Um, but yeah, I'm really, really excited about this book, but your, your journey, you had health issues that have led you to do a lot of the things that you do.

So talk a little bit about that.

Um, in my fifties, when everything that could go wrong did go wrong with my, my parents had some, my dad had Alzheimer's, my mom's breast cancer came back and you know, my marriage got a little dicey because we got in some financial trouble and, you know, that last kid goes to college and, you know, you're just dealing with all the things, right? And nobody really prepares you for when your life doesn't turn out the way you thought it would.

And on top of all of that, I get diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

And And I didn't know a lot about the thyroid.

And quite honestly, the 10-year journey it took me to get that diagnosis was a perfect storm because I'm like perimenopausal, then I'm menopausal.

I've got all this stress in my life.

And that's a huge health problem for her is dehydration.

So why don't you first start out with what is active grandparenting mean in the first place?

Why don't I start out just kind of explaining a little bit how I ended up in active grandparenting.

I had been a women's wellness, culinary wellness coach for a couple of decades.

My background is culinary.

I'm a chef by training.

I had a meal service for high performing executives and athletes long before, you know, that blue blue ribbon foods or blue ribbon meals.

And I really saw a need for people to harness the power of food to heal themselves.

So I'm wondering, in your world, I guess your bubble that you live in and people in your community online, how many people are really wanting to be an active grandparent?

Mm-hmm.

We are surrounded by electromagnetic energy, which is dehydrating, and we have diets that are processed, right? We're not getting, we're not eating the same amount of fruits and vegetables as people did many years ago.

So here's the deal with hydration.

So we live in a more dehydrating environment.

Nobody ever taught us how to hydrate properly.

Me, my parents didn't.

We had milk at dinner.

That's honest to God, in everything.

Mm-hmm

... with hydration.

All of those things led me to create The Culinary Cure as a roadmap for women who were experiencing any of those things.

The Culinary Cure has always been my culinary place where my recipes, there's over 200 recipes on the website.

They're all very healthy.

Um, but when I became a grandparent four years ago, I posted a video on Instagram, and I thought my Instagram was doing great.

I had 25,000 followers, [clears throat] and I had a very engaged audience, and I s- posted this video of me holding my grandchild and sitting on the floor.

Truth.