Hi! I’m Lisa, the creator of this blog. Food has always played a major role in my life, though not always in the healthiest of ways. Some of my earliest memories resolve around sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night to grab as many snacks as I could carry, hoarding them away. As a child, I was always on the chunkier side, but that didn’t bother me; that was who I was – Lisa, the youngest of four, known for being silly, dog obsessed, and often the largest kid in the class.
However, everything changed when I entered middle school in the early 2000s. The era of ‘scary skinny’ was upon us, and I learned just how much value society placed on the number on the scale. Thus began my two-decade-long struggle with crash dieting. I loved food, but I hated the control it had over me. Over the following years, my weight fluctuated drastically, I was either gaining or losing but never able to maintain a steady balance.
“I loved food but I hated the control it had over me.”
One night in 2021, as I lay in bed contemplating which diet I would start come Monday, a realization hit me: twenty years of struggling had shown me I couldn’t do it alone, and each passing year only added more weight. In that moment, I made a decision-to seek help. The very next day, I booked an appointment with a bariatric surgeon.
Initially, I feared that undergoing bariatric surgery meant committing to a life of never truly enjoying food again. Thankfully, I soon discovered that couldn’t be further from the truth. On March 22, 2022, I underwent a gastric bypass procedure and shed a whopping 165lbs. Sharing my entire journey on Tiktok, I challenged myself to recreate all my favorite dishes, but with a healthier twist! Now, I want to inspire others, showing them that it’s possible to lead a balanced, healthy life while still enjoying their favorite dishes.
