#19 Cara Ansis of Fork & Beans on Postpartum Depression, Grief & Growing Out of Labels

Clean Eating for Women with Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition

Cara Ansis of Fork & Beans is here today to talk about postpartum depression, grief, and growing out of labels. Fork & Beans is a healthy eating blog, and Cara makes the most amazing recipes and her fun presentations are adorable. In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

• Cara’s creative side and turning food into fun
• Challenges Cara faced and the real story behind the pictures
• Four things that keep Cara balanced

Some highlights of this episode:

1. The reason Cara makes fun animal shapes and creatures out of her food is because she loves art, painting, and cartoons. Plus, making healthy food fun also makes it more palatable. [01:48]
2. Challenges Cara has recently faced from losing her mother to becoming a new mom. Cara's mother had a brain aneurysm on Valentine's day two years ago. The grief really affected her. Then she got pregnant and hormones and giving birth was difficult, and she had to battle postpartum depression. [03:29]
3. The beauty of blogging is connecting with human nature and sharing with others. It's also about letting others into your life and finding healing through them. [08:03]
4. [00:12:26] Postpartum depression and how Cara had mild postpartum depression after giving birth. She didn't have trouble bonding, but she felt sad, hopeless, and had no energy. On her 40th birthday she decided she was done with the sadness. She has also been in therapy since her mother's death.
5. They also moved to Chicago, but it was great because she started walking everywhere in the city and getting out and doing things and being active made her feel better. [14:40]
6. The four things that keep Cara balanced are regular exercise, daily meditation or yoga (she does her own thing), she reads positive books, and she meal plans and eats at home. She tries to eat as many vegetables as possible, but no restrictions and she eats dessert every night. [15:06]
7. Cara's recipes were allergy free, but now she has no restrictions. She thought she had food allergies, but it turned out she had repressed emotions. Now she copes with her emotions and eats what she wants. [22:30]
8. How she was labeled as a vegan blogger, but she was doing a disservice to herself by trying to live up to expectations. She finally said she was going to live her truth. She isn't vegan, and she is making the recipes she wants. After making the announcement to be true to herself, she was walking around the city feeling so proud and happy. [26:45]

Links mentioned in this episode (some affiliate links included):

• Fork & Beans
• Fork & Beans on Instagram
• Fork & Beans on Facebook
• How to Meal Plan Like a Boss
• Mammoth Bars Code: CleanEating for 20% Off
• Otto's Cassava Flour Code: CleanEating for 10% Off and Free Shipping on orders over $35