My name is Jenni Gritters and I’m founder of ZEST Storycraft, a storytelling consultancy focused on building health and wellness content. I’m also a Seattle-based yoga and mindfulness teacher and an avid home cook.

I started The Gritty Kitchen in 2017 to share the stories behind my cooking. I’ve always cooked smaller portions with local ingredients, inspired by my time living in Italy during college. But about a year after I started this blog, I signed up for a yoga teacher training program in Seattle. That changed everything about how I eat and how I live my life.

Yoga literally means to yolk, or to link your mind to your body. I’ll never forget one morning during the second week of training: I ate a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, then sat down to meditate for 20 minutes and realized that I felt horrible. My stomach was cramping and I was sweating. My entire family has always had stomach problems around dairy and high-sugar foods, but I’d had a reputation for being the one with the iron stomach. Turns out, my stomach wasn’t made of iron at all– I just wasn’t listening to my body!

Learning how to listen to my body has changed what I eat and how I cook. Now I focus on mindful cooking and mindful eating: I listen to my body, cook with non-processed and lighter ingredients, and use food as medicine during high stress times.

The Gritty Kitchen has become a place for me to discuss my intuitive eating learnings. I share my recipes, yoga and mindfulness tips, travel itineraries and wellness findings. More than anything, I hope that The Gritty Kitchen inspires you to listen to your body because what’s right for me might not be right for you! Sometimes the things we find when we pay attention are inconvenient but I promise you this: learning becoming my body’s advocate has been the best step in my food journey to date.

Join me?