Chef Kelley Williamson
My goal is to inspire and motivate you and your family members to see healthy eating as an exciting and abundant way to live your life. This blog will empower you to have “fun in the kitchen” making kick but tasty and healthy meals that will help with your success for weight loss, disease management, longer life and overall achieving balance within your body and life in this stress packed world.My story is not heart wrenching but true. My partner and I had been living together for about 15 years when things starting go wrong with him. Through numerous doctors’ appointments, scans, treadmill tests and medications the prognosis was an angiogram because he had over 75% plaque blockage in his arteries. We had both had family members that had some type of heart issue and the long term prognosis in all of them was never very good. At that point in our life we had a big choice to make which was 1) stay with Western Medicine and start down the path to probable open heart surgery, many medications and a lot of pain or 2) live a long and healthy life by changing our lifestyles. We chose number two to the astonishment of a lot of our friends. I had only a few issues at this time (not as life threatening) which was Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). After becoming Plant Based, neither one of us has had any issues.
My partner’s cholesterol during his last blood test was down from 240 to 165 without any medications and he no longer takes any blood pressure or cholesterol medications. I no longer have to stand at the refrigerator and “suck/choke down” Imodium AD. I have to tell you that neither one of us miss this.
To begin our journey we first cleaned out the cabinets on a Saturday and purchased the new cooking ingredients on a Sunday. We also picked up every cookbook by Dr McDougall, Rip Esselstyn and Dr Neal Barnard we could find. I have to say that I was somewhat luck since I had been cooking – Midwestern Style – since I was 9 years old. Midwestern Style involves a fried meat, potatoes, vegetable and a desert with most of the time a large glass of milk to wash it down. Sunday night was an interesting process because your taste buds are used to one taste (salt, fat, sugar) and then all the sudden you are denying what your body craves. The first week of stringent plant based meals was tough but after the first week, the food started tasting better and I learned how to adjust the recipes to make them wholesome and “kick butt” tasty.
The food choices you make affect your weight, how your body functions and your overall health and well-being. Eating a whole food, plant-based diet can help you balance calories and optimize your nutrient intake. The food we eat has one of greatest effects on determining the quality and length of our lives. Consuming a nutrient dense whole food, plant-based diet is proven to be effective in preventing and even reversing many of the chronic diseases, such diabetes and heart disease and is a lifestyle choice that should be considered as an approach to obtain optimal health. It is about the food and the healing power it provides when you eat nutrient dense plant-based food.
With all that I have learned my passion is now to share with others the tips and tricks on recipes to create long-term healthy eating habit and also a new part of my life “My Culinary Journey”. I am a Plant Based Personal Chef and an Instructor for the Food for Life Program through Dr Neal Barnard, but with excess energy and a large passion, I am always looking for new ways to offer to others healthy and tasty plant based options as a source of nourishment and energy.
I hope that enjoy this site as much as I enjoy sharing the information and recipes. If you are in Denver or the Greater Colorado area, I will be offering Plant Based Cooking classes. Please watch this site for updates and locations. Also please follow me on my YouTube channel titled Plant Based Kitchenista for recipes.
Disclaimer: This website is for educational purposes only, from the research, education and experience of Kelley Williamson. It is not intended as medical advice.