Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Yamira Lee (Mira) Johnson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Yamira Lee (Mira), really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my purpose by sharing the solutions and best practices I’ve learned through navigating major life challenges. When I was experiencing hardship, I felt like I was the only one going through it. I wanted to become others going through similar challenges the person or resource I desperately needed.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I help women in their 40s, and 50s win the battle against chronic pain and inflammation caused by lifestyle and autoimmune diseases. My focus is to help them learn how to prepare wholesome meals that can allow them to support their healing journey.
It all started when I retired from my corporate job, due to my health crashing, and I wanted to work with a more meaningful purpose. That’s when our company Breaking Bread with Mira, Inc. was founded in 2012 as a specialty catering and meal prep service that included creating traditional recipes with wholesome ingredients. After collaborating with local functional doctors, we began offering plant-based, organic, and gluten-free alternatives on our menus for their clients. Adding such alternatives gave us a competitive advantage over other catering companies who were limited in offering those alternatives.
In 2016, due to my struggle with inflammation and chronic pain, I became a certified Holistic Life Coach specializing in nutrition. It all happened organically, while meeting other women dealing with similar issues, I began sharing recipes and holistic best practices. Things shifted toward sharing cooking demos at doctor offices, senior center facilities, and local County Libraries. My audience broadened, and I adapted our cooking classes to meet the needs of our supporters.
I noticed that after a lifestyle or autoimmune disease diagnosis, most people don’t know where to get started with their nutrition. I began to create and share wholesome meal plans that can be downloaded to a mobile phone or computer as a PDF document. Our plans include seven days of wholesome recipes with their nutritional value, micros, macros, a sample calendar, and even a grocery list. This service reduces the guessing about what am I going to cook, whether is it good for me, and how many ingredients I need to buy. I even offer one-on-one online cooking instruction for those who need a little more help getting their meals ready.
That’s when our DBA, Living, and Aging Well was born. I started gathering evidence-based functional medicine best practices to help our audience navigate their processes. Our website now includes evidence-based integral medicine content, cooking videos, and related resources.
Inspired by my testimony of being almost defeated by chronic pain and inflammation, in 2023 I decided to self-publish the book “Non-Opioid Alternatives for Chronic Pain and Inflammation: Win the Battle Against Lifestyle and Autoimmune Diseases”. In this book we break down the importance of keeping the immune and lymphatic systems nurtured, the most common autoimmune and lifestyle diseases, and eighteen non-opioid alternatives to support the healing process. The book also includes a foreword by fibromyalgia expert Dr. Maribel Aviles, M.D.
In addition to our wholesome online cooking demos, and hands-on classes, I also offer online Holistic workshops and courses to corporations and community organizations seeking to support their staff’s wellbeing. I partner with functional experts, and integrative medicine practitioners to offer evidence based best practices.
Our brand is based on the premises of holistic healing with wholesome nutrition, gentle movement, and intentional rest of the body, mind, and spirit.
You can visit our website livingandagingwell.com for resources and contact information.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most impactful skills or areas of knowledge that help me serve my audience effectively include:
1. My own experience with chronic pain and inflammation. I understand where they are at and have gone ahead of them researching, practicing, and documenting evidence-based solutions.
2. Resource network. I’ve been able to meet and work under the leadership of experienced integrative medicine practitioners who have also experienced or had family members experience chronic pain and inflammation due to lifestyle or chronic diseases.
3. My commitment to serve others. I’ve learned that one of my gifts is to serve others with diligence. I’m committed to providing support to those who have committed themselves to take steps toward their healing. I started by providing my clients “fish”, and now I’m helping them to use the right bait, and tools to reel in their own fish”.
My advice to someone dealing with chronic pain and inflammation is to not give up hope. Constant chronic pain can be disabling and can trick one into thinking that’s the end of the story. I know, because that’s how I felt. Although it is a challenge to take an honest look at lifestyle practices, once you set your mind to improve and heal, there’s help. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel but there is not a train coming at you”.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As a holistic life nutrition coach, I look forward to partnering with
1. Functional medicine practitioners who can offer my clients evidence-based resources to improve lifestyle and autoimmune solutions.
2. I can also collaborate with companies offering wellness programs and would like to offer resources to their staff, we can provide online and on-demand workshops and videos on the topics of wholesome cooking, and holistic life best practices.
3. Last but not least, women in their 40s and 50s who would like to take charge of their wellness journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.livingandagingwellcom
- Instagram: @coachmiracooks
- Facebook: @coachmiracooks
- Linkedin: Yamira Lee Johnson
- Youtube: Living and Aging Well with Mira Coach
- Yelp: Breaking Bread with Mira
Image Credits
Orange County Library Systems (Amanda Murphy)
Yamira Lee Johnson
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
