Women In Wellness: Author Rorie Weisberg of ‘Food You Love That Loves You Back’ Cookbook On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Focus on building one aspect of your business at a time. I was starting a product line, building a website, running social media, and seeing clients all at the same time. I needed to build a foundation and a toolbox first and take things slower in the beginning.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rorie Weisberg.
Rorie Weisberg, CHC, is the author of the newly released cookbook, Food You Love: That Loves You Back. This book features over 200 recipes that are kosher and made with wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients, and many are also gluten-free! Certified in integrative nutrition, Rorie is the health ambassador of Kosher.com, a popular health columnist and lecturer, and founder and CEO of Full ‘N Free, LLC, an exclusive line of better-for-you baking essentials. To learn more about Rorie’s story, product line, courses, and live demos, visit www.fullnfree.com or follow her on Instagram at @fullnfree.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My backstory is long, but the short version is that after my last child was born 12 years ago, I developed Postpartum Thyroiditis. It affected me in many ways. Medicine had little to offer me, so I decided to check out Dr. Google. After a lot of research, I learned that the way we treat our bodies matters and that different foods give our bodies different instructions.
I was totally overwhelmed, but I decided to choose the new hard over the old hard. The process of changing my habits was grueling — I had no idea how to cook healthy food that also tasted good. I didn’t know which ingredients to buy and, most of all, how to feed my family and myself without making two dinners every night. Because I was so blown away by the changes in my health and life, I became a kitchen mad scientist (as my sister says). It meant a lot of trial and error and throwing out pans of food, but I never gave up.
Now that I learned the ropes the hard way, it has become my mission and passion to share what I’ve learned with others and make that process easier for them. This inspired me to develop a line of better-for-you bread mixes and baking essentials and write and publish Food You Love: That Loves You Back. This book features over 200 recipes that are kosher and made with wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients, and many are also gluten-free!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
“I have so many inspiring stories, so it’s very hard to choose. I feel like I see G-d’s hand in my life and business constantly.
One story that stands out most to me is when the manufacturer I was working with told me they might not be able to continue. I felt lost and abandoned. It was very hard and after going through a lot of emotions, I finally said, ‘G-d, you gave this to me, so if you want it back, I accept it. Just like you helped me start this from nothing, if you want it to continue, I know you will find a way. Whatever happens, I accept it as your will.’ I really worked hard to come to that place of peace and surrender.
The very next day, I got a call from my manufacturer and they let me know that they actually resolved the issues and not only were they not going to stop, but also they got an investor and would be expanding. It taught me such an important lesson that I keep going back to: I can put in my efforts, but I know all my success and limitations come from G-d and he is preparing the journey that is meant for me to serve him and do his will. When I keep that focus, life becomes truly full and free.”
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
“The biggest mistake I made was taking on more than I could handle and not setting work hours. It’s so hard to start your own business, especially when you’re a perfectionist like me and want everything just so. I was pushing way too hard and burned out. All the gains of changing my habits went out the window because even though I was eating healthier ingredients, I was super stressed and not taking care of myself.
I also realized that if my business was sabotaging everything I worked so hard to gain health-wise, it wasn’t worth it all. I had to pull back and learn to limit, say ‘no’, delegate, and stop seeing help as an expense but rather an investment. Unfortunately, it took a bunch of times to learn the lesson, but I’ve learned to ask for help, say ‘no’, and set work hours (well, I’m still working on that one). Overall, though, I’ve definitely learned the hard way to work smarter, not harder.”
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I love this question! My goal is to share a message that’s hard for people to understand. Diet culture has hijacked healthy food, so when people think of healthy eating they think weight loss. My approach is not about losing weight; it’s about gaining health. Sometimes, weight loss is a side effect when a person’s habits are not allowing his or her body to be at its natural weight. However, I never talk about losing weight, calories, or calculations of any kind. My message is to enlighten women on how to treat their bodies with respect and responsibility.
I also put a big emphasis on other health habits like sleep, hydration, attunement, and movement. Not for the means of the end goal to change the way we look, but to change the way we feel. My message is about believing that you can nourish and nurture yourself with dignity and deliciousness. I am also super passionate about sharing the recipes and tools to make traditional favorites with ingredients that love you back.
To that end, I developed a line of better-for-you bread mixes and baking essentials. I also recently wrote and published the first-ever kosher health cookbook called Food You Love: That Loves You Back. The book is a collection of tips, tools, and over 200 recipes that have made my commitment to health doable and delicious. Now, I have the privilege of sharing all of that with others to help them live full ‘n free!
Available in stores and on Amazon, Food You Love transforms all your traditional favorites — pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch, schnitzel for dinner. Brisket, kugel, and cholent for Shabbos, along with dips, enticing salads, and loads of veggie sides, topped off with chocolate mousse and cookie crumble. You’ll enjoy every bite and leave the table feeling full, energized, and confident that you’ve served and savored only the best.
Healthy means something different for everyone, especially if you need to avoid certain ingredients. Many recipes offer a few variations, like gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, and even refined sugar-free, so that you can customize them to your and your family’s preference. The cookbook even features QR codes that you can scan for a real-life glimpse into my kitchen & shopping wagon! Also included are my tips on the basics on staying full and energized with healthful eating, menu planning advice, and insight on how to practically balance advance food prep with an on-the-go lifestyle.”
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
“That’s so perfect that you asked for 5, as I actually call the healthy habits to get ‘in shape’ the ‘5 to thrive’! They are sleep, hydration, attunement, physical activity, and eating respectfully and responsibly. When I talk about each topic, I suggest people work on them in order. Most people want to hear about what to eat and how to work out. However, I think it’s really important to work on sleep, hydration, and attunement first because a rested, hydrated, and mindful person will make much better choices and be able to be consistent.”
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
“To slow down and become more mindful. Most people have aborted ship, as I like to say. I know because I had to work really hard to start to hear my body’s cues. But the more I listened to my body’s whispers, the louder they got and those intuitive signals can really lead me to make respectful and responsible choices. I would also like to make a movement to change so many of the ingredients used that hijack our hormones and taste buds, causing a lot of static. This makes it so much harder to be attuned.”
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
“The top 5 things are:
1. Hire an assistant if you can afford it. You can’t do everything!
2. Focus on building one aspect of your business at a time. I was starting a product line, building a website, running social media, and seeing clients all at the same time. I needed to build a foundation and a toolbox first and take things slower in the beginning.
3. Take one day a week off. I’m still not completely listening to that advice, but I still wish I would have heard it and listened in the beginning.
4. For my book, I wish someone would have explained the process to me. I ended up in a major crunch in the end that could have been avoided or limited had I had more clarity.
5. Trust more and know that not everything you can do you have to do now. My sister always said, ‘Rorie, you can do anything but you don’t have to.’ I pushed too hard during the earlier stages and learned to slow down and not ‘fill’ my plate so much.”
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
“I’d say that of these, mental health really jumps out. Our mindset is everything. Being a healthy person is only partially how you take care of your body. It’s how you connect emotionally to yourself and the other people in your life. It’s all connected.”
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Website: https://fullnfree.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorie-weisberg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Full-n-Free-298441800579215/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullnfree
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rorie_weisberg
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Author Rorie Weisberg of ‘Food You Love That Loves You Back’ Cookbook On The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.