We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Howard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sara, 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 believe that my purpose in life found me. My calling is to serve the community to aid in releasing and/or softening pain and suffering. My passion in life is to create food with love; specifically by cooking nutrient dense meals that heal. I have been blessed to utilize wisdom from my personal health journey to aid others, specializing as a Functional Nutrition Coach and Nutrient Dense Personal Chef.
At Eating to Heal, the community is served by offering healthy meals and small private events, as well as comprehensive functional nutrition coaching to those seeking guidance and direction on their journey to wellness.
Our mission is to assist the community with navigating how to nourish themselves with every bite. We are passionate about sourcing ingredients that will provide our minds and bodies with the support we need to thrive and prevent disease. We aim to make this journey approachable for everybody to feel and live better.
Good food is good medicine. Our stomach is where our microbiome lives and it is our second brain, thus it needs clean fuel to run efficiently. At Eating to Heal, we aim to define what good food really means and prove how delicious it is to eat your way to health. It is easy to feel overwhelmed when trying to learn how to eat in a non-toxic, nutrient dense, non-inflammatory lifestyle, and that is where we come in to save the day.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
In my young 33 years of life, I have been dealt a challenging deck of cards with regards to my health. After getting into a car accident at 20 years old, I learned that I have a congenital neural tube defect (Chiari Malformation type 1) and genetic mutations (homozygous for MTHFR c677). Due to brain malformation and herniations, I have undergone brain surgeries & cervical spine surgeries. I have overcome major obstacles on this healing journey and I continue to navigate through autoimmune illness and chronic migraine. When I began this journey to healing myself (12+ years ago), it was not easy to find the support I needed within the conventional medical system. I felt driven to take control of my own life, seek guidance from Functional Medicine Practitioners and learn how to fuel my mind and body for success. Ultimately, I became my own advocate and guide, necessitating the search for practical solutions to improve my health. I learned how to embrace challenges as opportunities and shifted my life’s work into healing myself and thus opening Eating to Heal to share my wisdom with others.
I am the owner and creator of Eating to Heal, a Nutrient Dense Personal Chef and Functional Nutrition Coaching service. We specialize in cooking for private events, weekly meal preparation as well as educational services such as one on one coaching and cooking demonstrations/workshops.
Our passion at Eating to Heal is to continue sharing ways to transform lifestyle choices with others who find themselves in similar predicaments or are aiming to improve their health with food. Each person is genetically unique and I am on a mission to help provide the body with healthy information (food) that it can efficiently use versus mindlessly eating in a world of convenience food and nutrient striped ultra-processed food products.
We have a choice to make every time we put food into our mouths, ultimately is this food helpful or harmful? What farming practices were used in raising the animals? What oils and cooking fats were used in the process of creating this meal? Does it contain gluten or hidden sugars and additives? If the answers to those questions are unclear, I suggest re-evaluating FOOD choices. Whether we are aware of it or not, the quality of our food matters. If we eat food raised and grown in nutrient depleted environments, then ultimately that is what we can become.
At Eating to Heal we assist you with navigating through the overwhelming wellness world. Whether we are cooking for you, teaching you how to cook or supporting you with coaching, we are devoted to supporting your unique journey.
We cater to all eating styles including but not limited to: Paleo, Low Glycemic, Keto, Plant Based, Elimination Diet, AIP, Prenatal, Postpartum, Anti-histamine Diets, Wahl’s Protocol, Vegan/Vegetarian, Nightshade-free, etc.
Eating to Heal is beyond me, it is beyond “my story”, it is our story, the story resonates with everyone, we all have or know someone suffering from illness whether it is acute or chronic.
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 most impactful teachings my journey has blessed me with are the following: – the art of patience to embrace will power
– how to rewire an overstimulated/stressed nervous system
– recognition of traumas (emotional and/or physical) and use that to dive into love- into inner strength, self love.
I think this is crucial to feel empowered in order to support yourself with healthy habits. The drive to improve the quality of our lives comes from within. Without these foundational pillars, the longevity of our healthy commitments to ourselves may be compromised.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Where to begin! A short list of MUST READS for anyone beginning their healing journey:
The Journey to Awakening by Ram Dass
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. van der Kolk
Genius Foods by Max Lugavere
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A Price
“a healthier brain enhances our experience of the world, it allows us to be the truest and most expressed versions of ourselves, capable of feeling, learning, loving, and connecting in ways that make life worth living.”
― Max Lugavere, Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life
“It takes enormous trust and courage to allow yourself to remember.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Contact Info:
- Website: www.eatingfunctionalfood.com
- Instagram: @eatingfunctionalfood
- Facebook: EatingFunctionalFood
Image Credits
Sara Howard
