I've always loved the way food enters our life and affects our soul. I was raised vegetarian, but in 2002, I started having health problems at the age of 24. With the help of the McDougall plan, oil-free plant-based way of eating, I was able to lose 50 lbs and keep it off until I got pregnant with my first son, and then had two more, ending up with 3 boys under 4 yrs old.
I suddenly found myself a single mom, with very young kids, eating a diet full of dairy and eggs. It took six years to start getting back into shape. After my oldest son was diagnosed with diabetes, I knew I needed to do something more with my life to make a better living for my family. I started school and gained all the weight back when I stopped exercising and started eating out more.
At the age of 45, I'm trying to learn to be kind to myself again. I've had several injuries and two surgeries over the past two years and spent most of this last year with chronic hip pain, losing sleep and limiting my ability to move.
I've remarried since then and my boys are ages 14, 15, and 17. I'm the only vegetarian in the household, which can be a challenge. Until recently, I have not had any meat or dairy products in the house, but my kids are cooking more and wanting to learn how to use the crockpot for various chicken and occasional beef meals. Though my goal is to be entirely plant-based without any added fats, I will occasionally have dairy or egg when eating out while traveling. It's very hard to negotiate meals in another language and I enjoy understanding local culture and being vegetarian fits that best for me.
This blog has several purposes. I love travel and location history, food culture and history, and I also love cooking. I raised my kids in the kitchen and my oldest is a type one diabetic with severe insulin resistance so I will be sharing some techniques and information to help with that, as well as teaching kids to cook. Respiratory medicine and my experiences with the medical field will also be relevent enough to discuss at times.
I named the blog Breathe Wilde because I work full-time as a respiratory therapist at a local hospital and to me, eating good food and traveling has always helped me breathe, especially in the years since the pandemic. While I love my job, It has been a difficult journey and my mental health suffered greatly as a result of taking care of patients in the pandemic and not taking care of myself.
I have several Instagram accounts that I will be incorporating into this account. One is my main account, breathe.wilde. The other account is called Give A Kid A Pot and centers around giving kids the opportunity to cook and ways of teaching them simple skills in the kitchen.