Before I became intentional about nourishing my son, I had to learn how to nourish myself.
In November 2017, I weighed 78 kg - the heaviest I had ever been. With only myself to feed, cooking felt like a burden.
Health and nutrition had always been things I returned to for a sense of grounding, but somewhere along the way, I had lost myself. When I decided to make a change, I knew I needed something I could sustain. I had tried diets before but this time I wanted a sustainable solution.
I began discovering that I could still enjoy my favourite meals, I just needed to learn new ways to prepare them. I started cooking more and sharing my weight-loss journey on Instagram to keep myself accountable.
Slowly, my relationship with food changed. My palate changed too. I began enjoying the natural flavours of food, and my sweet tooth faded. I paid more attention to ingredients and learned to read food labels. Health documentaries, including What the Health, and podcasts such as The Model Health Show sparked my curiosity about where our food comes from and what we put into our bodies.
I went down the rabbit hole. I wanted to understand more.
As my habits changed, I felt better physically and mentally. Preparing my own food became a way of caring for myself. By November 2019, I weighed 60 kg - 18 kgs lighter than when I began. That was also the month my son, Genesis was conceived.
Without knowing it, I had spent two years preparing for a chapter that would give my understanding of health an entirely new meaning.
I had become vegan in June 2019. When I found out I was pregnant, I decided to reintroduce animal products because I didn’t feel I knew enough about navigating a vegan pregnancy. It was a personal decision, made with the knowledge I had at the time and a deep desire to care for my unborn child.
I entered pregnancy feeling in the best shape of my life and continued eating well. My pregnancy went smoothly, and I didn’t experience many cravings. Occasionally, when I wanted something sweet, I enjoyed frozen yoghurt.
Then, in March 2020, South Africa went into lockdown.
I wasn’t working during that period, and the stillness gave me time to be present with my pregnancy. In the middle of so much uncertainty, I found space to bond with the little person growing inside me and to think about the mother I wanted to become. I began looking inward. I wanted to work through past hurts and become more aware of the patterns I might carry into motherhood. Caring for my child meant paying attention to my own emotional wellbeing as well.
During that time, a thought took root: the best gift I can give my child, is the gift of health.
I couldn’t promise him a life without illness or difficulty. But I could be intentional about the foundation I helped him build.
I wanted him to grow up understanding food and the role it plays. I wanted caring for himself to feel familiar from the beginning, with habits he could carry through life.
After Genesis was born, I breastfed him exclusively until he began solids at five months. When that new chapter arrived, I prepared his meals from scratch.
There was so much joy in it for me: choosing ingredients, preparing his food and watching him discover different flavours. And my little boy loved eating, which made the experience more rewarding.
Today, Genesis is the gift that keeps on giving.
He is intelligent, charismatic, curious and wonderfully eclectic. He is wise beyond his years, and his physical strength and determination amaze me. When something interests him, he challenges himself and keeps trying until he has figured it out. Watching his capabilities unfold is one of the great joys of my life.
I believe the attention I have given to his nutrition has helped lay a strong foundation for his growth and wellbeing. I cannot attribute every part of who he is to food alone. His own personality, the love around him, play, rest and the experiences he has all have a place in his story.
But nutrition is a part of that story I have nurtured with intention from the very beginning.
That is what health means to me now. It lives in the everyday choices we make, the meals we prepare, the example we set and the care we give ourselves, even when nobody else sees it.
It is also part of the heart behind TSHIIMOO: my desire to nurture the whole child, inspired by the child who changed my life.
Genesis and I now share parts of his food journey on TikTok at @kingg_masterg, hoping to inspire other families to enjoy eating well.
What began as my own search for a healthier life has become something I get to share with my son.
And every time I watch him discover, explore and try again, I am reminded of how much those everyday moments of care mean to me.