Excerpt from the Preface

It all began in 2011 with a blueberry-almond smoothie and a fifteen-dollar blender—one of those handheld immersion kinds most people use for soup. I had the idea to combine almond milk, frozen blueberries, and oats to create a healthy beverage that would energize my tired college-student brain. This simple act of self-care was revelatory to me in that moment.

At twenty-one, I was overwhelmed, insecure, and uninspired by the path I was on. I was struggling to keep up with my demanding college program, and my yearslong battle with chronic dieting and disordered eating was taking its toll on my mental and physical health.

As a tween growing up in the 1990s, body-positivity leaders, mental wellness advocates, and proud feminists weren’t celebrated in the media like they are today. I worshipped Seventeen and Cosmo magazines for teaching me how to do a smoky eye, and I browsed “skinny girl” Tumblr accounts to learn all the ways to get by on less food.

Luckily, by 2011, conversations around food were moving from “low calorie” and “portion control” to “vibrant, nutrient-dense whole foods,” and I discovered the amazing world of healthy food blogs. Inspiring, trailblazing women behind web- sites like Oh She Glows, My New Roots, The First Mess, Ambitious Kitchen, and This Rawsome Vegan Life weren’t telling us how to lose weight—they were celebrating delicious, feel-good food and the joy of being in the kitchen. This was life-changing to me. This sparked my own Oprah “aha” moment to start recognizing food as fuel, fun, and nourishment rather than a means for punishment and control.

In my own kitchen, where I had little experience (besides the sandwich skills my roommates loved me for), I wanted to teach myself everything about healthy eating and cooking. I pumped buckwheat banana bread, lentil meatballs, quinoa granola, spirulina smoothies, and spiralized noodles out of my kitchen daily. I traded my calorie tracker for a plant-based diet and kept my bowl full of dark leafy greens. With plenty of energy and a new lease on life, I just had to share this passion with others (or at least show off my awesome super-seed cookie recipe). With that, my first food blog—Peachy Clean Eats—was born. Through the twists and turns of my early twenties, creating and sharing these recipes was my hobby—and escape—from the underlying anxiety and low self-esteem I was struggling with.

Wanting to make my love of nutrition “official,” in 2014 I went back to the books to become a registered holistic nutritionist in Toronto. I wholeheartedly soaked up my nutrition studies while sharing my healthy living tips and recipes on my blog and Instagram. Back then, the plant-based online community was small but supportive, and I enthusiastically posted my daily green smoothie bowl or lentil salad. Solidifying my passion for plants, I worked alongside an incredible raw food chef, Barbara Maccaroni, as she opened her restaurant B.Love Conscious Eatery, which served up some of the first raw vegan food Hamilton, Ontario, had to offer. Through watching Barbara make her creations (and tasting them!), I learned just how beautiful, flavorful, and gratifying plant-based food could be.

My hard work churning out recipes paid off in 2016, when I landed my dream job developing recipes for a leading meal kit company. In this role I was able to learn how to complement my plant-based recipe approach with classic flavor pairings and cooking techniques. I learned all I could from my talented, professionally trained chef colleagues and tested hundreds of recipes a year that made it to hundreds of thousands of plates. However, my mental health struggles were far from over, and the stress from starting a new job turned my anxiety and depression up to full volume.

I pulled away from friends and was terrified of Mondays, and spontaneous fits of tears were the norm. I felt broken—like something was wrong with me and needed fixing. I either had to quit my dream job and move back home with my parents to feel “safe” again, or I had to get better.

So I decided to try to get better. I started seeing a therapist, listened to TED Talks and read Brené Brown books in the tub, went on long walks with inspirational podcasts, took manifestation courses, and borrowed dozens of self-development books from the library. After months of absorbing these positive sources of brain food, I was able to develop a healthy perspective and the coping skills to help manage my day-to-day anxiety. I focused on self-compassion over perfection. I was inspired to work toward living an amazing—not just safe—life.

Feeling all the benefits of these self-care techniques, I started considering how our diets and our thoughts around food impact our mental health. It hurt me to realize this, but I eventually came to terms with the fact that my “peachy clean” vegan diet was just another sneaky method of control and restriction. After (painfully) ripping off the vegan label and slowly letting go of the shame behind “good” and “bad” foods, I completely opened up the gates of my diet and began eating intuitively. I continued to enjoy the delicious plant foods I loved (and still do) but without the title of Super Healthy Vegan Girl. I fried eggs in butter, consumed white sugar without cringing, and attended parties without packing my own protein bar.

It felt incredibly freeing and allowed me to fully explore my love affair with food. I reevaluated my mission and mantra and created my current food blog—Earth & Oven—which celebrates my passion for exploring the intersection of plant-based nutrition, wellness, flavor, fun, and decadence. As a part of my eating-for-joy adventure, I began researching different foods that promote happiness and reduce stress, and that led me to the power of herbs, teas, and tonics. Could an all-natural herbal tea also work as an anxiety aid? It sounded amazing to this plant-loving nutritionist. So I began experimenting with tea blends to bolster my anxiety-busting toolbox. Being a foodie and cook, it was important to me that the blends were as delicious as they were functional. There were enough teas out there that tasted like grass—no thank you.

Through my passion to empower myself to feel better and help others do the same, my organic wellness tea company Lake & Oak Tea Co. was born. Inspired by the amazing effects of that tea, I got to work creating functional tea blends for skin health, detox, digestion, inflammation, and stress. Lake & Oak Tea Co. launched quietly on Christmas Eve in 2017, when I stickered a handful of pouches at home and handed them out to relatives as gifts the next day. A roller-coaster ride of entrepreneurship later, Lake & Oak now has more than twenty signature Superfood Teas and Latte Blends available at hundreds of health and eco-conscious retailers in North America. Through the years, Lake & Oak has grown and evolved and found its voice in a crowded category. Tea, and other beverages we drink, are highly personal; they are a part of our daily routines and lives, good or bad. I am grateful to be a positive part of someone’s day, that first sip of green tea you take in the morning to wake up or the last sip of chamomile at the end of the day when you’re curled up in bed. Hearing from our lovely customers that our tea is their “healthy obsession that feels like a treat” or their “favorite evening ritual” pushes me to continue to create healthy and delicious teas to make someone’s day.

With that love for life-giving beverages, self-care, and sharing delicious things with others, I present to you this book: Super Tonics.

Cheers to you, wherever you are on this wild journey.