As you all know I love food, hence my passion here on Real Food Pledge. I have now been contributing recipes to Real Food Pledge since 2012 and it has been a blast. Over this time I have been through good eating habits, bad eating habits, busy times, stressful times, holidays and the ebbs and flows of life. Life has handed me some curve balls in the last 5 years, including unexpectedly getting divorced. This meant lots of stress, uncertainty and heart break, you may well know if you have been through it yourself. There is no better time than through stressful moments that you should be looking after your health with good food, but you sometimes do what is easy just to get through the day. I most certainly did at times!
Lucky for me I am a divorce lawyer, so I was able to navigate myself through the legal process. But that is not to say that it wasn’t a difficult time emotionally, because it was. And no matter what your experience in life is nothing prepares you for true heart break, actually it was the lowest point of my life to date
Becoming a single mum instantly and being the sole income earner in my household, made me focus on my work as a lawyer, rather than my passion here on Real Food Pledge. I went through times when I didn’t feel very creative in terms of food, as if my creative spark had died. That was sad for me. Also I found that I had to muster my energy where my efforts would financially support my family which was at my law practice Caldwell Family Lawyers.
I am well and truly past my divorce now, in fact, I thrived through it and have come out much better off. It is amazing when sometimes life throws you what feels like nothing less than rotten eggs, but actually it becomes a blessing offering enormous growth, amazing transitions and new opportunities. As a result of my divorce transition, I am a much better divorce lawyer, more compassionate and I am equipped to not only support my client as their lawyer, but I can also help them to thrive through their divorce, just as I did.
Over the past year I have been working on a new project called ‘The Healthy Divorce Lawyer’. This project is a way that I can join my healthy food journey with my divorce journey and legal career. For those of you going through heart ache, divorce transitions, co-parenting, dating again, struggling to find yourself after divorce and everything else that you go through when separation occurs, I have created caraleefontenele.com where all these topics are discussed.
I will still be here on Real Food Pledge, creating yummy, healthy food. But right now my balance and main focus is on talking about creating a healthy mind and thriving through when life’s transitions and stresses occur. I would love to see you over at caraleefontenele.com or on Instagram at caralee.fontenele xx
Leave a Reply