Joyfull originally started as a blog idea…
But I think even before the notion of being full of joy (joyFULL, that is) made its way into a blog concept, it was an experience, a sense, and a truth that was near and dear to my heart.
I think that as a 3 year old little girl, precariously leaning over the countertop to stir that chocolate cake batter, it was there. And at 12 when I’d enjoyed baking Texas ranger cookies so much that I wanted to enter a recipe in the local county fair to share it with other people, it was there. At 14, on career day, it was there as I entertained the possibility of becoming a chef because of my interest in food and love for being in the kitchen. It was there throughout college as I discovered new meaning in my love of “all things food” and had the opportunity to study Nutrition. And it was most certainly there as I have grappled with what a whole and healthy relationship with food means as an adolescent, a teenager, a college student, a burgeoning dietitian, and as a human in general. It was there all along.
Our culture’s toxic, confusing, and very, very loud messaging about what food “should” and “shouldn’t” look like has made the idea of experiencing it joyfully feel completely foreign. Not to speak of the way that diet culture’s rhetoric about food impacts all people’s relationships with their bodies, their movement and exercise, and their health at large. And yet Joyfull was the only real option I entertained when considering how to name and represent the work I am privileged to do each day. I’m aware that the concept of fullness is frightening in many ways and to many people—and that it carries so much meaning inherently.
I’m also aware that joy isn’t a concept often given air time in our day-to-day. But that abiding, deep sense of joy, contentment, and wholeness is exactly what being fearless around food, for life, is all about.
Food is far more than the nutrients it provides our bodies and is more integral to our lives and values than many of us have ever considered. And it’s something that can, like your stomach, plate, and life, be full in the most wonderful sense.
I invite you to consider what an experience of your food, your body, your health would look and feel like if it was joyous and full. Joyfull.