I didn’t start out motherhood as someone who cared about nutrition. I was 16 and scared… barely hanging on as a new single mom. I was a junior in high school and my daughter’s bio dad decided he wanted no part in our lives. So I did it alone. I ate burger king every day during my pregnancy because it sounded good to me and was one of the only things that didn't come right back up. This is a story for another day, but my daughter’s nutritional foundation is not.
When my first-born, Gabby, started eating solid foods and then progressed into table food, I thought the coolest things to feed her were all the things my mother would never buy for me - the cool kid foods. Cosmic brownies, frozen Kid Cuisine dinners with more colors in them than the rainbow, canned Spaghettios, Lucky Charms, the list goes on and on. If it was easy, pre-packaged and looked fun, I would buy it for her. I look back at my younger self and smile. I did my absolute best at the time, with no training, no partner and little knowledge about life, but WOW I fed her junk!
I graduated high school in 2001 with a 1-year-old and started my college career that fall at the University of Scranton as a political science major. I absolutely fell in love with college - the academia, the freedom, the breaks between classes where my friends and I would smoke more Marlboro Menthol Lights than I care to admit. It was a dream come true to be surrounded by so many cool and amazing people from all different walks of life. I was so excited to be on my way to a better life for Gabby and I, through education and my hope to become a lawyer. I quickly fell in love with my major, too - soaking in every single class from American National Government to International Relations and the Politics of Germany post WW2. I had a favorite professor, Dr. Gretchen Van Dyke, who offered a “by application only” class called The European Union Simulation Course. I applied in my junior year, unsure if I’d be accepted and to my great surprise, I was in! I couldn’t wait to deep dive on the politics and inner workings of the European Union - their government, their policies, their regulations. In this unique course, we were learning and training for a final simulation where each participating school is given a country to represent and at the end of the course, gather at a 3 day Parliament Simulation in Washington DC. We were given the country of Ireland to study and represent at the simulation. We learned about their customs, politics, traditions, etc. I will never forget being in that class one fall evening where we sat at a large conference table and discussed the EU’s food policies. It was in that class that my interest in food quality and nutrition was ignited. We discussed the regulations and policies the European Union places on GMO’s and pesticides/herbicides. I didn’t even know what a GMO was at that point, but for some reason my attention was fully taken by these regulations and policies. I loved that they labeled all of their foods that were grown using pesticides with warning stickers. I also loved that they put a huge emphasis on buying from local markets and farmers. Who knew that a class about the EU would open my eyes to the world of choosing better foods.
I left class that evening and immediately drove to Wegmans, a higher end grocery store with multiple locations in the northeast US. I wanted to see what they had to offer in the organic section, or if there even was one. In 2003, there was one organic aisle - mostly filled with gluten free items and some snack bars that were labeled “organic”. Though the pickings were slim, I still became immediately enthralled with eating clean. Thus began my search for better food choices for my daughter and I. I didn’t know it at the time but I was on the organic train before it was trendy.
I was simultaneously working as a waitress throughout college and I became close friends with many of the chefs I worked with. During my many years serving tables, I would ask the chefs for cooking tips or for them to make me a really fun and unusual meal to try. The crazier, the better. My palette expanded tremendously and my desire to cook for my very tiny family started to grow.
My love of nourishing my family has only continued to expand as my family has also grown. I met my husband in 2004 and we quickly became a little unit of 3. We were married in 2007 and the following year, we welcomed our son, John, into the world, followed by our daughter, Claire in 2011 and our daughter, Emilia in 2013. Just 10 years after that EU Simulation Course and here I was with a big family of 6 to nourish and care for with those ten years of research, trial and error and the desire to do better for myself and my family. I have spent the last 23 years trying pretty much everything “nutrition” related- I’ve tried every crazy fad, every protein bar, almost any supplement you can think of. In the early days of our marriage, I grocery shopped for our family on a tiny budget and managed to feed the rainbow to our family - replacing that rainbow of artificial colors I fed Gabby so many years earlier with a rainbow of fresh fruits and veggies. I shopped at local farmers markets as often as I could, I cooked from scratch, I learned about the clean 15 and the dirty dozen. I have also done some crazy things in the name of “health”: I juiced celery each morning and drank 16 oz of it on an empty stomach for 3 years straight - walking through Costco with 30 bags of organic celery to last us a week or so. I have gone paleo, gluten free, alcohol free, dairy free. I have restricted my food intake to the point of being diagnosed with disordered eating. I went to therapy. I healed my inner critic (mostly) and learned to have a proper relationship with food and most importantly, with myself. I have read more nutrition books and listened to more podcasts than I can count. When my son, my healthiest eater, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2023, I had to learn all about that too. How to nourish his body and help him navigate carb counting and insulin management. I like to think of myself as a walking research paper on nutrition, ever gathering more information to share and refine. I’ve learned that some things “work” and some things just don’t, that restriction is never a good thing, that balance is key. That hormones can play a big role in dietary needs. That carbs are not the enemy. That movement is medicine but rest is also medicine. That nervous system regulation might be more important than any food you put into your body. That the packs of Marlboro Menthol Lights I was smoking in college were in fact not helping my constant anxiety, yet not to cast judgement on the younger version of me who didn’t know any better.
As we launch our company, Vast Nutrition, I am elated to share my knowledge and experience with you. I am a real person, with real struggles and real life-knowledge. I love to be honest because I believe that the deepest human connections are found through being raw and real. I crave that in my own life and look forward to connecting with you in this way through this platform.
In good health,
Christina
