Kiran of Easy Real Food blog

Do you feel like you’ve tried every diet and nothing is working? Maybe you:

 

• Don’t feel well but don’t know what to do
• Just found out that a family member has food sensitivities and are super overwhelmed
• CanNOT seem to get rid of cravings no matter which diet you try.

 

It’s just too daunting. You don’t know where to start.

 

You’ve tried going Paleo, vegetarian or even keto, but nothing really changed.
You wanted to cut out gluten but had no idea how to do it, much less sustain.
You’re fed up with watching your loved one struggle but just can’t find the answers.

Or maybe you know what you need to do to, but you just don’t know how to do it.

You, my friend, are not alone. But there is hope–-and a whole lot of it.

 

Meet the health coach + mom of four

 

I’m Kiran, a working mom of four kids who has always tried to do it all – you know, show up for my family, maintain a relationship with my husband, exercise, eat well – the quintessential “trying to be supermom”.

Let me tell you how that worked out and where that has taken me:

My journey with “eating healthy” began back in high school. At that time, full on carbs (think lots of bagels and pasta) was popular. I stopped eating red meat because my high school friend stopped eating it. Looking back, my “diet” consisted of very few fruits or veggies and while I thought I was healthy, I was teetering on major malnutrition as I was accustomed to the good ol’ Standard American Diet.

Fast forward and I married my husband, a former college football player who was also into nutrition. But our definitions differed. He was all about the protein, and I was still trying to figure it out. I still teetered with eating lower fat foods (read: I feared fat) and still hadn’t gone back to red meat.

We went on to have four children, and I started working with a food blog in addition to teaching group exercise (cycle and strength classes).

 

My personal ah-ha moment

 

This was a turning point in my life for many reasons:

I had finally learned a healthy definition of what it meant to eat well.
After so many years of trial and error, I felt like my eating was on track. I focused on eating real foods, I ditched many of the processed foods, and switched to natural sugars – no more refined sugars or oils.

I thought I was on track. But the symptoms kept on coming.

 

Two huge problems that set back my health

 

Two major lifestyle changes were sabotaging my new healthy efforts:
• I was burning the candle at both ends. I was up most mornings at 5 am in an effort to manage working and raising 4 kids under the age of 7.
• I had breast implants put in.
You wouldn’t believe the laundry list of what developed: Medical allergies were first. I developed a severe reaction to all caine meds (lidocaine, benzocaine, etc.)

Then I was diagnosed with Raynaud’s Syndrome after the birth of my 4th child.

My food sensitivities kept creeping up. I was eating “real food” so I couldn’t figure out why.

My diagnosis continued – the list included:
• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
• Hypothyroidism
• Acid Reflux
• Food Sensitivities
• Elevated Liver Enzymes
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Tingly Feet upon waking
• Neuropathy
I was at a loss. Why was it that when I was “so healthy” that things were going so wrong?

 

Taking a serious look back at my life

 

I had to dig in and find the root cause.
• I continued to look at my diet. I am lactose intolerant so I don’t do dairy already.
• I cut out gluten, which did end up being a game changer.
• I worked with a naturopath, then a chiropractor, and finally another chiropractor who had me on hundreds of dollars of supplements each month. While I thought this was helpful (and I did learn a ton), I was getting exhausted at the efforts.
• I finally cut out most everything – nuts, legumes, grains, soy, corn.
• I continued to educate myself, including becoming a health coach via the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.

 

I finally discovered what was causing my health issues

 

I realized that everything I was battling was stemming from MY root cause – inflammation. This was likely from my childhood diet that I mentioned – lots of sugar, the not-so-trusty standard American diet, and unfortunately lots of sickness that I had as a child that resulted in at least 2 rounds of antibiotics each year. Then add on my “new” life as a working mom of four – let’s just say that stress was no stranger to me.

Who knew that some of these could be so detrimental to one’s body?

I had to work on my diet. I had to work on my stress levels.

And I had to adapt my lifestyle.

I’m not going to lie – it wasn’t easy and it didn’t happen overnight.

 

Positive changes that had an impact

 

But slowly over time, I was able to add a few things back into my diet. And slowly I started to feel better!

In 2020, I had my breast implants removed in an effort to keep focusing on my health goals. This has also helped keep moving me forward.

I realized that there are some things that my body is just not “happy” having. To this day, I’m dairy free, gluten free and grain free. But let’s not forget my family of 6.

 

A natural cure for teen acne

 

Remember my 4 kids? Well my eldest daughter battled acne during her younger teen years. One day I realized she hadn’t eaten gluten for 3 days … and there was a significant improvement in her skin. Though she didn’t want to admit it, avoiding gluten was a game-changer for her, too. At first, it was a struggle … but she’s now 100% gluten-free.

 

Hyperactivity – cured by removing gluten!

 

As a young child, my third daughter had us running in circles. Looking back, I was always telling her to sit down, calm down. Visually, she had dark circles under her eyes – I knew it was from something, my mother gut just told me. I tried removing dairy, but it did nothing. But gluten was the ticket. The icing on the cake? Her “crazy moods” (almost hyperactive) were SO much better without gluten. That was 6 years ago.

 

A large family – some with food sensitivities, some with none

 

And to keep things even more complicated – my husband and other two have no food sensitivities that we know of. They eat everything!! Yep! So that’s my family in a nutshell. And I cook for all of us.

Something I still struggle with

Now that you know me well, I have a confession that I need to make: I have a love-hate relationship with sugar. As in I. Love. It. But every now and then I break up – like cold turkey.

So almost all of the dessert recipes you’ll find on this site are sweetened with honey or maple syrup (natural sweeteners), coconut sugar (spikes your blood sugar less) and occasionally, like only when needed, I’ll use powdered sugar.

 

Here’s what I know…

 

I believe foods can hurt or heal the gut, and it’s my mission to teach busy mamas about easy swaps for anti-inflammatory foods to help them heal and avoid leaky gut.

I believe it’s possible for busy moms to get easy healthy meals on the table for their family.

I believe certain foods disagree with certain people and I believe you can get to the bottom of your trigger foods. Even if you don’t have clear symptoms, there can be underlying issues going on with your body.

Food can help you, food can hurt you.

I believe there isn’t a one-size-fits-all diet for everybody.

I believe someone following someone else’s diet to feel great is not the ticket to success.

You figure out yourself with trial and error, tuning into your body to see what you feel, what reactions to foods might be.

So how about YOU? How can I help you?
If you battle sugar cravings, you’ve got annoying symptoms (think headaches, stomach distress, moodiness, brain fog) and you think you need to try an elimination diet, you’ve tried and failed a going gluten-free or dairy-free or simply you’re at your wits end with what you should be doing, stick around!!!

 

Here’s what you can expect from Easy Real Food

 

• We will dig into your root cause to help you learn which foods may be bothering you
• Discovery on which foods may be causing a leaky gut, and how to deal with it
• Tips and tricks to go gluten-free, dairy-free or grain-free with ease
• Suggestions on how to feed your family healthfully with ease
• Recipes with minimal ingredients and minimal prep
• YOUR diet that can work for you since there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to food
• Medically-approved education on inflammation, lifestyle suggestions, and more
• Mom tips from a mom of four whose kids now range from 9 – 16. I mean it when I say I’ve had lots of experience in this area!!
• Success in feeling and being your best.

 

Medical Review and Advisory Board

 

To ensure all of my articles are of the highest quality, referenced and fact-checked, I work with two amazing doctors and medical advisors. Specific posts have a section indicating that it has been medically reviewed on many of the health related posts. Click HERE to view our medical review board and list of advisors.

 

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