What Do Mexico, Plant-Based Chefs, loads of mushrooms and Sex and the City Have in Common?

They helped me heal, and I believe they can help you too.

More than four years ago, after my body staged what I can only describe as a full surrender intervention, I landed in the emergency room. I had piercing migraines, extreme fatigue, dizziness, muscle aches, blurry vision, widespread pain, and numbness on the entire left side of my body. Doctors initially feared I was having a stroke and kept me overnight for more tests.

I wasn’t having a stroke, thank goodness. But my body was screaming at me, and on strike from all of the neglect and boundaries I wasn’t instilling.

Turns out people pleasers have a limit.

Eventually, after working with a functional medicine team, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. And that diagnosis changed the question I was asking. Instead of constantly asking: What’s wrong with me?I started asking: What is my body trying to tell me?

That question opened an entirely new lifestyle and framework for me, and the foundation for my forthcoming book Nourish Your Inner Light was born.

I began looking at my health through a more holistic lens and studying the mind-body-soul connection. I started paying attention to my stress, my environment, my emotions, my nervous system, what I was eating, how I was speaking to myself, and all the ways I had been overriding my own needs. I also made a radical shift in the way I approached healing. Instead of looking at my body like it was broken and needed to be fixed, I began telling myself:

“I love you body, I really do, so damn much, and I want us to be well.”

When you choose yourself and fall into relationship with your body, everything can change for the better. Along my healing journey, there are some books that inspired my process and helped to develop my book Nourish Your Inner Light.

If you’re curious what a little Mexico, plant-based chefs, and Sex and the City have in common… read on, my wellness warrior.

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Danielle Duboise + Whitney Tingle
Sex and the City meets a Bali retreat in your kitchen. I didn’t know clean food could feel this sexy, vibrant, colorful, and fun—and that visual energy absolutely inspired the look and feel of Nourish Your Inner Light.

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Love Is Served

Seizan Dreux Ellis + Café Gratitude
After my fibromyalgia diagnosis, I visited my best friends in L.A., and we went to Café Gratitude—still one of my favorite plant-based restaurants in California. I brought home their cookbook and fell in love with the way every dish carried an intention; that playful, affirming energy inspired names in my own book like Be Kind Protein Power Bars, Boundary Boss Pitaya Berry Smoothie, Own Your Power Beet Lime Cassava Tacos, and “I Choose Me” Protein Peanut Butter Pudding.

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Plant Over Processed

Andrea Hannemann
While Andrea was creating from Hawaii, I was living in Mexico, studying and cooking with plant-based chefs and falling in love with tropical, plant-forward ingredients. That spirit made its way into recipes like my Boundary Boss Pitaya Berry Smoothie—dragon fruit, berries, coconut milk, pearl powder, collagen, and ashwagandha blended into what I basically consider confidence in a glass.

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Essential Well Being

Sara Panton
When I was bedridden, I would flip through Essential Well Being and dream about little DIY rituals that could help me feel better right where I was. It planted the seed for an entire section of Nourish Your Inner Light, with rituals like Sacred Shield Shungite Aura Mist and Amethyst Jasmine Refresh Body Bliss Wash—because this book was never meant to just feed you; I want it to help you feel better from the inside our and self-care is part of self-respect.  

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The Moon Juice Cookbook

Amanda Chantal Bacon
And then there was the grandmother of them all: my wellness Bible. Moon Juice sent me fully down the adaptogen rabbit hole—reishi in my drinks, ashwagandha in smoothies, chaga in meals, maca in basically anything—and that obsession became one of the backbones of Nourish Your Inner Light. As I say in Nourish Your Inner Light, Adaptogens are basically tiny herbal life coaches helping your body deal with stress, and now they show up throughout my recipes, from Blue Spirulina Bliss Cashew Cream Shake with reishi to Boundary Boss Pitaya Berry Smoothie with ashwagandha and Rise & Thrive Maca Dream Cream Cacao Shake with maca and cordyceps, dive in and watch your body regulate and feel great.

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So Mexico, Mushrooms, and the Making of a New Life turned into my most important book yet…

Nourish Your Inner Light: Adaptogenic Recipes and Wellness Rituals to Soothe Stress and Support Your Whole Self

My new wellness and self-love book is coming January 2027, but you can preorder it now.
Part plant-forward cookbook, part wellness companion, and tropical retreat in your own home, Nourish Your Inner Light is filled with adaptogenic recipes, DIY self-care rituals, body-care practices, nervous-system support, and grounded tools to help you care for your whole self from the inside out.

This book was born from my own healing journey and from the message at the heart of everything I teach:

Self-Love Begins with Self-Respect.

Nourish Your Inner Light: Adaptogenic Recipes and Wellness Rituals to Soothe Stress and Support Your Whole Self is available for preorder now.