Hello there!
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I’m Gretchen. I’m passionate about sharing what I know! I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you here.Â
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You’re interested in living a healthy, disease-free life. And, you want to feel amazing and look fabulous. Yes?
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So, let me tell you something. Food is 100% related to how you feel, how you look, and how you live your life. I’ve always been health conscious. But it wasn’t until I discovered how the food I eat is directly related to my physical and mental well-being, that I truly felt my best!Â
Welcome to my world where I share nourishing cooking, real foods, and sourcing. It’s my mission to transform your life through nutrient-dense foods and a nourishing kitchen so that you can be your best!
You don’t have to worry about counting calories or reading nutrition facts ever again! Say what?
I vividly remember developing an aversion to food in the 10th grade. This is when a friend of mine told me how to be skinny. She told me that if you want to be skinny, you really can’t consume any calories.
From that day on, I viewed food as the ENEMY. The food I eat will make me fat. Food must be bad for me. And so, I was determined to be low calorie and low fat. Basically, I was anti-food. Subsequently, this meant that my foods would also be nutrient-void.
For the next 15 years of my life (OMG that’s a long time), I tried every which way to count calories and starve when possible.
The strange thing is, it never crossed my mind to read the INGREDIENTS.
I’ve been vegan. I’ve been plant based. I’ve done smoothie diets, protein bars, and juice cleanses. While I may have noticed weight loss success with these diets, they are very far from perfect. You naturally decrease calories dramatically when you consume just plants.
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The problem is that you can survive for only so long on a nutrient-void diet until you start developing deficiencies. It’s only a matter time. Health issues may show up differently in different people.
For me? Cravings. Mood Swings. Skin problems. Tiredness. Brain fog. Terribly painful menstrual cramps. Inflammation. Hair loss.
You know what? I stumbled into my Nourishing Kitchen. It wasn’t that one day I decided I would eat nutrient-dense foods and make all of my food from scratch with proper preparation. No way! I had never even heard of nutrient density before…
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Previously, I never even thought about how the food I eat could have any effect on how I look, how I feel, and how I age. I started dabbling with baking my own fermented buckwheat bread. Check out my healthy banana bread recipe! I think that’s where it all started. I realized that I could enjoy real bread and not feel guilty about eating it.
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If I properly prepare my grains, which is how our ancestors traditionally prepared them – soaking, sprouting, souring and/or fermenting – I can enjoy grains! Truly ENJOY! Something I would never have allowed myself in the past (because of the carbohydrates).
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Properly making my own bread got me thinking and I started to dig deeper. This led me to discovering the world of pasture farming, nutrient dense soil, pasture meats and raw dairy, rich bone broths and cultured raw butter, locally grown produce, fermented vegetables and probiotic drinks, etc. etc.
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OMG! What an exciting world!!
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Today, food is my passion. How amazing is it to know that food is ACTUALLY my BEST FRIEND? Food is not thy enemy, it is thy medicine.Â
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This serious switch in beliefs saved my life. It allowed me to reclaim my health and my energy! Food is the center of my world and my family’s world. It MUST be! Food nourishes us on every level. We can either thrive or not.Â
On a Nourishing Diet consisting of REAL, quality foods I have seen many amazing things happen to me.Â
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My mood has changed. I am so happy! I wake up with a clear head. I don’t have puffy eyes or a swollen, reddish face anymore. I don’t need coffee to get me through the day (although I do love the taste). I don’t have unwanted fat or cellulite…
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…and I eat like a Queen. You know this if you watch my Instagram Stories!
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I don’t have wrinkles anymore. My skin is hydrated and glowy (something I could never say in the past). My brain is on fire!
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I see my purpose more than ever as a Mother. First and foremost, I am here to nourish my children, so they are healthy and grow strong. I want to raise them to understand nutrient-dense, real foods. To know and LOVE why we eat this way and not the convenient, processed-foods way.
In fact, meals are the center of our home and keep us connected. Not only to each other, but also to the foods that we eat.
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The biggest lesson I have learned is to THINK about the food I eat. Where did it come from? How was it raised? How was it grown? How was my food prepared?
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Welcome to Gretchy. Here you can join me in my Nourishing Kitchen where I share REAL foods and proper preparation for optimal health! Follow me on Instagram, The Nourishing Kitchen Master Class or get cookin’ with Gretchy recipes!
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Thank you for being here.
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xo,Â
Gretchen
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Ladyinplum
 Hi, I’m Sheel, creator of http://ladyinplum.blogspot.com/. I am also a blogger based in San Diego! I am brand new to this whole thing…nice to see there are other local bloggers out there 😉
Gretchen Hackmann
Lovely blog Sheel! So glad to meet you!!