2025: The Year I Make My Return

A warm hello to all of you who still come here, even though I abandoned this blog for a long while. The truth is, for the past few years, I periodically considered just deleting the whole thing. With the rise of Instagram, TikTok, and the short-form video, it seemed to me that people just didn’t want to read anymore. Sure, we all search for recipes, but we click the “Jump to recipe” button as soon as it appears and completely skip over the story that goes along, don’t we? Thanks to a pretty debilitating injury (more on that in my next post) in January, I’ve had the luxury of spending far too much time on social media apps, and the internet in general, and It’s definitely left me with some thoughts.

It seems, as a society, we’ve turned away from the long-form story, from well-constructed arguments and opinions, from reality to the 30 second bite, the controversial and divisive, the artificial. As someone who remembers life before the internet and carrying a high-powered computer in our pocket, who also remembers the lessons of The Terminator 😬, it’s disheartening to see our society turn away from real connection, constructive discourse, and from the art of the written word to carefully curated echo-chambers and Chat GPT.

While it’s nice to have the option to shut out any content that disagrees with us or makes us uncomfortable on days when our mental health isn’t so great, we must ask ourselves if we are in fact doing ourselves a disservice by ignoring the stories that others have to tell. Could this world of endless scrolling and algorithms that cater to our likes and interests actually be driving us further apart in a world that is already so divided? Or maybe the shift to this virtual existence and hiding behind a keyboard is what’s led to our divided world?

And sure, there are wonderful things about social media. I’ve managed to connect with people I admire and respect who I’d never have met in real life. I’ve been blessed to stay in touch with new friends I’ve met during my travels with my band or through my work with VegFest, and it’s much easier to stay in contact with friends and family who have spread out all across the world. I get to see adorable pictures of new babies and the children of my friends who are playing soccer for the first time, going to their first prom or heading off to college, and that’s a beautiful thing seeing these little people grow up before my eyes. The Arab Spring only happened because of the ability to connect and organize online. So much good has been done in the realm of equality and inclusion thanks to the ability to find like-minded folks through social media. I met my husband through a dating app. I get to have video chats with my best friend when she’s at sea. Hell, when we moved from Nashville to West Tennessee in 2023, I was only able to meet the new friends I’ve made because i found an event posted on Facebook and decided to go. There are amazing things happening online, and I don’t discount that. But I do wonder if we need to step back and assess it’s roll in our lives and how it’s shaping our opinions of the world. I heard a debate on NPR yesterday about whether it’s time to break up with dating apps, and it made me wonder if we are all always looking for the next better thing, whether we are swiping for potential partners or scrolling through endless suggested posts from people we’ve never heard of. The algorithms are designed to keep us there, just as dating apps get more revenue from signing up more users and keeping them. They don’t make money when you leave or turn it off, and we have to keep that in mind no matter how entertaining the content may be. That’s why I’m making a point to limit my time on social media this year to do more writing, more reading, more creative endeavors, and to spend more time with real-world people.

I created this blog in 2013 when my daughter was a baby and I was starting my vegan journey. I thought it would be a great way to document recipes I created and maybe help others who were interested in plant-based cooking and might not know where to begin. After a while, I tired of the of documenting the process of making food, which honestly became much more difficult to do with the extra responsibility of new baby, and I switched to sharing what I was eating on my Instagram story, mostly without recipes. I fell prey to the ease of short-form. Over the past year or two, I’ve shifted my focus to sharing my fitness journey through Instagram, and so I wasn’t sure what to do on this blog that was built by food. Yes, I’m still vegan. Yes, I still make some delicious food. And I think I still want to share that part of my life. But I also want to shift this blog to have more variety of content.

Going forward, I’ve decided to make this space about health in general. I want to share fitness tips, nutrition info, articles I find informative about health and women’s health in particular, and yes, recipes. I hope it becomes a place for discourse and connection with real people. I will welcome constructive criticism and intelligent arguments, because I value the opinions of others. All I ask is that this is a place of mutual respect and kindness. The online world needs much more of that.

A few months ago, I made the commitment to getting personal trainer and nutrition certifications through one of the top academies in the world, and I plan to use those to bring you helpful longer-form content that you can apply to the real world. I want to nerd out with you and maybe help you get to know your body better. I think there is still a place in this online realm for truth, honesty, and compassion without the effort to “go viral.” I also plan to offer virtual, as well as in-person, health coaching. My passion is helping others become their best selves, and I hope you will continue on this journey with me as we and this blog evolve.

Until next time, stay active, drink water, and eat you veggies. 😉