Garden of Eydie is all about getting back to our roots and planting the right seeds to create a joyful, fulfilling life. We believe in a whole food, plant-based lifestyle focused on healing the body through science based recipes that feature food to help you heal!
We are a whole, plant-based food & Whole Life Garden of ideas, sharing science based delicious recipes, and inspirational ways to live an enchanted life.
I’ve been told that I grew up in a tree, and that I look at life through rose colored glasses. Are these compliments? Probably not, but truly, this attitude has served me well.
I grew up in Beaumont, TX. I was a happy go lucky kid. My dad always says that I grew up in a tree. He explained this by telling me that I wasn’t interested in anything happening in the world… I just wanted to be happy, be nice, laugh and play.
Fast forward, I came down from the tree so I could make a living. As a young adult residing in Dallas, TX, my career was in radio sales, then sales management. A straight commission sales job is tough. I am an overachiever, and have a fear of failure, and so naturally, anxiety struck. I developed incredibly high blood pressure and my doctor told me that it was genetic, and that all I needed to do was to take a pill to make it better.
I asked, “How long do I have to take this pill for, like a month?”
He said, “no, for the rest of your life, it’s genetic!”
I couldn’t believe that the pill wouldn’t fix my high blood pressure. What was the point of a pill if it didn’t heal? He told me I had to take it to prevent having a stroke. I did not like having to take that pill for the rest of my life. No way!
When I became sales manager with CBS Radio, the stress went away, but not my high blood pressure. My goal was to help my sales reps with their attitude… to not get stressed like I did, always trying to reach our budget goals. I would help them have an attitude of success, fun, no stress just focus on having fun, creative ideas, and possibilities to help our customers enjoy great results. I cheered them on to victory. It worked! Everyone was having fun, we had a great team, and we surpassed our goals every year. I then received an amazing promotion – First to a radio station in San Francisco, and then to one in New York City! And while I was so grateful for the job and the opportunities, my stress had once again kicked in, and I knew it was time for something to change.
I wanted to be a great cook as well but being single and working, I never had the time. I used to take a lot of cooking classes in Texas and my mom was an amazing cook who would make the most delicious meals. It all seemed so romantic and creative and special to make spectacular food, like my mom.
And then one day, sitting at my computer in the basement of WFAN radio station in Queens, unhappy and uninspired, it came to me: if I took a cooking class I’d be inspired and happy.
That’s when I found The French Culinary Institute, applied… and was accepted! I quit my job, went to cooking school, and earned a Grand Diploma of Culinary!
I learned the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and shortly after I received my diploma, my boyfriend, Ed, asked me to marry him!
We got married and moved to Santa Monica, but I still felt like my life was missing something. I wasn’t working and knew I had more to do. I taught a few cooking classes, entertained a lot, got involved in non-profits, and still something was missing. I wasn’t using my creative brain as much as I had while in radio, advertising, and cooking school.
So I went to a brain training camp to learn how to get into the Alpha state, or the creative part of the brain, through meditation. It was supposed to help prevent dementia as well, which runs in my family! A lot of past experiences get in our way of getting out of our minds. The trainers taught us to try to remember every single person who had ever done anything to us that hurt us in any way…physically, mentally, spiritually. Even little things like saying something mean. Then we had to forgive them while meditating. This was a huge aha for me, as I left there realizing that if we can have compassion for ourselves and others, we will never be hurt again! We can view life through these new loving “lenses.”
Then I learned about Dr. Joe Dispenza and his work with neuroscience, meditation, healing and manifesting. He teaches that our personal reality creates our personality. And if we focus our thoughts on what we want in the future, not what happened in the past, and from our heart, feel as if we are already there, then we will live a whole life and a mindset of joy and success in all areas of life. I attended a couple of his workshops. Now my brain was really “on fire” and I knew my work was not done. I still had something I needed to do, but what?
One day, an email arrived from Rouxbe, an on-line cooking class. They had just created a course on plant-based nutrition and cooking. It piqued my interest, as a long-time friend from radio days, Susan, over the last couple of years, had been asking me to join the Board of a non-profit she created called The Plantrician project. The organization was created to educate doctors and health professionals from all over the world, the science behind how a whole food plant based diet is food is the ‘medicine’ that heals. The goal was to educate them about nutrition, because surprisingly enough, doctors do not get any nutritional education in medical school! I wasn’t interested because I didn’t understand, at the time, what plant-based nutrition was all about.
I took the course at Rouxbe, and boy was I surprised. Not only did they teach cooking skills and recipes, Plant based doctors taught us the importance of eating plant based. One of those doctors was Dr. Klaper. He worked at True North in Santa Rosa, CA, which is a water fasting and plant-based facility to prevent and reverse many diseases. He told us what to eat … lots of fruit and vegetables and beans and our digestion would be fixed. I decided to go to True North and fix my decade long problem once and for all. The 2nd day I was there, eating all whole foods, plant based, no oil, salt or sugar, my body started to work again! But that’s not the only miracle that happened there! I learned that a water only fast would, 100%, reverse my high blood pressure. I went back a few months later and after 8 days of water only, my blood pressure dropped from 178/115 on a blood pressure medicine to 135/85, no medicine needed. Dr. Klaper said that it would continue to come down as long as I stayed on a whole food plant-based diet, no oil, salt or sugar. I did, and within a few months, my blood pressure was down to 98/60… heart attack proof. Not only did I reverse my high blood pressure and my digestive issues, I was more flexible, filled with even more energy, and noticed I had very little plaque on my teeth! So many surprising benefits.
No pills, just plants!
I’m now a proud member of The Plantrician project and enjoy the conferences and education tremendously. I got even more serious and earned a certificate from the Center of Nutritional studies with T. Colin Campbell, one of the “fathers” of Plant-based nutrition, in his seminal work called The China Study. I have become passionate about how amazing a plant-based diet is, and I am filled with the need to share my knowledge with all of you!
One day while at the conference, I realized that I needed to be part of this community and help others be healthy and happy. I just had to help others with understanding how food can heal our bodies and make us feel amazing. Would I teach cooking classes? What would I call my company? It came to me at the conference when the people at my table and I noticed that the term ‘whole food plant-based’ is a really long name for the way we eat. I suggested we call it “garden” food. So easy…just eat all the foods that can be grown in a garden. And since I have an organic garden and my name is Eydie, lightbulb moment… I’ll call my company Garden of Eydie.
Welcome to the Garden, we’re glad you’re here to share our love of plant-based cooking and living our healthiest lives. Let’s start planting the right seeds in your life and help you create your own paradise!