This Blogger is Inspiring People to Choose Healthy and Live Happy

Do you want to help your family to live a healthier life? Are you wondering how to get started?

In this installment of the Community Over Competition Series we are going to be hearing from one of my fellow blogging mamas, Stefani Ganong from the Crafty Christian. Stefani is one of the first mamas I met on my blogging journey and also one of the sweetest. I am so excited that she has agreed to share about her new book ‘Choose Healthy and Live Happy’. This is not a sponsored post. 

Tell us a little about yourself:

Hey everyone! I’m Stefani, and I’m a stay at home, homeschooling mom of 2 boys. They are 2 and 4, and they have more energy in one day than I have ever had in my life! Seriously, how do they do it?! My husband is a software engineer, and my best friend. We met on a plane. I love telling that story because we are such a perfect fit and it’s so obvious that we were meant to meet. But I’ll tell that story another time!My family lives in Charlotte, NC, and we absolutely love it here. There’s just enough of each season to keep me appreciative of the changes, although Fall continues to be my favorite one.I’m also a Certified Children & Family Health Coach, and I blog about chronic illness and healthy living over at The Crafty Christian. I absolutely love helping others through the difficulties that come with a chronic illness diagnosis; having an invisible illness can be so isolating, but we are not alone. My desire is to create a supportive community for all of those who feel like they’re the only ones suffering, because walking through the hard stuff of life with others is what makes us strong enough to come through on the other side.

What inspired you to write this book?

Shortly after my 2nd son was born in 2014, I started having scary symptoms. I had debilitating anxiety, rapid weight gain, and terrible brain fog. It went beyond normal postpartum issues, and I decided to see a doctor. I was diagnosed with Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune thyroid disease. This was the wake-up call that changed my life.I started doing more research and discovering that our health is intricately linked to what we eat. It goes beyond thin and fat, healthy and unhealthy. There is chronic inflammation causing serious illnesses, hidden sugar in most processed foods that is causing addiction and diabetes, and even a rapid rise of autoimmune diseases and allergies in children.

The problem is, nobody is talking about it. The food manufacturers will do anything to keep us buying their product, including misleading us into thinking it’s healthy when it’s not. Society tells us that we are too busy, and that it’s ok to give in to convenience foods; but those foods are causing serious health problems for our kids.

When I started realizing that so many people were buying into these lies and thinking that it was ok to not be putting their health first, I felt a desire to share with them everything that I’ve learned. To tell them about the skyrocketing obesity and diabetes in children, the neurotoxins hidden in their kids’ favorite snacks, and the endocrine disrupters that they are exposed to daily that are affecting their hormones.Our kids are trusting us to take care of them, but we can’t do what’s best for them if we don’t know what we’re facing.

What makes this book different than all the other health books out there?

This book is different because it’s straight to the point. I didn’t fluff it up just to make it longer because I don’t want to waste your time. This book is from my point of view, which is helpful because I have been that parent who fed her kids unhealthy foods. My oldest lived on macaroni & cheese (the boxed kind!) for quite a while, and I didn’t fight it because he ate it without arguing.When I started making changes for our family, I went toe to toe with this angry 3-year-old because I had taken away his beloved processed food and was trying to get him to eat plants. But I persevered and came through on the other side, with a child who willingly eats most veggies.Everything in this book is a compilation of what I’ve learned through years of research, broken down in a way that is easy to understand and apply to your own life at your own pace. It’s basic, it’s thorough, and it’s indispensable.

How can people get your book?

You can get my book either on Amazon Kindle, or you can get a package on my site, Choose Healthy, Live Happy.Visit here to see the three different package options that Stefani has to offer including a training course and one on one coaching sessions.

What advice do you have for others that hope to write a book but have no idea where to begin?

Just start with your idea – whatever you’re passionate about and whatever you want to teach people about. Brainstorm everything you know about this topic and write it down. Making a mind map really helped me to visualize my ideas.Organize it into chapters, and get to writing! Write 200 words per day, even when you don’t feel like it. Often, those 200 words will work their way to 800 or 1,000 once you get going. There are so many great resources out there for writing a book, but my favorite was the Book Boss course!Don’t talk yourself out of it, and don’t think that you don’t know enough to write a book. You don’t have to be a bestseller to write a book, you just have to have your own unique point of view. Don’t stop believing in yourself, and keep working hard! It will all come together as long as you don’t quit.

If you would like to start your family on a healthier path be sure to check out Stefani’s book. I want to thank Stefani for sharing her story and for providing such a great resource. And for reminding us to believe in ourselves and our goals.