Hi, I'm Claire.

And this is ifeatingwasahobby.

Thank you for being here.

Food has always been one of the great loves of my life.

When I look back on my happiest memories, food is almost always there. Birthday candles melting into buttercream icing. Learning family recipes that never required measuring cups. Vacation itineraries planned around restaurants before landmarks. Long dinners that stretched late into the evening because nobody wanted to leave the table.

Food was never just food.

It was celebration, comfort, curiosity, adventure, connection, and joy.

Until it wasn't.

Like many women, I spent years struggling with my relationship with food. What began as innocent health consciousness slowly evolved into something else. Meals I once looked forward to became stressful. Nights out required mental calculations. Simple questions were met with rehearsed answers.

The thing that hurt most wasn't what I was eating.

It was what I was losing.

I was losing excitement. Spontaneity. Celebration. Connection.

I was losing the version of myself who genuinely loved food.

I got better, and then worse. Better, and then worse again.

Eventually, I realized I didn't need another diet, another rule, or another promise to myself.

I needed a different perspective.

I needed a way to remember why I loved food in the first place.

So one day, I created @ifeatingwasahobby.

What started as a simple Instagram account became something much bigger.

A mindset.

A reminder.

A challenge.

What if eating was a hobby?

What if food didn't have to be something I managed, controlled, or feared?

What if it could simply be enjoyable again?

What if trying a new restaurant, sharing a bottle of wine with friends, cooking dinner for people I love, or ordering dessert just because it looked good could be enough?

Slowly, something shifted.

Food stopped being the enemy.

It became the connector I had forgotten it could be.

A connector to people.

To cultures.

To cities.

To traditions.

To conversations.

And, most importantly, back to myself.

Today, ifeatingwasahobby is a place for anyone who plans vacations around restaurant reservations, spends too much time thinking about what they're ordering before they arrive, and believes that some of life's best moments happen around a table.

But it's also for anyone trying to rediscover the joy they once found in food.

Because food should be nourishing.

But it should also be exciting.

It should be comforting.

It should be memorable.

It should bring us together.

This space is my celebration of that belief.

I'm so happy you're here.

Let's eat.