About

Welcome to Fresh or Bust! My name is Bernie and I’m always hungry to learn more about food & nutrition. I’m talking mouth-drooling, hangry bear in the stomach. I spend my days thinking about what to cook and eat next while pouring over food blogs, cookbooks, and all the nutrition knowledge I can get my hands on. My love for food began as a child in my great-grandma's kitchen where I was found tasting everything on the table I could grab, even raw ground beef (I'll try anything once!). As an adult my interest in food has exploded into a full blown obsession.

The more I learned about nutrition on my own, the more I felt drawn to pursue it professionally. In 2017 I became a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and my lifelong dream to help others is now a reality. Food is such a powerful aspect of life that often gets overlooked when people are trying to solve problems like an afternoon slump, stubborn weight, and even infertility. The conventional fix is a prescription, a bandaid that never quite helps heal the cut underneath. When I discovered healing through food and nutrition I knew there were so many people in the world that I can help do the same.

As with most things, diet and lifestyle changes don't happen overnight. You don't just go to bed deciding to be healthy and wake up the next day with an abundance of energy you never had before, glowing skin, that stubborn 15 lbs gone and a six pack. After college it was time for me to take control and I knew I had to leave behind my ramen, diet coke and McDonald's diet. My initial goal was to shift my focus to make more fresh, from scratch meals rather than things that only came out of a box or drive thru. My first insight into the world of real food came from Michael Pollan to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" and that "you are what you eat, eats," from his book In Defense of Food. Soon after I completed my first Whole30 which helped me realize years of digestive issues were NOT normal. Upon the reintroduction phase of the Whole30 I discovered a gluten and dairy intolerance which meant that I had to change my diet and lifestyle completely for good, not just the 3o days. It was a pivotal moment in my life.

Food is a never ending learning experience and a journey towards becoming the best you possible. It is also different for everyone and there is no "one size fits all" protocol. My goal is to show you that it's not HARD to eat healthy, nor does it need to be overly complicated. Eating healthy should be fun, adventurous and rewarding, not a burden. The hardest part is starting!

I write this blog from Parker, Colorado which is about 45 minutes southeast of Denver. I live in a 1977 fixer-upper house with my husband, who is my college sweetheart! We tied the knot (literally- we braided some ribbon and had our hands bound with it during the ceremony) in 2016 after being together for 7 years. Our house sits on 2.5 acres, complete with a horse barn that's just used for storage since I'm quite allergic to horses. We have two cats, Pele who is named after the Hawaiian Goddess Pele, NOT the soccer player and Zef (I'll let you google that). When I'm not in the kitchen I love doing many Coloradan things: hiking, camping, riding my bike and going to the lake. I LOVE reading but also enjoy getting sucked into binge watching shows on Netflix, pretty much anything with vampires or cooking. I also love music and going to concerts is one of my favorite hobbies.

I hope that you will join me in this tasty joyride and go Fresh or Bust!

-Bernie

Contact me at the links below!