Soon a new month will come, and I have to say August has been good to me. I’ve been spending my days in Chicago, my favorite city for two reasons: cultural diversity and the food. Chicago is a beautiful inviting city, often called a food mecca — from deep-dish pizza to world-class restaurants, it celebrates flavor in every corner. It got me thinking… sometimes food stress is real.
Food marketing is smart. It sold us its own version of “healthy eating”: diet sodas, sandwiches, and the so-called “lighter” options at fast food chains. For years, I bought into it. I thought I was fueling my body, but underneath, I was drained.
It wasn’t until 2014, when I really committed to fitness, that I saw a different truth. Moving my body showed me what food was really doing to me. The harder I trained, the clearer it became. My nutrition wasn’t supporting me; it was working against me.
That realization cracked something open. Food is never just food. It can be connection, comfort, and clarity… but it can also be disconnection, stress, and confusion.
I started seeing nutrition differently, and my body responded. That’s when I discovered I’m sensitive to gluten. Suddenly the pieces fit: the asthma that had never been explained finally went away, the constant stomach pain was diagnosed as IBS and chronic gastritis, the silent reflux I didn’t know I had made sense, and even the rashes on my neck and the dark circles under my eyes cleared. I’ll always take a stand on what gluten does to the body and how eliminating it has been the best thing for me — coming from someone who loves bread to death — and that’s a personal medical decision, not a trend.
The truth is, it pushed me to change everything, from what I eat to how I eat. And I witnessed how quickly my body adapted to new flavors and foods I never thought I’d put on my plate.
But stress follows you everywhere. Sometimes it looks like bingeing after a long week. Sometimes it’s ordering what’s fastest when you’re already exhausted. Sometimes it’s the quiet anxiety of wondering if there will be food that works for you when you travel.
That’s when I learned, nutrition is more than what’s on your plate. It’s how you show up to food. It’s the stress you carry with you, or the connection you choose to build.
Inside holistic health, nutrition is also the non-food sources that fuel you — your mindset, your relationships, your sense of purpose, your joy. When those “primary foods” are solid, what’s on your plate stops being a battle. You choose differently. You feel differently.
That’s why I see food stress differently now. Whether I’m at home, in a restaurant, or traveling, I focus on lowering stress, staying connected, and letting my body guide me. Because when I’m calm, my food choices change. I eat from connection, not from fear.
The same applies to you. Health isn’t built by forcing a meal plan. It’s built by creating rhythms that protect you — stress relief, recovery, connection, and food that actually supports you.
So the next time you catch yourself stressing about food — at home, at work, or on the road — ask yourself, am I eating from stress, or from connection?
Because that’s where health really begins.
To your rhythm and health,
