Hi…I’m Renee!

Let me tell you how I got to where I am today, here, creating this food and food photography blog that I like to call, Renee Yemma, and why I love cooking, baking, food photography and most of all, slowing down to SAVOR it all.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been in the kitchen.

If my parents were making a dinner that I didn’t like, I’d be in the kitchen making my own dinner.

It was usually turkey tacos. They were my favorite! I made them ALL the time!

I was also baking a lot, too! I can remember making Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and when the holidays came around, I’d make all kinds of different Christmas cookies and appetizers that I thought sounded festive, fun and delicious.

I still remember the feeling of making Santa face sugar cookies…the red icing hat, the chocolate chip eyes, the red hot nose and the white frosting for his beard…it was SO fun!

I remember when I was in Home Economics in high school and my friends and I made Apple Crisp. OMG! I fell in love with making it and tasting it and Apple Crisp is still one of my favorite things to bake still to this day!

It was during this time, too, when I also became very passionate about nutrition and exercise.

I started making my own salad to bring to school for lunch every day. I gave up soda because I realized the caffeine was giving me headaches and I started doing all kinds of different exercise videos and jogging outside.

My college life!

When I started college, I wasn’t sure of my major.

At first, I thought about psychology because I felt like I must have been pretty good at helping my friends with conflicts in their lives, because they were always coming to me for help and advice.

I remember one of best friends always calling me at 3 am because she needed help with her boyfriend problems…I didn’t mind one bit! I loved being there for her and helping her!

But when I took my first psychology class, I got scared, because I thought it was going to be too hard for me, and I wouldn’t pass, so I moved on to nutrition.

But, the same thing happened when I took my first nutrition class. I really wanted to pursue it, but, again, I let my self-doubt thoughts get in the way because I thought, “This class is too hard and I’ll never pass and become a nutritionist” and I ended up pursuing writing.

I’ve always loved to write! So I thought, this is it! I can do this!

I finally decided that Journalism would be my major with the hope of writing for a music magazine, like Rolling Stone, because I was, and still am, a huge lover of music and seeing live bands. I even thought about becoming a radio DJ, too, but, I ended up pursuing writing instead.

I wrote for the college newspaper, The Alligator, a few times and another local newspaper called INSite Magazine, that featured articles on local bands. I even got to take photos, too! I loved it!

Here’s a few that I wrote…

Life after college…

After receiving my Journalism degree from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!!) in December 2000, I had a hard time finding writing jobs back in my hometown, West Palm Beach, FL.

I was getting so discouraged, but when I went to visit my friend from college, who taught first grade, I visited her classroom while she was teaching and I thought, “I love kids! I could go into teaching and I could teach them writing!”

So I went back to school and received another bachelor’s degree, but this time in Elementary Education, from Florida Atlantic University.

I loved my time learning how to be a teacher. I loved my time doing my student teaching in first grade. I really loved being around the kids and helping them learn.

Once I received my teaching degree, I ended up moving to Guam, to be with my college sweetheart, who was living there because he had joined the Coast Guard after we graduated from the University of Florida together.

While we lived on Guam together (for a year!), we got married and I began substitute teaching as I waited to receive my Florida teaching certificate.

We moved back to south Florida and I ended up finally getting a full-time third grade teaching job. I was so excited, but as the year went on, my excitement turned to tears.

I was the most stressed-out I’ve ever been in my entire life.

And, because of that, I started looking for Journalism jobs again.

I was so sad because I loved the kids, but it was the system that was breaking me.

I ended up getting moved to different school, so I decided to give it another try. It was better, but I still came home crying every day.

Enter my food life!

My husband ended up getting accepted to law school in Virginia and soon after I ended up finding the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

I applied and got accepted for the upcoming fall class and once we got settled in Virginia, I became an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) tutor to K-12 kids in the local public school system while I traveled once a month to New York City to become a Holistic Health Coach.

It was amazing!! And my passion for food and self-care skyrocketed even more!

It was during this time when I truly connected with my love for seasonal eating.

I had grown up in south Florida where the weather is always warm, so hot lemon water, soups and stews were never really heard of in my diet because I was basically eating watermelon and pineapple all year long. Ha!

So moving up to Virginia (the coldest climate I’ve ever lived in and ever want to live in! Ha!) and going to the Institute of Integrative Nutrition really connected to me eating foods in a seasonal way that I had never heard of.

I started to love making warming foods like soups and stews and fruit crips in the fall and winter and cooling foods like green leafy vegetables in the spring and salads and fruit in the summer.

I also started to learn how important it is to to chew my food, eat slow, and be mindful of the flavors I was putting into my mouth.

This is when I realized how much I love slow eating and slow living!

After I received my Holistic Health Coaching Certification, I began to take the steps to start my Health Coaching business.

Soon after, I became pregnant with my first born and I reconnected with my love for photography.

I was always taking pictures growing up. My bedroom door in high school was filled with pictures…it was one big collage of pictures of my friends and I, and when my husband and I would travel, I would just snap whatever I was seeing that made me stop and smile.

I never realized I had this photography passion inside of me until after I had my daughter.

I got myself a DSLR and I started learning everything I could about photography.

I fell in love with my daughter and photography! I couldn’t stop taking pictures of her!!

Once my daughter was two, I started getting back into my kitchen to cook and bake. As much as I wanted to just get frozen meals all time because I was so tired from being a new mom, I just couldn’t do it.

I have a serious problems, I just love making homemade meals and baked goods!

I was taking a lot of portrait and general photography classes on Creative Live, but when I saw a food photography course being offered by Penny De Los Santos on there, I decided to take it and OMG did I fall even more in LOVE photography…or shall I say food photography now!!

Because of that love, I became so inspired and so motivated to be in my kitchen cooking and baking AND practicing food photography at the same time! I loved it!!

I didn’t start out the best…but the more practiced, the more I loved it and the more I think I was finally starting to get that hang of it.

My daughter even started taking pictures of her food, too!

Then I had my son and I slowly disconnected from all things food and food photography, because taking care of two littles was the best thing that ever happen to me, but it also was pretty exhausting and, because of that, I was only focused on doing the most simplest and easiest things I could do take care of them and myself.

Which meant…think of the easiest meals to make over and over again and try to get rest whenever time opened up for me

I refused to stay up at all hours of the night to work on my blog, because when I did that, I wouldn’t be my best self for my kids.

So I put it on the back burner so I could be there, 100%, for my kids, because being a happy mom to them mattered more to me than anything else.

I did start blogging again once my little guy became toddler, from time to time, but never consistently.

I started blogging about all the ways I was calming my mind through mindless-creativity…painting, doodling, coloring and hand lettering.

I loved using mindless painting and hand lettering to calm the stress of my mind, but I was also always thinking about how I could get going with a food blog and taking food photos again, too!

It seemed impossible when I was exhausted from being in the kitchen all day and all night feeding my always hungry kiddos. And, not to mention, picking up all the crumbs that landed on the floor from them.

Pasta…oh, that’s a fun one pick up off the floor. Not! Ha!

But, yeah, I’d feel something tug inside of me all the time to get a food blog going, but my exhaustion just wouldn’t let me go there.

Even though I was so exhausted from all the food I was giving my kids, which felt like every second, once they started school, I found myself always in the kitchen making dinner.

As soon as I dropped them off, I’d come home and immediately start making dinner, so it was all ready when everyone got home and all I had to do was heat it up real quick.

I loved this time, because when I cook or bake in a quiet house, it feels like mediation.

It is the best feeling ever!

So even though I thought I was disconnected and had no energy to cook or bake anymore, I really wasn’t.

The only thing I wasn’t doing anymore was taking pictures of it as much as I used to.

But, actually I was. I started seeing hearts in all the food I was making or eating, so, of course, I had to take pictures of it, because oh my gosh, did that make me stop and smile and I just had to SAVOR it all!

I do believe this was the Universe telling me to pursue food! ;)

So I finally am listening!

I’ve started cooking and baking new meals and desserts again, and I started to see that it wasn’t actually exhausting me. It was actually giving me energy and bringing so much JOY!

I got motivated and re-took Penny De Los Santo’s food photography class again and I started re-reading books I had on food photography already and started reading new ones.

My JOY was lit up so bright as I started doing this, which made me finally take the plunge and START (again!).

I’m ready to be a newbie again and start diving back into all things food and food photography. Because it truly is something that lights me up with so much love and passion and joy and happiness.

So I’ve decided, to help get me out of my food rut, to cook and bake one new recipe a week and also start to dive back into learning all things food photography again, and document it all here, on my blog!

Basically, my goal is to get out my food rut and pick up my DSLR and start doing more of what I love again…cook and bake new and old foods I love and photograph the beauty of it all and share it all here!

But most of all, what I truly want, once I get out of my food rut and make lots of new beautiful and delicious food, is to slow down and savor it all.

Which is why I’ve called my blog, Savor That Bite!

Have you ever seen the movie Ratatouille? If so, do you remember at the beginning when Remy is truly savoring a bite of cheese and then a bite of of cheese and strawberry at once?

The way he closes his eyes and smiles while chewing!! That my friends is savoring that bite!!

Have you ever closed your eyes while eating!? You gotta do it!! It’s a life changer and really allows you to be SO present to what you’re eating and tasting AND to how fast you’re chewing!

Something I haven’t done in years!! Especially since becoming a mom.

I find it so hard as adult to truly chew and taste one bite of food. I know I did it when I was kid. I watch my kids do it daily. There’s no rush for the next bite. Not until that one bite has been chewed and tasted.

And since my life feels it’s running faster and faster, especially when I sit down to eat (or when I eat standing up! Oh, gosh!), I’m ready to slow it down but sitting down to savor that bite I took.

Food is beautiful!

But when it’s eaten fast the beauty of it…the flavor of it…it’s never seen or tasted.

We humans who eat fast are really missing out!! Ha!

So I’m ready to slow my life down, sit down and savor that bite I took!

Which, I’ll be honest, is so hard to do!

Hence, starting this blog because it’s SO needed in my life!

I’m SO excited to get out of my food rut, pick up my camera again AND slow down and savor that bite I took!! But, I’m also so nervous because I’m so rusty!! Eeeek!! Ha!

I hope you’ll stick around and follow along as I start this journey of mine again. I’m SO excited to see where it leads me, but most of all, I’m so excited to watch my growth!!

Growth truly amazes me!!

So if you are gonna stick around, I encourage you to sit back, relax and enjoy the food!

Woohoo!!!

Thank YOU for being here! I truly appreciate it!

And if you have a blog, or social media, let me know, I’d love to connect with you there!