Third-generation farmer turned ballroom dancer, artist, and photographer. Navigating life with Type 2 diabetes for 20 years. Sharing what I’ve learned along the way.
Food & Diet
There's a version of modern life where everything comes with a dashboard. Your olive oil has a harvest date and a polyphenol count. Your wrist tells you your HRV score and your sleep stages. Your browser tracks which tab you had open longest. I'm not sure
Food & Diet
There's a thing that happens every January in a farming operation. You sit down with last year's notes, a clean calendar, and whatever the almanac is saying about the coming season — knowing full well the almanac is mostly optimistic. You write out the plan anyway. Not
Monday July 6, 2026 Food&Diet Spent most of my farming years reaching for vegetable oil without thinking twice. It was what we had. It was what made sense. Olive oil felt like something that belonged in restaurant kitchens, not mine. That changed a few years back. I don&
July 5, 2026 A few changes worth knowing about Some things have been shifting here at Gardener of Life, and this feels like the right morning to lay them out plainly. Not a big announcement — more like what you'd say sitting on the porch when the season is
Health & Wellness
When the weight comes off fast, not all of it is fat. Some of it is muscle. That part doesn't always make the brochure. Muscle mass isn't just about how you look. It's how you get up from a chair at seventy-five. It&
Food & Diet
One thing doctors don't always mention upfront about GLP-1 medications — you can lose muscle along with the fat. When calories drop that low, the body doesn't always know what to spare. The weight comes off, and that part makes the brochure. What doesn't
Food & Diet
Most of us spent decades thinking about food the wrong way. We thought hunger was a character flaw. We thought people who ate too much just weren't trying hard enough. Willpower was the answer. Discipline was the answer. Another diet was the answer. The conversation around weight and
Health & Wellness
Most people think appetite is a willpower problem. GLP-1 medications make a pretty convincing argument that it isn't. GLP-1 is a hormone your body already makes. It releases after you eat and sends a signal to your brain -- you've had enough, slow down. The
* The Long View | Food & Diet Most Americans picture the Mediterranean diet and see pasta. Maybe some olive oil. A Greek salad if they're feeling virtuous. That's the postcard. The actual diet -- the one people in Crete and coastal Sicily ate for generations -- was built on
Health & Wellness
When you’re managing your health on a GLP-1 medication, the last thing you want is more complexity. Food manufacturers have noticed. Walk through any grocery store or scroll through a meal delivery app and you’ll start seeing it everywhere: “GLP-1 Friendly” stamped on packaged foods, frozen
Health & Wellness
A handful of nuts. A seasonal re-assessment. A jar of data on your wrist. Three quiet habits that are doing more work than they look like they're doing. There's a pattern I keep noticing in the things that actually stick. They don't announce
Food & Diet
I spent thirty years watching fields. Most mornings, nothing looked different from the day before. You put the seed in the ground, you water it, you wait. The field just sits there. Day after day, the same quiet. Then one morning you walk out and something’s coming up. That’