There's something to be said about making a commitment to yourself about keeping your body healthy and happy. I know - it's tough! We live in a convenience focused, fast-paced world where entertainment revolves around food - food with friends, food with family, food when you're bored or tired, food when you're happy and celebrating! I'm a classic ESFJ (you'll quickly learn psychology is another love of mine - along with health and food!) and making others feel good is something very important to me. This means, in my culture, that eating to make your host feel happy, or to keep others company is very important. Combine that with the fact that I'm naturally slender, and that the comment I get most often at family gatherings is 'Eat! You look like you need it/could afford it, etc etc' and I feel the need to eat to please others. Eat until I feel sick, eat until I make others happy. Until recently - I had a conversation with my sister in law who is also naturally slender, and after telling her about the pressure I felt to constantly eat to make others happy (and oftentimes, convince them that I wasn't anorexic!), was really hurting myself. I told her how I always felt sick after these occurrences and she strongly encouraged me to stick up for myself. Is it weird to say that was the first time in my life someone had said it was okay not to eat so much, just to make others' happy? Take it as you want, but it was a very fulfilling moment. I've always been interested in healthcare and holistic health, and spent a lot of time researching those areas - interesting because my immediate friends and family are almost all MD's! Whether or not they believe in my more integrated view of medicine, I am a firm believer and hopeful that the eastern and western philosophies will merge into one for a greater good and better understanding of the overall body in years to come. Eating for your body type (I'm a typical 'Vata'!), understanding the psychology of eating, and providing delicious, healthy (and sometimes indulgent - you need to keep your mind happy as well!) recipes is what this blog will be about - I hope you'll join me in my adventure : )