Our adventure got off to a particulary bumpy start, in fact the bumps started before the adventure. We dropped through a weather system during landing and the silence in the plane as we went through what felt like a freefall was the perfect backdrop to my own freefall into the meaning I'd been seeking. I was listening to a...
There's me...
Who am I? I'm just a girl, standing in front of her readers asking them to love their food.
Hi. I'm Ani Fuller and I'm a sensitive foodie. 🙋🏻♀️
I love travelling, I love cooking and I really, really love finding the incredible people out there who are working to have real, lasting positive impact: on their communities, on our planet and, of course, on me. That's one of the biggest motivators for sharing my finds and findings. To create and further a circle of support and nourishment between the sensitive foodies looking for the foods that make them feel good, and those who are providing it.
That's what Ma Nourriture is all about
It's French for "my food" but to me, in the flowery language of love, it has more passion and more depth than that. It's not just the food I love, but the nourishment I get from sharing what I love with you.
Ani Fuller (B.Soc.Sci University of Cape Town)
The Fuller Life LLP
London, United Kingdom
ani@thefuller.life
La Nourriture: nom féminin
Fr: feminine noun; food, nourishment
THE QUESTION
that started it all
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Wait... You're probably thinking of your favourite food. But do you really want to eat that FOREVER?
My bestie asked me this one night after her boyfriend (at the time) asked her. Randomly. They were having issues, mostly related to her "Are you my Prince Charming?" approach to dating. She answered sushi, her favourite food, and he countered saying that sushi seemed too exciting to eat every day. Being something of a Plain Jane, she eventually realised that she'd actually prefer to exist on cheese sandwhiches. But you can see where he was headed, right? (Spoiler: nobody wants Prince Charming for their forever. Princes are way too high maintenance!) His point was that our forever-food is likely to be far more "normal" than we think. Sadly she didn't get it and that hearty cheese sandwhich found himself a more appreciative ... mouth.
And then what happened ?
I asked the obvious next question: What kind of cheese sandwich? Having been almost exclusively raised on cheese sandwhiches, bestie was disturbed to realise she did not know. Woman on a (clearly misplaced) mission she became. And I went along for the ride.
That night we made every possible cheese sandwich combination we could and started our journey of discovery, carefully comparing each bite to the next. It was a pretty bizarre way to spend an evening but I found myself getting more and more into it, trying to figure out my cheese preferences and secretly hoping it would shed some light on my romantic ones too.
What did we like?
What did we think we liked but actually didn't really like?
What did we assume we wouldn't and found we loved?
It all started with 7 cheese sandwhiches.
That night we ate and debated, we challenged each other and we tasted... as if for the first time.
In the end, we realised that we had yet to fall in love.
Although 7 or 8 years later I am still unsure of my romantic preferences, that night I discovered that coriander is integral to my enjoyment of life and that tomatoes give me burny burps. Bestie discovered exactly how plain a Jane she really is and that cucumber made her bloat to 7-month pregnancy levels. A party trick (of sorts).
And the point of this strange story of two rather strange ladies?
The process of trying to discover which cheese sandwhich would be our Forever-Sandwich changed our perspectives on what we ate. While our life loves remained elusive, it opened us to the idea of finding our food loves, forever or not.
Questioning.
Asking whether we loved it, how we reacted to it, whether we wanted it to stay in our lives for a moment, a season or a lifetime. We made a committment to let go of what hurts us and make space for more of what nourishes us - our 'nourriture'.
But as with all new relationships, after the first flush of love came the hard work. Seeking to understand what we ate beyond its face value meant awakening to the bigger, and endlessly complex, picture of sustainability. For us, to love means with knowledge and without guilt. And so, our work to bring clarity and have positive impact began.
And now here you are.
Join our journey. Fall in love.
...And there's my bestie
Our friendship started because she insisted on it. I was dating her baby-daddy at the time and we needed to be friends to "avoid childcare inconveniences". She likes to arrange her life on her terms. As utilitarian as our start was back when her baby was a baby, it grew into an adventure that's taken us across countries and continents, navigating lifetimes of life changes together. A medical doctor by training, she's also been a business analyst, a financial services communications manager, a behavioural science practioner and a writer. But I think mostly she's a teacher. She's taught me to arrange my life on my terms.
Her passion is bringing clarity to the complex, helping people make sense of their worlds so that they can live fuller lives. We started The Fuller Life LLP (yes, pun intended!) to create a community of people who feel connected, inspired and valued, one that has only positive impact on the world. A big goal indeed.
Ma Nourriture, French for "my food/my nourishment" is our first venture. Because food is our first love.
Wanita N. Isaacs (MBChB University of Cape Town)
The Fuller Life LLP
The Fuller Life LLP
London, United Kingdom
Thoughts, research, insights, experiences
Feb 12
Becoming unconditional
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