About

 I’m Vanessa. Currently residing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my boyfriend and my super mutt pup, but my heart will always belong to the Great Midwest. That being said, I’ve never eaten so well in my life! Portland truly is vegan heaven.

The boyfriend agrees. So many noms.

A little bit of my backstory: I’ve been a vegetarian since the age of 11 and was an on-and-off again vegan throughout the years as well. As of four months ago, I have eaten a strictly vegan diet and I feel amazing about this choice.  Sometime the timing is just right.

After graduating from college, I spent a few years doing very little: I found a job I didn’t hate and enjoyed going out with my friends on occasion. One passion that I kept up with was fostering rescue dogs, so I filled my life with giving these dogs a warm place to sleep and training them to trust the world again. It was the one thing that kept me inspired. However, I threw away everything else away that gave my life a sense of passion and purpose. It was kind of a dark time, but it also inspired me to finally come out of the fog and start doing things that fuel my heart as well as my body.

For most of my life, I struggled with overeating and body shaming. Without rambling too much, these issues are something I am very passionate about. Too many of us walk around wishing we could be something else and that’s just not ok. My mission is to show people how to be healthy but also to continue to love yourself during the process. No matter where you are now, learn to enjoy the journey every single day. Some days will be awful, but it’s important to take the time to allow yourself to feel crappy so that you can move on and learn from that moment in time. Life is all about ebb and flow and change does not come easily. Embrace the bumps.

So here I am, just starting to figure things out. Better late than never, right? In the past year, I have completely revamped my lifestyle. I decided to change the way I feel about food as well as finding a true passion in fitness and yoga. I now step out of my comfort zone a whole lot more and it feels pretty great. I’m not sure what the future holds, but I have a few ideas of what I want to do with this wonderful life of mine….but more on this later.

I started this blog as a way to share my passions with like-minded people.  Food and nutrition, fitness, personal style, art and animal welfare are just a few of my favorite things. I love to cook and am always looking for a way to make my meals as inspiring as possible. I’d love to share some recipes, some anecdotes and maybe even some pretty things in the way of fashion and design.  I know it seems a little scatter-brained, but I hope you enjoy my notes and ramblings.

The Wh0le Story comes from the desire to start living the life I want, full of more good stuff. It’s that simple.

Rufus, one part of the “good stuff” that makes up my life.