How I Became a Foodie and My Journey to Becoming an “All-Foodie”

Hello! I’m Courtney Montgomery. My journey to a healthy, holistic lifestyle started in 2011 when my husband, an avid reader, put the book Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale in my hands. My eyes were opened to a better way to feed ourselves and our then two-year-old. I got a glimpse of the importance of taking care of our bodies by eating foods that would help fuel, heal, and even reverse disease. I now knew purchasing quality foods would play an essential role in this.

Little by little, we started adapting our diet to include healthy, less processed foods, along with organic produce and meat when possible.

The second book I would say shaped and changed the way we thought about food was Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. I was instantly drawn to these practical, easy to understand, and easy to apply “rules” for eating and living a healthy life. From there, I began to research how the body reacts to good, nutritious food and became very passionate about our family using food as fuel to make and keep our bodies healthy.

As a registered nurse, I understand how the body works but only took one class on nutrition while in nursing school. I came to see the benefits of eating a healthy diet and truly felt the difference when I ate healthy food versus processed food full of sugar. I realized I didn’t want to feel sluggish, tired, and heavy after eating, but wanted energy to perform the tasks God had given me each day.

While eating healthy, whole foods became what helped me feel my best, and still does, I was having a battle going on in my mind that eating anything unhealthy was bad. I worried that carbs were bad or would make me gain weight. I decided to move to to only eating carbohydrates in the form of fruits and veggies. I felt guilt and shame after eating ice cream, my favorite treat. I began to lose some weight and this concerned me. Through my studying and learning about nutrition, and seeking the Lord for help in this area, I found peace with the fact that all foods should be enjoyed in moderation. Diet culture has penetrated our minds with fear of eating. Fear of eating too much, fear of gaining weight, and fear of eating the wrong things. Diet culture tells us to focus constantly on what we eat. Count those macros, count those calories, and if you’re hungry, just deal with it because you don’t have enough calories left today! This is no way to live and it’s simply not sustainable. It also affects our metabolism, which tanks when we don’t feed ourselves properly. I can say today I feel better than I ever have. I still have a passion to teach others about healthy foods and how they heal our bodies, and even prevent and reverse disease. The nurse in me finds it so fascinating that these foods are available to help our bodies function properly. But I now have a balanced approach, not restricting myself from the foods I love, but learning to eat those in moderation, and sometimes when I just feel like it!

I want to share this passion with the world. I want people to know it’s not all about counting macros, micros, losing weight, being the strongest, depriving themselves of foods that make them happy, and starving themselves. It’s changing their lives by eating intuitively.

I hope to help you in your journey and help you see that eating healthy can taste great, be fun, and truly change your life. But it doesn’t stop there: I want to teach you how to have a balanced approach to eating. I want to teach you how to run from diet culture and learn to have a better relationship with food that WILL be sustainable for life.