Meet Stephanie Weaver
I’m Stephanie Weaver, MPH a writer, recipe developer, and TED talk coach.
I love taking recipes and remaking them with ingredients suitable for special diets. That’s why I launched this website in 2010 under the name RecipeRenovator.com. It’s also why you’ll find a wide range of recipes here, from vegan and paleo to whole 30 and sugar-free. ALL recipes are gluten-free.
I began renovating recipes in 1987 while working on a cholesterol-lowering project for Northwestern University Medical School. I earned a master’s in Public Health and taught nutrition education there to disadvantaged youth in Chicago. I continued to develop educational curriculum as a technical writer for the next 25 years.
But, RecipeRenovator was the beginning of my personal health education. I was suffering from chronic fatigue, pain, and mounting health conditions that placed me on the sidelines. My employer actually laid me off while I was extended sick leave. That’s when I took charge. I wrote my first migraine book and documented my research, day-to-day success, and recipes on this website. My relief came through a combination of lifestyle changes, anti-inflammatory foods, and medication as needed.
That headache is actually a migraine
In 2014 I was diagnosed with a new health opportunity: migraine attacks with vertigo. It turned out that the “weather headaches” I’d had for thirty years were undiagnosed migraine attacks.
At my diagnosis, the physician gave me a migraine food trigger handout. He suggested I follow it, but couldn’t explain why the foods were problematic. When I got home, I checked the trigger list against the contents of my refrigerator and broke down in tears. About 75% of these contents, my “healthy” foods, were in the do-not-eat column of the list, mostly because they were fermented (e.g. tempeh, miso, kombucha.
So, I began to find my own migraine relief diet. I did this by isolating and then eliminating the ingredients that seemed to be a factor in triggering my migraine attacks. I also immersed myself in migraine literature: hundreds of medical articles, dozens of books, and physician interviews. I made changes that my doctor didn’t prescribe while taking medication as needed. I also made the lifestyle changes recommended by migraine doctors: regulating my sleep, eating regularly, hydrating, getting regular gentle exercise, doing meditation. I was lucky enough to be quite responsive, and after a few months, I transitioned from 3-5 migraine days a week and a daily headache to 2-4 migraine days a month. I tested the plan I’d developed with two panels of migraine sufferers and everyone saw improvements. That led to me writing my book The Migraine Relief Plan: An 8-Week Transition to Better Eating, Fewer Headaches, and Optimal Health.
I decided to rename this website so migraine sufferers can discover the same relief I found. But, I continue to add healthy options for other special diets. Become your own health advocate. Eat well. Feel better.
I’ve been featured on the Cooking Light blog, Cosmopolitan, the NYT Well Blog, Buzzfeed, San Diego Magazine, Bon Appetit, The Huffington Post, Meatless Monday, Earth Eats, Bob’s Red Mill, and BlogHer Food.
I write about migraine wellness, yoga, meditation, forgiveness, and life balance. Learn more about my writing and my speaker coaching work. Enjoy!