Hi there!
Welcome to Let’s Eat Healthy Now blog, a place you’ll find healthy recipes to feed your body one healthy bite at a time. This blog was created as a place for me to share my deep love for foods and my journey to rediscovering my way to a healthier lifestyle, and the remarkable transformation that good nutrition can make in our lives. The recipes and ideas in this blog are based on my appetites and cravings for fruits and vegetables. I hope that some of the dishes will inspire you to transform your body and mind to a much healthy living lifestyle.
Before I continue, let me introduce myself. I’m Imma (EEma) Fabre, I am a food enthusiast, nature lover, traveler, animal lover, social media advocate, author, youth trainer and facilitator, NGO & community development practitioner, international engagement, daily user of LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. That’s a mouthful!
Growing up in a Haitian household, I was always surrounded by mouth-watering, plant-based foods, meat products, and the likes. Not all of Haitian cuisines is healthy, but I cannot remember a day when I claimed that a certain dish did not taste good. Caribbean Cuisine is to die for. Most of the recipes you’ll find on this blog are inspired by my mom, family and relatives.
I grew up around gardens. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents had farms in Haiti. Agriculture and raising livestock were their whole life. They passed that same mentality down to my dad and his siblings. My dad, who moved to the States in his late twenties, used to plant tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, zucchini in our backyard. I’m one among my siblings who loved, loved fruits and vegetables growing up and still do. I’ve heard stories when I was a child that I wouldn’t eat unless there was a mango next my plate. Now you know my secret, I love mango. Most of my baby pictures consisted of a naked Imma and mangoes, all happy and smiling.
Although I grew up having healthy food in our house at all times, I struggled with my weight in my teens and twenties. In high school, it was all about Twix, Pop Tarts, pizza, and driving with my friends to any fast food chains, or fast Chinese food in town. When you’re in your teens, you never stop to think about food and what effects it has on your body. I would eat out with friends rather than eating a healthy, homemade meal at home. I prioritized my friends and going out over health.
I gained a vast amount of weight after high school, during my freshman and sophomore year in college. I moved in with my ex and thought I was living THE life. I struggled for years to regain good health because my weight fluctuated so often. After a horrible breakup in my early twenties, I did the most harmful thing you can think of to my body.
I was so ashamed with myself, dealt with low self-esteem, hated myself, so I stopped eating.
Each time I finished eating, I would go into the restroom and stuck my fingers down my throat and threw everything I ate because I didn’t want to gain weight. I wanted to lose the weights I have gained, so for me that was my way of losing it. I was afraid to gain any weight; I wanted to be skinny because that was my definition of sexy. I had gotten so skinny that some of my family members were concerned. I began to look sick. I never admit to my family or friends what I was doing.
I remember having a bold spot on my head because I was incredibly deficient on vitamin D, my doctor was concerned. My health started to deteriorate and I was afraid to admit to anyone what I was doing to myself and I couldn’t stop. I was sick and afraid to reach out for help. My menstrual cycle had gotten worse, I started dealing with irregular cycles. It was a tough period in my life. My aunt joked about kidnapping me so she could feed me. I was always sick, no energy, no vitamins in my body.
I had lost myself, I lost my confidence, I didn’t know who I was anymore.
I was a walking stick and this went on for about four years. After my twenty fifth birthday, I slowly started to gain weight again, my family was happy.
Though I wasn’t fully committed to my health but I noticed the small changes I started to make around my eating habit. I stopped forcing my body to reject my intake, I started drinking more and more water, I started to add more and more vegetables in my food. I preferred to eat my fruits and vegetables first before anything else that was offered to me. Slowly, I started to eat and enjoy food again, yet still not healthy conscious food.
I became more conscious toward what I’m feeding my body and soul when I moved to Eastern Europe, Macedonia (FYROM). When I first arrived in country, I was amazed with the culture, traditions, and of course the food. During my first three months in country, I experience a few trials and errors. First, I gained a few pounds during that time.
Then in January of 2016, I was on my monthly cycle and I was experiencing excruciating pain like never before. I was sitting at a bar with my colleagues and I couldn’t not move my right leg. I felt a sharp pain from waist down. I was stuck and couldn’t move an inch. I began to panic, I called a taxi to return home. Walking from the gate to my front door became an impossible task, with every step, I felt as if my flesh was being ripped apart; a pressure, at any time something was going to explore inside me. I made it to my bedroom, took a few pills including Motrin then went under my cover. I rolled back and forth with hot tears streaming down my face, wondering what is happening to my body, what is happening to my right side. I was in pain, so much pain. I felt faint and out of breath. I was experiencing shortness of breath, I was hot and cold, feel like I’m going to faint any moment. I texted my best friend and told her what was happening, she urged me to called our provided doctor. Before I could text her back, I froze due to the unbearable pain, and eventually I fell into a deep sleep.
I woke up several hours later, showering in my sweat with just light cramp. I got up and was able to take small step. Throughout the remainder of my cycle, I was drugged up. I was using conventional pills to erase my pain by two to three times per day until my symptoms were gone. I could not walk properly, I couldn’t bend down, I was leaping to places.
When I finally was able to see a doctor, there were a few back and forth, and uncertainty. I went through every test I can think of, I had x-rays, I had ultrasounds, blood works. I got to the point where I thought maybe I’m going insane, that it was all in my head, but after a cat-scan, I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cysts. I was recommended to start exercising, and continue to take Motrin when I feel pain and the cysts will eventually go away on their own. That was the recommendation – MOTRIN and EXERCISE.
I threw the Motrin pack in the trash the minute I got home. I turned on my laptop and went to work. I browsed the internet for hours, reading articles after articles. I stumbled upon a whole new world of healthy eating and how to heal my body with food and care. I searched some more, I found the power of healthy eating and plant-based living.
It was time for a change. Time to take my life back. Time to take my health back.
I started hiking and exercising often with friends.
A few months passed and I started to feel better. I wasn’t having those excruciating abdominal pain anymore.
But, I started dealing with anxiety and depression. I woke up during the night out of breath with that anxious, nauseating feeling in my stomach, barely able to breath. I was forcing myself to wake up for work in the morning. It was so bad that I would spend weekends stuck in my bed, having multiple panic attacks, being nervous, having shortness of breath. This went on for months, I dealt with it in silence. Day in and day out, walking under a dark cloud… How I dealt with my anxiety and depression.
I woke up one day and knew I needed to change my life and do something different. I started to focus on creating a healthier lifestyle plan, a healthier version of me. I was committed to focus on my health, mind, and body. I shifted my diet and started researching and learning more about nutrition, healthy lifestyle, unprocessed food, and mental health. I became more aware of my health, my body, how my body reacts, and my mind.
This was new to me. I was determined to focus on a plant-based foods only lifestyle. I wanted to create the best version of me, I wanted to be healthy, I wanted to nourish my body, mind, and soul. I wanted to inspire others to take a healthier path for themselves.
As my relationship with food improved, I found myself more and more at the bazaar (farmer’s market), that was my happy place. I found myself more and more in the kitchen, cooking, concocting, and creating recipes. I found my happy place, I found heaven in the kitchen. I was happy again, my body began to change, my moods got better, every problem I used to experience began to fade away.
Cooking gave me a whole new purpose.
Though I came from a background of men and women who can throw it down in the kitchen, it wasn’t the case for me. I do find pleasure coming up with new recipes. I tried to remember how my mom used to cook certain dishes and I made substitutions to be healthier. I began to embrace that part of me, the person I was becoming, the person who now finds joy in the kitchen, playing with her ingredients, the person who breaks down because she feels good about something she makes and tastes so delicious, the person who finds happiness at the farmer’s market and peace and quiet in the kitchen. I embrace her and love when she sings while improving her chopping and cooking skills.
I started to host lunch and dinner for my colleagues at my house. I would get so nervous because I never know what I’m making until it’s done and on the table ready to be eaten. Our conversations were mostly around healthy lifestyle. I’ve had many conversations with my colleagues, friends, and family back home in the State and their stories sometimes become redundant “I’ll start eating healthy tomorrow, next week or something” and my reply as always “why not start eating healthy now” and that’s how Let’s Eat Healthy Now was born. The most asked question was, “so Imma, what are you now? Vegan or vegetarian because we don’t see meat on the table lol”. Well, I always say, I focus on eating healthy. I create foods so anyone and everyone can enjoy them. Yes, I do create plant-based foods only recipes and I love every bite. I’m not a renowned chef and I’m learning to cook as I go, so I want my recipes to be simple and easy for anyone to use.
I want to share simple creations and even if you don’t know how to cook, it’ll be easy to try yourself. I love to eat healthy and that’s my focus, feeding my body organic food is my passion. I stop eating meat and been dairy free for two year plus now, and my body thanked me every day for it. I feel better, I no longer experience upset stomach, abdominal pain, my skin cleared up and glowing, and my terrible digestion got better.
Every conversation I’ve had about health in the past year, I say and quote that “it’s all about health for me. Creating a healthier version of me, a healthier mind, body and soul is something I want to continue to achieve. It’s my passion. I’m a work in progress”. Another thing about me is that I don’t count calories. That is why in all my shared recipes, I do not include calories. I focus on healthy eating and healthy lifestyle. I also focus on building strength and do weight training.
Nowadays, I am aware of the nourishment in my body. I embrace and celebrate the whole new person I am becoming. I embrace my new profound love for cooking, eating healthy, and healthy lifestyle. In all, I am a woman in progress.
XOXO,
