Yep, I’m back answering more of your burning questions. Okay, you’ve probably forgot you’ve asked me months ago but I promised and now am following through. This Q & A is number three in this series and it is all about blogging, how I got started, my inspiration, favorite color, you know the drill. Sit back, relax and let me give you an inside look at how this show happens. Don’t get your hopes up the show isn’t too exciting.
Q. Motivation for starting Simple Roots? How did I start doing this?
The beginning of Simple Roots was actually quite slow. Before this blog happened I had a tumblr account which got my feet wet in the blogging world. It wasn’t anything great, the content stunk and the pictures were horrid but I began to have a better idea of what the world of blogging was like and the impact I could make. So that began my journey to this blog that began just over one year ago. I published my first post under this name, on this platform and have poured blood, sweat and tears (lots of tears) into making it through my first year of ‘taking this thing seriously’. My intentions for starting was to continuously build my nutrition platform, providing free recipes and content to my loyal locals who I have grown to love so much. It was also a great means to continue my once’ in-person’ nutrition classes to a more online setting which enabled me to provide nutrition content even while pregnant and during the post-partum phase. I never understood the impact and reach I could gain through online programming and am ecstatic to be able to share realistic nutrition knowledge to people all over the globe. But my motivation continues, to help people make realistic, life-long changes to achieve overall health. My desire is to make nutrition simple, easy and something they desire in their lives. To help people put aside dieting and the many nutritional myths on the market and learn to eat to live. My voice is intended to show real life, how we live, my struggles, our story and provide recipes that are simple and quick that ultimately enable you to create change in your own life.
Q. How do you find time to create, prep and cook such complicated recipes?
I hope that the recipes aren’t overly complicated. Although they aren’t as simple as take and bake. I try to create meals, recipes and ideas that are realistic and functional for all people. Trust me, I’m a busy mom of three little girls and I know the stress of trying to cook healthy can be overwhelming. My recommendation is to find that list of 10-15 recipes you know how to make, your family enjoys, are healthy and stick with that. Use the weekends or the days when you have more time to try out and experiment with new recipes. Many of my new, more ‘complex’ recipes I have made during the weekend when the hubs is around to help with the kids. When our weeks are busy I tend to stick with what I know, our go to meals. But because this is my passion, I find it enjoyable to cook….just not clean. So while we eat our fair share of new recipes it is at the expense of a messy kitchen. Like down-right dirty. You know it is bad when there isn’t a clean pan to cook anything in because you haven’t done the hand-washing dishes in days. ->EMBARRASSING<-
But the last thing I want people to think is I have it all together. This is far from the truth and I’m sure I have plenty of family and friends who can attest to this. Our house is far from spotless, in fact it is embarrassingly messy. Why can’t I just throw away the peelings from the sweet potatoes and the empty wrappers that are scattered on the counter. I.DON’T.KNOW. Or how about doing the dishes, which has to be the worst house chore ever! My reality is I like to cook and I find enjoyment when I don’t worry about the mess. I’d rather eat healthy, cook at home and deal with everything else later. There will always be dishes…always, but my health is in my hands.
Q. What keeps me inspired?
You! I know that sounds like a packaged answer but seriously, you my readers the ones who listen to my every rant, who try my out-of-the-box ideas and who come back time and time again. I do this to help you. To encourage you to live a life of health but in a way that is enjoyable. To realize the food is meant to taste good and that eating healthy isn’t a burden, but something exciting. To be your own advocate and learn to listen to your body. I love to hear from you and desire to help you in any way possible. So please, keep the questions coming!
Other things that inspire me are restaurants. Good quality restaurants serving seasonal and unique foods. It gives me ideas and allows me to try new flavors letting my mind race with new ideas. And of course food magazines, other blogs and pinterest.
Q. How many bloggers do I have?
It is me, myself and I who blog here on this site. While it would be awesome to pull in others to get a variety of ideas and inspiration right now this is what it is. With that said, I must say that my hubs, the techy-nerd does A LOT of stuff on the backend. Basically he makes the show happen. Without him and the his knowledge of a lot of things that I have no idea how to even explain to you, like SEO, meta descriptions, social sharing, monetization, ad networks, I’m certain that I would not be here, over a year later. I may create the content and the recipes (the fun stuff) but he does all the back work. So it really is a team effort here at SRW.
Q. What is your favorite color?
I love color. I always have and I feel like I always will. Honestly, my first passion was art. Growing up I always wanted to be an artist, art teacher and later it turned into an art therapist. Obviously none of the above happened but I would say food blogging is a different kind of art. Still colorful and creative so I get to use that outlet. If I had to choose one color it would be a mix between red and coral….or a dusty purple. Ahhh, you got me I can’t pick just one color. So cheesy I know but can I say the rainbow? Okay, let’s just move on..
Q. What camera do I use?
I would like to tell you I know a lot about my camera and taking pictures but the reality I have no idea. I mean I have some idea but my knowledge is very, very limited. In fact I just had to ask the hubs what kind of camera I have ->BLUSHING<- Apparently it is a Canon T1i. I know you guys this is embarrassing. All I use are the basics. I use the manual setting (the best way to shoot in my opinion) and I know how to adjust the settings to let more light in, to increase or decrease the shutter speed (is that the correct terminology?) and change the focus. That is about it. Wow, this is super embarrassing. All I can say is thank you to photo editing, which I use Lightroom for. As you can see in the before and after picture, Lightroom and photo editing are a picture saver. But there are a lot of great resources on the web to help you learn more about food photography. I used the e-book, Tasty Food Photography and subscribe to Food Blogger Pro to learn more. I highly recommend both.
Q. Meal prep service or where do you see your blog going?
I have so many hopes for this blog. Big, big dreams for how I can continue to help you and to reach others in unique ways. My problem is I dream but then I have to figure out how to make the dreams a reality. While I would like to spill my guts on everything I would like to do, it would probably end up being a 100 page book on the topic. So we will say that I am dreaming and dreaming big all the while my husband is pulling me back to this Earth. So we are marching ahead and I will tell you what I know, what is nearing completion and that is my online program The Simple Cleanse. This program has just about as much blood, sweat and tears as this blog and I am ecstatic to help people with the science and foundation within the program. Pssst….You can learn more about it by signing up for my free video series specifically on naturally detoxifying the body without any supplements, special juices or drinks.
As for a meal prep service, unfortunately no. It is out of the picture for now. While those sound fantastic I have to stay focused with my overall goal. This goal is to teach people how to realistically get in their own kitchen, get their hands dirty and learn to love cooking and eating healthy.
Well that’s it folks. Nothing too exciting other than that free video series, which is pretty exciting if I do say so myself. The world of blogging is hard, messy and confusing. There are many days I get overwhelmed with the nitty-gritty side of it and declare it done but then I would be missing my mission, my purpose and that is to provide you with as much realistic and reliable nutrition content as possible. And so I continue to march on soaking in every word of encouragement you provide and clinging to the hope that I will be able to help you and your family change for the better. To live a life you deserve, a life of health. Will you continue to march on with me?
