My name is Aubree Cherie, I’m 23 years old, and I’m currently doing a 1 year internship at a botanic garden. I was born and raised in Upstate NY (near Syracuse) and consider myself to be a plain country girl whose heart will always be in the east coast. I’ve lived in the Midwest, London, New York City, and am now near Philadelphia temporarily. I’ve been accepted into a Graduate Program Fellowship with the University of Delaware and so will be in Newark, DE for the next two years.

I am a horticulturist by day (the botanic garden internship may have given that away…) and an obsessive foodie by night. I love, love, love to eat and for much of my life it was my undoing.

The last two years have been a downright battle for weight management. After much struggling with weird diets, varying exercise plans, and extremely low self esteem, I finally reached a place where I was comfortable with myself. But it wasn’t enough. My stomach hurt all the time, I developed migraines, I couldn’t get into a car without being nauseated, I dealt with severe sun sensitivities, and worst of all I couldn’t shake my crazy and variable mood swings. It was over the past year that I realized there is more to health than just ‘not being fat’.

Recently I embarked on a new lifestyle to better my overall health and to improve how I feel. I eat no dairy, gluten, or refined/processed sugar. So far its been great! Not without its ups and downs of course, but I’m confident that I’ll continue to feel better and better.

I’ve written all about my health issues and why I’ve chosen this new lifestyle in my blog entry Why This Diet?