Hi, I’m Tina.
Over the course of my 44 years rotations around the sun, I’ve managed to make some big changes and leaps in my life. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY to a working class immigrant Italian family. And while there was a lot of love in our house, there were also a lot of emotions and an excess of food. By age 16 I was 320 lbs. I struggled with emotional eating and soothing with food; often eating in secret when alone. This went hand in hand with feeling isolated and struggling to be seen inside and outside of our house. I wanted to be seen as anything other than weak and fat, which was often the verbal reminder I was given daily out in the world. But in the summer of 2001 I went to live on a small working farm with a college friend, here I found peace, quiet, and an environment safe from words and observations about my weight. I began to move and cook, while also discovering a love for writing. This was where my weight loss journey began.
Having now lost 160 lbs. on my own, I’ve maintained the weight loss for the last 23 years through mental, emotion and physical changes to my day to day living. The weight loss changed my life, but this was only the beginning of a series of life changing events. From the weight loss, to skin removal surgery, leaving my corporate job (a few times), making peace with my family and moving to Mexico part time (on a whim) - self reflection, change and cooking have been at the core of my story. Well, God too, and a belief in miracles.
Though I await my first real boyfriend; I realize that I have been in love - once. I’ve also found love within myself, my kitchen, service, in new friendships and in moving forward from traditional goals of home ownership, children and marriage. I have found peace in moving forward with my life as a woman who loves to create and help change lives in small and big ways.
My creative musings, recipes, and writing on health and well being can be found here on my site. Enjoy! Here is to finding joy and getting in touch with makes us feel most alive and like our truest selves.
XO