Hi there. 

My name is Taesha Butler, but many people know me as The Natural Nurturer. 

I'm a mother, wife, and teacher based in the San Diego area.  I have a deep passion for healthy living and, through this blog, I aim to inspire parents and caregivers with ideas and easy wholesome recipes that are delicious, healthy, and family friendly. I also offer up my tried-and-true tips and tricks for making healthy, natural living smooth sailing in my "Food For Thought" section. 

In case you were wondering, no.....I didn't always live like this. It was a journey that I have been walking my whole life and continue grow in.  But this blog was born out of the amazing decision I made one day to change my life for the better.

Until the age of 24, I had always been overweight. Every woman in my family struggles with obesity and I was absolutely headed down the same path. I thought it was just my fate…and that there was little I could do to change it.

I think every person who struggles with their weight has a number they swear they are never going to get to…well, one day (THAT day that was a major turning point in my life in so many ways), I stepped on the scale and saw that I had not only hit that number…but surpassed it. I was stunned, horrified, and ashamed of how I had let myself go at such a young age. I was not just unhealthy, I was terribly unhappy with who I was and was sick of feeling that way. I knew that day, that it was either time to sink or swim. So I opted to swim in the direction of a healthier, happier life.

The changes started small. Turning off the TV and going for a walk. Drinking water instead of soda. The weight started to melt off of me, but I was still eating lots of processed diet foods, so my body still felt sluggish. While caring for a close family member diagnosed with terminal cancer, I dove into researching the impact of nutrition on our overall health. Thats when the changes in my life the changes got bigger. I started making green smoothies for breakfast and opting to cook simple meals from scratch rather then heat up a processed frozen dinner or box of mac & cheese. I introduced new foods into my diet that I would have never dreamed about eating before and started seeing food not as something to just fill my gut with, but rather as amazing fuel for my body.  As I made the changes, I not only saw the weight continue to effortlessly melt off of me, but my body and mind functioned with an ease and clarity I never had before. I also started to feel this amazing confidence and pride replace all the self doubt that had haunted me for years. I was doing something I never thought I could do, and that drove me to keep improving my lifestyle and myself. Healthy living is absolutely a journey and not a destination….and sometimes we all (myself included) fall off course. But embracing balance and finding your way back to the path is, in my opinion, much more important than expecting perfection out of yourself.

I started The Natural Nurturer soon after my dear friend, Cheryl, and I started sending pictures of our meals to one another as an effort to keep each other inspired with the meals we fed our growing families. Snapping pictures of a smoothie for my friend snowballed into sharing the images occasionally on Facebook and Instagram. People told me I made healthy living look easy and that they wished they could find the time or money to cook healthy nourishing meals too. This bothered me, because healthy cooking isn’t something that has to be time consuming! Dinner doesn’t need to take 3 hours to cook every night (or any night!). It just takes planning, having a few great recipes and wholesome ingredients, and some creativity. Once I realized busy working families were craving help in this area, I started blogging. The best reward I get are the emails and comments from my readers telling me how I’ve inspired and helped them bring real nourishing food into their lives. 

I'm so grateful to be able to share my journey and all that I have learned as a mom, teacher, and healthy homegrown cook with all of you. I hope through my recipes, ideas, insight, and writings that I inspire you to see that a healthy, balanced, natural lifestyle is within anyone's grasp! I'm thrilled that you are here and hope you pop back often to see what is new on TNN!

For daily inspiration, follow me on Instagram,  Facebook, and/or Pinterest

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
– Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food