Most of my life I have been excessively healthy. No cavities, never sick, and with rapid healing powers so that I have no scars despite the multitude of oven burns and other disasters that being a chef generally involve (I have chopped off the tip of my left pointer finger several times–but you wouldn’t know by looking at it!). I took that amazing health for granted, assumed that it was just who I was and didn’t stop to think for a second that it might not last. Working in the fast-paced and highly demanding culinary industry stresses your body physically, the long hours and high pressure alone are quite enough to wear you down over time, but along with that for years I maintained a diet of coffee, sugar and cigarettes. In fact I generally thought it crazy to spend money on food (working in a kitchen you get some good free meals so I didn’t really have to buy food). After a couple years of this I discovered that I was highly neurotic, with blood sugar swings that left me an emotional basket case.