Hi, my name is Susan. I’m a writer and enthusiastic home cook with a passion for sharing stories about what I eat…and why I eat it. About five years ago I met my husband, who at the time had just started bow hunting. Turns out, he’s a good hunter and I found myself eating a lot of venison. I was eating it so much that I decided to write a cookbook and help the non-venison-eating public learn about what a wonderful food source it is. You can check out the book at my venison cooking web site.

The biggest surprise for me about eating venison is how good I felt about eating wild game that was harvested within 15 miles of my home. Wow. No hormones or other bad things in my meat! And it was local. My carbon footprint was shrinking. In eating venison, I soon became more aware of where my food comes from in general. I started shopping at the Farmer’s market more and more and it felt good!

Then I read Mark Bittman’s Food Matters, and I became even more committed to paying attention to my food sources. Shortly thereafter, my husband snagged us a 10×10 plot in the local community garden and planted me some lettuce and spinach. Wow. I have never had such delicious greens! We had greens, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, broccoli, peppers, and kale. I was in heaven. He was too…hunting and farming make him very happy. So when he had the chance to move to a 20×20 space, he grabbed it.

This blog is about my journey to a healthier, more sustainable way of living. My hope is that all the other people out there doing the same thing will share on this site. I feel inspired by other people’s stories…I’ve met such interesting people over the last three years with my venison web site, and I look forward to meeting others here.

Just a few notes about my eating philosophy. I eat meat, obviously. I’ve tried at various stages of life to cut it out of my diet, but that doesn’t work for me. What works for me is whole foods: meat, good fats, veggies, and fruit. I can’t control every meal I eat…I travel. I go to dinner parties where my gourmand friends make delicious meals. But, when I can, I choose whole foods locally grown. I choose organic. I choose to bypass processed foods, white sugar, corn syrup. I make my salad dressing. I cook low-carb meals.

Health Coach Training

Conscience eating has led me down a new career path—I am now a health coach! My company web site is Gutsy Health, and I have all sorts of healthy recipes posted there. I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I’m looking forward to helping people change their eating habits to include more locally grown and organic whole foods.

While I am learning about more than 100 dietary theories in my program, this site isn’t meant to be a source for nutritional information. It’s a place where people who eat consciously can share…whatever their own healthy way of eating is.

Enjoy!