Here’s the truth.
I didn’t make super great grades in school. I was distracted, always more into fashion and MTV, soccer, cycling and memorizing every line from 16 Candles.
It looked like this: major attention deficit disorder, punk hair and winged eyeliner.
Despite my touch and go academic career, I managed to earn some pretty cool roles in the world of food – from managing demos and cooking classes for a chain of natural foods stores in Boulder, Colorado to overseeing multi-million dollar promotions for some of the biggest food and beverage brands in the world. I managed to work my way up the food chain, power pantsuit and everything.
But none of those career roles prepared me for being a mom.
When I held my daughter for the first time and looked into her face, the world literally stopped rotating. I had never felt that kind of love and indivisible focus in my life. I couldn’t move, but I sobbed for 15 minutes. The joy and elation is something I could never put into words.
She was me, in my arms, and would be for the rest of our lives. Every decision I made would effect her future, shape her, become her. Even if I didn’t know what I was doing.
I became a sponge for every ounce of knowledge I could find. How to care for her naturally, how to feed her, researching what I put on her, understanding how best to nurture her. Basically, how to be the best dang mom I could be. It wasn’t perfect, and it’s far from perfect now but you manage, you grow and you learn that their health and well-being is everything.
There’s nothing more important than keeping yourself and your family thriving.
I created Eat Cleaner with my father because I wanted him to be able to eat his salads after having cancer. We created it together because when my daughter would reach for the apples in the grocery store, we wanted her to be able to enjoy them on the spot.
Eat Cleaner became my third baby, a nurtured creation that demands devoted attention, love and focus. Much like kids, your ideas wake you up at night time, stir you to the core, bring you indescribable joy, palpable frustration and many times, tears.
Tears, sweat, love, magic. Rinse and repeat.
And then something pretty freaking awesome happens – like being selected by HSN for their AMERICAN DREAMS show – and you sit back and go, wow. We did it. Our baby is real, growing, and changing people’s lives. So, to you, our Tribe, we are eternally grateful in believing in us, posting pics of you using our products and tuning into our live cooking shows and sharing the message with your friends and family.
For those about to mom, we salute you!
xxChef Mareya and the Eat Cleaner tribe
