughts of not having a family and being forever sick kept creeping into my mind. All of this was happening at the same time my health was seriously declining. During this period, I began to hear over and over again about Holistic Nutrition, from so many different sources. My cousin was a huge influence and kept telling me that I would be great in Holistic Nutrition!
“I was so drawn to it and knew that that was what I was meant to be doing.”
I decided to listen to the universe and look into what holistic nutrition was. I feel in love! When I was reading about it, I felt this overwhelming sense of calm and peace inside of me. I was so drawn to it and knew that that was what I was meant to be doing. My intuition was telling me that this was what was going to help me finally feel vibrant, heal and be able to have a wonderful family! Everything felt so right. At the time I was a co-founder for a biomedical engineering tech company and decided to divest from the company and pursue Holistic Nutrition!
I attended the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and learnt so much! Every day it seemed like my world was being turned upside down. I began to dive into podcasts and books and just kept soaking up everything that I could about this “Crunchy”, natural lifestyle! I was eating it up and it felt so right!
From there I began to implement these things I was learning into my life. It really started with food and then continued with mindset, movement, and soo many other lifestyle factors! As I learnt, I kept changing and modifying my life.
It Turned My Health Around!
For the first time in my entire life, I began to actually feel good. The progress was slow, but it was noticeable. Symptoms I had for years and years were gone! That's the part I love the most. When I was implementing these changes, and starting to feel better, all I wanted to do was keep going. It showed me that it works and the funny thing is that science backs it up as well, except our western medical model says otherwise.
We know that what we eat is literally what our body is made of. This is proven by science, I'm not even going to link a study here since that is a fact and everyone agrees. BUT western medicine (and there are always exceptions) told me and so many people I know, over and over again that diet and lifestyle don't make a difference for acute or chronic health conditions.
I COMPLETELY turned my health and life around using food and lifestyle. My husband also did as well! He was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease right before I began holistic nutrition. We used this natural, crunchy, alternative views and ancient wisdom coupled with science from my Biomedical Engineering background to transform our health!
