My earliest memory of cooking was around 5 years old.  My mom took out her Joy of Cooking book and we made chocolate chip cookies together.  It was a measured and calculated process and in the end I got to enjoy the sweet reward.  From that moment, I was hooked.  I realized that with oil, flour and sugar, my options were endless.

Growing up and out on my own,  I stayed with calculated cooking.  It wasn’t so much about the type of ingredients as it was about a finished dish.  Making better choices didn’t even cross my mind.

As I grew older, I noticed how important food was to our total health.  When I would gain an extra 10 or 15 pounds, I would pause and do a reset.  I did this in my thirties and in my forties.  I would eat clean for a month, lose the weight, and then make adjustments to keep it off.

A reset was my solution.

In my late forties, my mom was diagnosed with dementia.  At first, she was too embarrassed to tell me.  It was on one visit home that she finally sat me down and shared the news.  She knew things were about to change for her.  I didn’t realize at the time how much things would change for me too.

In 2018, I did a quick trip home to help my sister and brother move my parents to be next door to my sister.  From the moment my plane landed, I hit the ground running and didn’t stop until I got back on the plane.

When I landed back home in California, I realized that I had lost most of my memory.  I couldn’t remember many things about my past or even simple, daily tasks.  I had never experienced anything like this before.  Since I just visited my parents,  I jokingly wondered if dementia was contagious.  I soon found out that because of the stress, lack of sleep and poor diet, what I was experiencing was a brain fog.

Over the next six weeks, I would acknowledge each time a little bit of my memory would come back.  When it all returned, I made a decision to make a big change.  It wasn’t going to be a quick reset.

Instead, I decided to remix.

I opened up a spreadsheet and decided I was going to record everything I ate.  I decided to remove sugar and grains from my diet.  I wanted to give one year to changing ingredients, with no exercise, to see if I could change my body, inside and out, just by what I ate.

In the first 6 months, I lost 32 pounds.  I realized that digestion really begins at our finger tips.  Our moods, poor sleep, skin tone, excessive yawning and weight gain can all be linked to the types of ingredients we put in our mouth.  I started researching how our bodies work.  I learned that we have 30 trillion human cells in our bodies.  Even more fascinating, we have over 38 trillion bacteria cells.  Our bodies are built to fight disease; it’s in our blood.

My whole life, I thought calories were a measurement of weight.  I believed that cutting my calories would cut my weight.  Calories are actually a measurement of energy.  At rest, the energy we use in a day is the same as having a 100 watt light bulb on for 20 hours straight.  Our bodies get all of its energy from the food we eat.  To power 100 watts for 20 hours takes 2,000 calories of energy.

We have become very comfortable putting our car in the shop for days or fueling them up with premium 91 octane gasoline without a second thought.  However, we don’t always give that same care to our own body.

Remixology was created to share my journey and what I discovered, and to let people know that we have the power to change things.  We need to fuel our bodies each day and making better choices can improve our lives.  You don’t need to make big changes, you just need to change the way you look at things.  For me, it’s always been about oil, flour and sugar; I just changed the way I looked at those ingredients. 

On the one year anniversary of my remixology journey, both my dad and mom passed away from dementia, 17 days a part.  It was an emotional time.  I discovered so much about how my parents impacted so many lives with their kindness and generosity.  I revisited how important it is to be kind, be grateful and to shine light in a dark space.

Before I left to fly back home, I only took three things of my mom’s; a green oven mitt, an old aluminum ice cream scoop and her Joy of Cooking.

Remixology was created to share my story, provide healthy information and at its best, shine light in a dark space.

Be well.  Enjoy.