My road to Karma Kitchen Mystic…
I grew up in Groton, CT, inside of a loving, close Filipino household. I attended St. Bernard High School and then to Columbia College, Columbia University in NYC. As a pro tennis player in my 20s, I trained hard and toured to several countries to compete in Satellite tournaments. I loved to chow, I was fit, but I wasn’t truly healthy – a distinction I did not understand at the time. Years later I was entrenched in my rental and real estate investing business when in 2010 at the age of 35, my health took a drastic turn for the worse. In February of that year, I was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, Essential Thrombocytosis, followed in May by a painful gallbladder eruption that required emergency removal. The icing on the cake was a breast cancer diagnosis in October 2010 that almost put me over the edge. After my lumpectomy, my real estate business slowed and restoring my health holistically became my top priority.
Extensive research led me to the Schachter Center in Suffern, NY, in 2011. It was there that my education in food as medicine and love for nutrition began. I bought a Breville juicer at the advice of my nutritionist and began juicing. Juicing vegetables is one of the several cancer prevention protocols that I learned about in my healing journey. Juicing and eating more whole, plant-based foods over the past 5 years has permanently improved my health, my energy, my metabolism. I re-introduced regular exercise into my life and lost in excess of 30 lbs. since 2010. Today, my outlook on living a healthy lifestyle is about balance, sustainability, and avoiding extremes. It has evolved with new research and my consultations with integrative doctors and experts in a variety of fields related to health and wellness. Most importantly, I have learned so much from the health challenges and successes shared with me by friends and loved ones.
For a few years now, I have been making juice and healthy meals from my home kitchen for family and friends, some of whom are cancer survivors seeking to optimize nutrition intake and immune system support during and after their treatments. I can’t tell you how satisfying this has been for me… Our world is getting back to the basics, denouncing GMOs and CAFOs, and trending towards locally and ethically sourced food choices. It’s refreshing, and I want to be part of that movement.
