Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Keyes.
Hi Michelle, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
You might wonder why a degreed teacher and stay at home mom would spend countless hours scouring books, websites and research articles to find out what various authorities, groups and individuals have to say about health. Behind every passion is a story… and this is my story.
I grew up in Ontario, Canada with an Italian father and an Irish mother. My mom learned to cook Italian. She had to… my father was Italian. This meant spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Meals were made from scratch, and everyone pitched in. Hours were spent rolling out homemade pasta, stirring tomato sauce with love and taste-testing my grandmother’s famous chocolate éclair recipe. We often had to guess the missing mystery ingredient from grandma’s recipes. If you are Italian, you know what I mean.
My affection for cooking was instilled at a very young age and continued into adulthood. After a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, I went on to complete a degree in Education. Along the way, I met a man who shared the same appetite for food and learning, so I followed him and a trail of hot sauce to Texas after getting married. He set up practice as a Chiropractor while I taught and coached running. A couple of years later, I embarked on a new and challenging job… parenting! First Carson, then Isabella.
As with all young families, life was busy. I decided to put teaching on hold and stay home with my children. I prepared homemade meals amidst changing diapers and entertaining toddlers. We ate a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. We only went out to eat on occasion. I thought our family was living healthy.
At the age of three, Carson began to suffer with chronic sinus congestion. At first, it was dismissed as “usual toddler sniffles”. After exhausting homeopathic remedies, then drugstore decongestants, we had to consult an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Carson’s condition worsened, and it was recommended to have his adenoids removed and tubes placed in his ears. We were at a loss and just wanted to see him healthy. Below is a journal entry from the day of his surgery.
Thursday, April 19, 2007 – Carson was scheduled for adenoid surgery at seven o’clock AM. He has been having trouble smelling, hearing and breathing lately. He used to have a very keen sense of smell and always asked… “What do I smell cooking, Mommy?” I have not heard these words in what seems like forever. Instead, they have been replaced with “Pardon me?” Carson has been very clingy, especially at bedtime. He wants me to sleep with him, and I have been simply because he often gasps for air during the night. Kevin and I discussed what we thought was a foolish worry as Carson was wheeled away to the operating room. After anxious waiting, Dr. Stark came into the consulting room and proceeded to tell us that Carson came through the procedure fine. He went on to say it was not the adenoids that were causing the problem. His next words echoed for what seemed like an eternity …“It’s a tumor.” Kevin was hopeful. There are benign tumors… couldn’t this be something benign? Dr. Stark slowly shook his head and responded, “Not this one, not one that looks like this.” Within twenty minutes, we had a preliminary diagnosis – Burkitt’s Lymphoma.
Carson, through much prayer and medical assistance, survived both cancer and chemotherapy. Upon leaving the children’s cancer ward with my weak, bald, immunosuppressed child, I prayed that we would never do this again. After months of intense hospital care, there were follow-up scans. First every month, then every three months and so on. At first, the night before the scans was sleepless. Here we were “cancer free”, and ironically, I felt no freedom.
The tipping point came after a “routine” check and a set of scans that showed cancer may have come back. I can’t even begin to describe all the emotions I felt at that point. I just knew it was wrong and would not accept we were going to live the rest of our lives wondering if this vile cancer might come back. I wanted to truly be free and desperately needed to know how.
This ignited a deep yearning to discover the truth about health. I have spent countless waking and non-waking hours researching books, articles, authors, and resources. I discovered a wide range of opinions and in the end, found vital common threads. No one in our home ever loses sleep anymore worrying about cancer or chronic disease.
I don’t concern myself with the “what-ifs” in life; however, there is one. What if you and your family could share in the truths my family has learned?
I could have written a book about making chemotherapy fun for a three-year-old. I also could have written about the hardship cancer treatment places on the family unit. Instead, I chose to develop The Keyes Ingredients. It is my sincere hope that The Keyes Ingredients will educate, motivate and provide practical insights that will not only keep families from experiencing the challenges we walked through, but bring them vitality and life. That, my friends, is La Bella Verita! – the beautiful truth in Italian…
Today, my family no longer lives with the fear of cancer in our home. We have learned to build our immune systems to heal from and prevent cancer by choosing better ingredients and removing ingredients that tear us down. We exchanged our fear for faith believing God would honor our choices. This knowledge is power, and we continue to do better in this journey.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to bringing The Keyes Ingredients to a non-profit for our community has been challenging, yet so worthwhile! I am grateful for the bumps along the way that have brought this organization to where it is today.
In the beginning, friends would ask me how I was cooking for my family… planning, shopping, meal prepping and actually getting the food on the table? I started by taking them on grocery store tours and showing them what to get and why. That was followed by inviting friends over to cook with me. I was encouraged to write down my recipes… that’s when my first book, Your Holiday Table, was written. It was a way to help people not derail their health through the Holidays while still enjoying them. I received wonderful feedback, however, without a publisher or marketing firm, my message wasn’t very loud.
It wasn’t too long after that I was encouraged to start a YouTube channel and made videos about the WHAT & WHY of nutrition. I invested much time and effort in prepping these videos and getting them on my website. There was no business plan in place. It was just coming from my heart, and it was a side project everyone wanted, then didn’t seem to use much. I was very close to packing it all up, but the constant gnawing to share with others wouldn’t go away.
The next project was my book Plan, Prep, Eat, Repeat. I figured if people knew the HOW along with the WHAT & WHY of nutrition, then my mission would be accomplished. The book was published and used by functional medicine doctors with their clients. It is still in use today and all the information is timeless. The challenge is that people have to stop and take the time to read it. Somewhere along the way I would have cooking demos and do some cooking classes. The live interaction with others was always my love and joy!
Despite changing fads and diets, the anti-inflammatory way of eating I promoted and taught remained sustainable for our family. I stood my ground, never bending to a specific denomination of diet such as keto, vegetarianism, paleo, etc. My goal was to make eating easy, tasty and sustainable for families to enjoy good health & vitality while warding off chronic disease.
My third and most well-known book, What’s On Your Plate, is the project that put my favorite repertoire of meals in ink and out to the public. Again, without a publisher and only organic marketing and social media, it never really became a household name, although all who use the book truly love it and find it extremely helpful.
With my resources I began taking it to the classroom, teaching my material in a group setting rather than one-on-one. This was the first time I felt like I was making a significant impact, yet students always wanted to do some hands-on learning, as well as visual learning.
In 2018, I had the opportunity to volunteer and teach for Canopy – a cancer survivorship center in The Woodlands. They had an actual kitchen where I could not just teach, but involve people in a hands-on way, while demonstrating what I was doing. I fell in love with it! At first, the program had only 4 people. I was able to grow it to a consistent 31 attendees prior to the pandemic.
Social distancing through COVID was the hardest thing for my mission. The bonds were not the same teaching over zoom. In December of 2021, my husband began renovating office space for his chiropractic wellness clinic, Woodlands Family Chiropractic and offered to build out a teaching kitchen for me. This has been the biggest blessing to my mission and ultimately gave rise to the non-profit that now offers cooking classes, cooking demonstrations and various nutrition educational programs to the community. While the community pays reasonable fees, all classes & programs are at no cost to cancer patients.
We have only been operational for six months in our new space, but the lives touched, hearts changed, and health made has been so much more than I ever could have imagined!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a degreed educator with a passion to help others. I love to provide a warm, hospitable environment to enlighten minds and hearts while cooking and learning together.
My specialty is the impact of nutrition on cancer patients. I am known for my ability to entertain and involve others while educating them. Students always have fun, gain knowledge, and leave with their tanks a little more full than when they came in.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I have been extremely blessed. God has provided people to work with, collaborate with and support The Keyes Ingredients so far, however, we are always in need of more.
Volunteer opportunities are always needed for marketing and promoting to the community as well as like-minded sous chefs, set up and clean up assistants, and event photographers.
We have been blessed to collaborate with Canopy of The Woodlands, helping cancer patients with nutrition, and most recently with B & B apparel. We are always looking to collaborate with other like-minded non-profits or companies that can provide food (organic or farm-raised meats/produce/dairy), flowers, kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies and pantry items.
We have a few regular monthly donors and have been blessed by the generosity of many individuals who have donated to the non-profit. All donors are kept up to date with what’s going on via our Monthly newsletter. We are really hoping to obtain more substantial corporate sponsorship to cover our rent costs as well as food costs.
Anyone seeking to volunteer with, collaborate with, or support The Keyes Ingredients can do so by visiting our website or emailing me directly.
Pricing:
- Cooking Classes $95-$125 (for the community)
- Cooking Classes $0 (for cancer patients)
- Cooking Demo’s $35-$45 (for community)
- Cooking Demo’s $0 (for cancer patients)
- Cookbooks, Curriculum & Products available at our teaching kitchen in The Woodlands, TX
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thekeyesingredients.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thekeyesingredients/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thekeyesingredients
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/thekeyesingredients
Image Credits
Stephanie Jane Photography
