A Bit About Myself and the Creation of Jeanius Food Consulting

I have always had a strong interest in cooking so in 2005 I attended a formal Culinary Arts program and graduated with Honours.    From there I went on to  a decade in the food industry working in all sorts of establishments from high-end hotels and casinos to pubs, tiny tea houses and more than one catering company.

Through the years I continued to experiment, learn and read about food.  About food for health, how to grow and create your own food, the history of food from around the world and any specialty-alternative-natural-health related diet book I could get my hands on.  My partner likes to joke that when I go to the beach in the summer I spend the entire day reading cookbooks.  It is not a joke.  I read cookbooks for fun.

Along the way I realized that I had some sort of food sensitivity.  I thought for a long time that it might be gluten.  After all gluten is the current scapegoat food these days.  Ironically in the end it turned out to be everything that we eat with gluten, and not the gluten itself.  I had my food sensitivities formally tested and it changed everything.  Once I eliminated all these foods from my diet I lost 16 lbs and 32 inches in 6 weeks.  This was not fat loss.  This was pure inflammation from decades of eating foods my body didn't know how to process.

But then I had to figure out how to make that my "new normal".    My list of food sensitivities is broad and covers a lot of foods and food groups that are a normal part of everyday life in North America. Especially in processed foods.   Let's just say that my particular body was not designed to be a vegan, or even a vegetarian.   Plant-based protein may be culturally popular today but my body has absolutely no idea what to do with it.

Over time I discovered little work arounds and alternate ingredients. I developed foods and meals that I really like to eat!   My moods, my cravings, my appetite and my weight have all found a natural stability that I have never experienced before in my life.  My skin has cleared up, my chronic joint pain has disappeared, my lungs work better and overall, I just feel good!   These days my tastebuds are happy and I finally feel confident that what I am putting into my mouth is good for ME.  And my body agrees.

In the last couple of years I have had a few friends who also had their food sensitivities tested and found themselves a bit lost in the kitchen.  I had another friend who found out that they were pre-diabetic and had to make big dietary changes.  They had a list of foods they shouldn't eat and foods they should eat but didn't know how to translate that into actual food that they wanted to eat.  And that made life frustrating and sad.

So I decided I might be able to help them and started creating recipes that they could use that made them happy.   This lead me to thinking about all the people out there who have  this same problem.  And how I have a solution.  

And that is how Jeanius Food Consulting was born.