Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gina Whalen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

My current state as a homeschool mom isn’t my original career. I started off as a behavior specialist in schools. After I became pregnant, I stayed home and started to do photography.
After about 8 years of doing that, my family and I got very sick from mold toxicity and tick borne diseases. This changed the trajectory of lives in a dramatic way.
Seeing how food directly impacted our health journey, I stopped taking photos and started diving into all things holistic health. I started incorporating all of what I was learning into our everyday homeschool teaching. And the change in all of our health has been a complete 180.

Gina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my career as a special educator who taught children with behavior disorders from middle school until the age of 22. Once I became pregnant with my first, I decided to stay home. I started doing photography on the side and that blossomed into a very busy career.
Once we became sick, I decided to stop taking photos and focus on our health. I have been able to reverse almost all of of autoimmune diseases by focusing on real, Whole Foods.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that things in the store that claim to be “healthy” doesn’t always mean it’s good for you and your body.
The major food industry uses cheap ingredients and fillers that are often marked as “organic, heart healthy” good for you, but after learning more about these foods, I realized that they aren’t healthy at all. Most of them are inflammatory ingredients, which will heighten all autoimmune diseases and suppress your immune system.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience. That is a word that I think of often in this journey. Most of my journey was met with push back, not only from myself, but from others as well. Most people don’t see what is really happening to their bodies and it’s easy to just grab and go snacks and meals.
The resilience on my end was exhausting, I hit many walls when I didn’t see a change in our health or even when it went backwards. I had to push through knowing that what I was doing was the correct thing for my families health.
Years later, we are healthier than ever and my boys are thriving in their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecrunchyhome.com (coming soon)
• Instagram: the.crunchy.home

Image Credits

Photography by Gina Whalen Photography