Kat’s Story of Sustenance

Name: Kat Kelsey

Age: 24

Location: Fort Walton Beach, FL

Blog or website, if you have one: Wellness in the Word 

Job/Occupation/Life Passion:

I am Active Duty in the Air Force as an Operations Research Analyst. I love the military, math, and programming but my real dream is to be a blogger, stay at home mom, and holistic nutritionist!

How did you learn about the connection between nutrition and health?

I am very blessed to have a natural and health minded family that taught me valuable practices early on and made me believe that I could be healthy. Even though I developed several chronic conditions in my early twenties, the background my family laid for me led me to pursue natural healing options from the start of my healing journey.

I believe many people suffer their whole lives from chronic and degenerative diseases because they’ve never been told they can heal. Modern medicine approaches the human body as though it is defective, and if we believe our health problems are random defects, we won’t seek out the root cause or the cure. We’ll be content treating symptoms and suffering our whole lives, even if a life changing answer is only a click away on our computer, because we’ll believe that’s the best we can do. When it comes to health, knowledge truly is power and it is one of my main goals to teach people first and foremost, simply that they are not defective and that they can heal. Then they can open the door to taking control of their health and healing.

Have you addressed health issues through nutrition? When did you change your diet, and what results have you seen? 

When I was 23, I very suddenly developed IBS, fatigue, and a laundry list of symptoms related to adrenals, hormones and thyroid. I started visited conventional doctors, but it didn’t take long to see how fruitless this was. Every appointment was scheduled with a different doctor who wanted to take their own blood tests, but each time my results came back normal and they shooed my off. At other points, I was prescribed an anti-depressant without being told what it was (when I had no symptoms of depression), I was told information that was clear to me even with my limited knowledge at the time that wasn’t true, and I realized my gynecologist was probably getting kickbacks for prescribing Mirenas.

I decided to take my health into my own hands and started a low-FODMAP diet. Within a week or two my IBS was gone. Then I started an auto-immune paleo diet, and my fatigue, along with other symptoms like heart racing, dizziness, and my throat constricting started to clear up. Then I started seeing results that I didn’t even expect. I almost never had headaches or sleep problems anymore, my cellulite went away almost overnight, and white spots on my nails disappeared. This process made me take a clearer look at healthcare, medicine, and diet. I’d always known that diet was a big key to health and most all health problems are rooted in unnatural external factors, but now I realized just how true that was, and how far our healthcare system was from embracing that, and I wanted to tell people.   

What resources (classes, books etc.) or people were instrumental in supporting your healthy lifestyle?

Since I started trying to treat my conditions about a year and a half ago, I’ve been constantly researching diseases, food, and natural medicine. Blogs, books, scholarly articles, YouTube videos, and podcasts have all been a part of this. I’m also extremely grateful for my husband who has supported me through all of it and loves pursuing the healthy lifestyle too. My health problems started only a couple weeks after we got married, but he’s jumped right into essential oils, elimination diets, preparing our own food, kombucha, green smoothies, and even my dream of growing all our own food someday with me. I’m working on him to try coffee enemas next!   

What staple foods do you prepare frequently?

Bone broth, kombucha, green smoothies, salads, and paleo stir fries make up most of our diets! I also love finding new ways to use whatever food I have at my house. I get leftovers out of the fridge that I want to use up and pretend I’m on an episode of Chopped, usually with the help of Pinterest.

What is your favorite part of your kitchen?

Space! A big kitchen is the #1 thing I want in any place to live. We live at a small beach apartment right now and I was initially very hesitant about the kitchen but it’s ended up having more space than it looks like.

What would you change about your kitchen?

More space! You really can’t have too big of a kitchen. 

What kitchen tools can’t you live without?

I use my cast iron pan and the set of Le Creusets I found at a garage sale every day. Toxic non-stick cookware or cheaply made pans would drive me crazy.

Are you a recipe-follower or improvisationalist? What are your favorite cookbooks?

Most of my cooking is a mix of the two. Usually I have some ingredients in mind that I know can go together somehow and either try to remember things I’ve made before with those foods or type them into Pinterest and look through pins until I find something that looks good and feasible.

One of my goals is to someday learn app coding and create an app where you can record successful recipes you’ve made or ones you want to try, then search through them based on what foods you have available to you.

Want to share your Story of Sustenance?

I began blogging because I had a powerful enthusiasm to share my story of healing through food. If you have had that same experience, I want Empowered Sustenance to be a platform for you to share, as well. Tell us, how has food changed your (or your family’s) life? Readers and bloggers alike are invited to participate.

Email me at share@empoweredsustenance.com and I’ll send you the submission form. Take a look at my Real Food Kitchen Tour for examples of the kitchen tour portion of the submission.