Guest Post: Easy Almond Spinach Dairy-Free Pesto, The Healthy Apple

Here today to share a very inspirational story on perseverance is Amie from The Healthy Apple. If you stumble on over to her site, which you totally should because her recipes are insanely awesome, you will find an abundance of creations that are free of gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, refined sugar and processed foods. 

But Amie didn’t eliminate these foods because she discovered Paleo and was hoping to fine-tune her health – she was changing her entire life to address a number of medical diagnosis that were without answers. Her story on what she was able to accomplish through diet and lifestyle is inspirational and makes you really think about the power of food. 

Take it away Amie! 

♥♥♥

In my early 20’s, I was a successful Manhattan business woman working at Ralph Lauren corporate and VOGUE magazine; I spent my days trying to climb the corporate ladder until one day, everything changed. My body started to shut down and my organs started to fail.

Paleo Parents Guest Post: Easy Almond Spinach Dairy-Free Pesto, The Healthy Apple

For the last 10 years, I have spent every single day trying to keep myself alive and I’ve turned personal pain into professional triumph. I swapped out processed foods for whole, organic foods and started developing healthy, flavorful recipes on a blog, The Health Apple, since I was living in the ‘big’ apple of NYC and trying to get healthy. When I was in my 20’s, my stomach couldn’t digest anything, and my belly was always swollen; I looked like I was pregnant. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, hypothyroidism, chronic hormone imbalances, colitis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and so much more. I was sent out to Mayo Clinic for a week of testing and had countless bone marrow biopsies, muscle biopsies and so much more throughout the last decade. Western medicine had no answers for me, they just handed me drugs.

I landed on disability from my corporate job and managed my symptoms through a constant intake of steroids, water pills, painkillers and morphine. I spent my days going from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital in search of answers. I’d see my friends eating pizza and a Coke and I couldn’t understand why my body wasn’t letting me eat those foods without getting terribly sick. I felt deprived and alone – I was told I would have to live the rest of my life like this, but I knew I could find an answer and get myself back to the vibrant Amie I once was. So I did.

I began researching integrative medicine and toxicity and detoxed my body from toxins and chronic illness. I became conscious about what I was putting in my mouth, on my skin and what was in my environment. I started my blog, The Healthy Apple about six years ago and I started researching whole, organic foods so that I was able to figure out why my body struggled to be healthy for so many years. I slowly began to heal a lifetime of chronic illness including Lyme disease, Candida, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, hormone imbalance and heavy metal accumulation and I wanted to give people hope and something to relate to as well as recipes to help them and inspire them to eat whole foods.

What’s my secret? My secret is bravery to be vulnerable. When I announced my health issues on my website, I started getting tons of people who were in similar situations dealing with health issues. I am now a celebrity chef, expert on wellness and clean eating, and I’m writing a cookbook. My cookbook, which will be out in March of 2016, and is filled with over 200 ‘clean eating’ recipes free of gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, refined sugar and processed foods. It’s also filled with my health story, inspiration and steps on how to remove the toxins from your life. I want my blog and book to reach people who are needlessly suffering from health issues. My hope is that people read my blog (and soon my cookbook) and decide not to give up. Today I am a food columnist for the Huffington Post, the Food network, Clean Eating Magazine, Vegetarian Times, FOX News Health, Prevention Magazine, Martha Stewart and many more.

When you remove the sugary, processed foods that hold your weight and health hostage and replace them with real, whole foods, you have a chance to reset your taste buds and reclaim your kitchen. A few tiny ingredient upgrades can transform your food without radically altering your life. My business gives people hope and a chance to reboot their life. Ten years ago, I had no idea what ‘healthy’ meant; I was too busy working and didn’t put any attention on my health or overall wellness. Now, I teach my readers how to shift their perspective and provide the pathway to optimal health.

I remember waking up every day in my 20’s crying wondering “Why is this happening to me?” Then I shifted my perception and told myself, “This is happening FOR you. You are going to help so many people someday.”

When I ate the standard American diet (gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, yeast, processed foods) and followed my western medicine doctor’s orders, my health suffered. I knew that I wasn’t the only one having this experience. I knew that other people reading my blog (and sitting with me in the waiting room at the doctor’s office) were unknowingly sabotaging their own health with pharmaceutical drugs and food, too and I was confident that I could help them, make them laugh, inspire them to be hopeful for relief from chronic pain and show them how to get their life back. And that is exactly what I aspire to do every day at The Healthy Apple!

Here’s a simple ‘Clean’ recipe for Almond Spinach Pesto that I created that’s free of gluten, dairy, soy, sugar and processed foods to give you a bit of a taste of what you can find on my site. Enjoy!

Easy Almond Spinach Dairy-Free Pesto

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. In a food processor, pulse ingredients until it forms a pesto consistency-smooth yet a little chunky if desired. Serve with raw veggies.
http://realeverything.com/guest-post-easy-almond-spinach-dairy-free-pesto-the-healthy-apple/

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://paleoparents.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AMIESIDEBARHEADSHOT.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]”After healing myself through a set of life-changing diagnoses early in my professional career, I was forced to change the way I live, eat and ultimately the way I make a living. Today my sole desire is to help you and your body feel as amazing as possible through various simple yet life-altering changes to your nutrition and lifestyle habits. I cook. I travel. I exercise. I write. And I do it all Clean and Gluten-Free.” Connect with Aime: Blog Facebook | Instagram | Twitter[/author_info] [/author]

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