By: Gabriela Yareliz
Before I was obsessed with Gwyneth Paltrow, and before I found the article on Goop that changed my life— there was my mom, my original health influencer.
In every house we had, my mom created a garden (not just flowers but food). She has always been a nature person. I think she did her best in the 90s trying to decipher what had vitamin C and nutrients (though the 90s were a low point, nutritionally, for all of us in the U.S.).
As I got older, we all collectively learned more. By the time I was in my teens, we were mindful of sugar intake, she would order homemade bread from a lady at our church who made it from scratch, and we would make lunch sandwiches with it. We leaned into home remedies and activated charcoal. We became plant-based, which removed a lot of hormone-injected meat from my diet (which I know helped my own condition). I would do exercise DVDs with her, and follow her example. That’s the stuff that stays with you. (Denise Austin is a QUEEN).
She found us a functional doctor who had worked for the military, and always tried to give us the best. As I reflect back on this, I am so grateful I had a mom who led the way with wellness in a time when we were all trying to figure out what was what. When I made changes and protocols to heal my own hormones, I never felt skepticism or gaslit by her, but on the other hand, I felt encouraged. I found support in my mom that I didn’t even find from doctors who were fine to let me know what was wrong with me but offered no solutions. To this day, my mom and I talk about health and the little experiments we try on ourselves. (To fast or not to fast). I am grateful to have someone to talk to about wellness. It occupies so much of my brain space.
My mom is a very strong woman. If at any point I took charge of my own health and found my pockets of healing and process, that strength to research, try and advocate for myself came from her because she gave me the permission to be unconventional early on. She was unconventional early on.
The other day, I heard Tracy Anderson say that those who find her method and do it are those who don’t try to find the easy way out. They take the harder road for lasting results and longevity. When she said this, it reminded me of my mom. She doesn’t take shortcuts. My original wellness influencer— whether I realized it at the time or not.
She had us eating homemade bread. I mean, what a gift.
Forever grateful for my mother.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 