Episode 9 - Healing Through Food & Finding Yourself with Lea Dombrowski
By Jessica Garrison
I just know everyone is going to love and be impressed by our next guest Lea Dombrowski. She is motivated, strong, dedicated, and she’s only in her 20s! Lea is a beautiful reminder that it is never too early or too late to follow your heart and live the healthiest life for yourself.
Lea is passionate about holistic health and nutrition, but food didn’t start out as an empowering partner in her journey. She shares how she had depression and anxiety from as young as 12 years old, and we’re finding that depression is starting earlier and earlier in people. Food was negatively affecting her headspace because she wasn’t eating what her body needed. Lea shares that she grew up in a household with a lot of processed foods and sugar, but that’s also what most people grow up with in the United States. Healthy foods are typically more expensive than unhealthy foods and they don’t last as long. Even someone who uses food stamps to buy their groceries might not have access to the proper fruits and vegetables they need, let alone if they’re buying for a whole family. Food is a powerful thing that affects our moods and energy, but we don’t always treat it like that. It’s a complicated subject that we could go on talking about for hours, but that’s why this episode is so special—Lea has had education and experience dealing with this, so she can share her journey and her episode as a resource for others.
At first, Lea was uneducated about food and how it was affecting her body. She dropped weight quickly when figuring out how to change her diet, but that wasn’t the healthiest thing for her to do at the time. In continuing her journey, she was able to find what she needed without feeling so restricted. Food is not the enemy—it is actually fuel for our bodies that we need to function and survive.
Our relationship with food gets more complicated as we grow up, but we don’t always know why. It’s important to explore what reasons might be behind these complications to help you move forward in the best way possible. Lea began to peel back her layers and discover what caused the strain in her relationship with food initially, how she continued to improve it, and realized slowly what she wanted to do with her education and passions. If she didn’t look at her layers with curiosity, then she wouldn’t be in her position today.
Lea feels more content with herself; she is more independent and isn’t bothered by being alone the way she used to be. After focusing on who she is and who she aspires to be, Lea transformed into someone with more confidence, intelligence, patience, and compassion. I’m grateful she could join us for an episode of The F.E.E.L Podcast to shed light on this crucial, yet conflicting conversation.
Ways to Engage: Take a look at your diet and see how it may be affecting your moods or activity. Pay attention to what foods make you feel more energized or in a brighter mood and pay attention to what foods make you feel rundown or depressed. Nutrition is a major key point in our health and wellness journey, making it possible for us to fully experience life.