about nancy Granada:

I was eight years old when I was put on my first diet.

And so it began (and continued). I spent the first half of my life on a perpetual diet.

By sixth grade I weighed 160 pounds, by eight grade 180, and by tenth grade I weighed 213 pounds. It seemed the more diets I went on, the more weight I gained.

Perhaps, like you, I grew up in a house where vegetables were usually potatoes, canned corn or frozen peas. Fresh fruit was saved for special occasions—like my Christmas stocking. I eagerly dug into my stocking in the wee hours of Christmas morning only to find, buried next to my bubble gum flavored lip gloss, a bunch of grapes, an apple and an orange. Seriously…I got a Suzy-Q or Hostess treat of some sort in every lunch I ever brought to school and I didn’t see so much as a Tootsie Roll in my stocking? Oh the irony.

My entire family struggled with weight and the health impact that comes along with obesity including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Unhealthy foods and lifestyle were a dangerous family tradition.

Not unlike many a chubby person, I developed a wry sense of humor and didn’t let my weight hold be back. Well, not too much.

I tried every known diet—

The cabbage soup diet, the nothing but boiled eggs diet, skipping breakfast and lunch, even a popular shake diet that tasted so terrible that it eventually had me mixing the ‘diet powder’ with ice cream to make it palatable (needless to say that one was never going to work).

So, by now you’re probably thinking “OK, you self-righteous skinny-kale-eating-quinoa-loving twit, what did you do to lose the weight (and keep it off?)”

OK, so I’ve lost one hundred pounds.

How? (You may want to be sitting for this)…

I didn’t go on a diet; I committed to eating just one healthy meal a day. Just one. I’m not gonna lie, my other two meals on any given day could have been total crap. But, no matter what, I made sure that at least one of my meals, every day, was completely, totally, (many times boringly) healthy.

After several months of the ‘one healthy meal a day’ commitment I made to myself, I had lost thirty pounds. It’s amazing how much healthier you actually want to eat when you’re doing it on a regular basis. I mean, who knew that I would wake up one morning and actually enjoy a good salad? No, really!

Was it easy to lose 100 pounds? Hell no! Is it easy to maintain my skinny-jeans weight? Nope—it’s work.

Do I never treat myself? Are you kidding? Life without wine…or chocolate…or butter? I’m not a sadist.

So, I hope you will find yummy inspiration in the recipes I post. I hope you will discover your path to getting healthier, whatever that looks like for you. I hope you’ll share your story with me and with one another, because anyone who has ever strove to be a healthier person is a kindred spirit in my book.