Unstoppable Stories: Meet Silja | Vionic

Our Unstoppable Stories celebrate the spirit of moving forward, finding positives even in the negatives, and never tiring of experiencing interesting things. We’ve found that when you’re comfortable, you can focus on what matters. When you feel good, you always put your best foot forward because:  

When you’re comfortable, you’re unstoppable.

Get inspired by our stories of real people who have that unstoppable kind of spirit, and submit your own story here.

Meet Silja Danielson, chef and food photographer. Learn more about her story, her passion for cooking, and what makes her unstoppable.

 

Cooking healthy was something Silja grew a passion for at an early age. “When my father was diagnosed with stage 4 Colon cancer at the early age of 40, our family had to develop a conscious awareness of what we put in our bodies…I believe food is natures medicine and making healthy food choices greatly benefits the optimal health of our bodies.” As a full-time model, travelling all over the world, loving food is a bit of an anomaly, which is why eating food in its most natural form with the least amount of processing helps Silja stay healthy. Through her food blog,www.siljafromscratch.com, Silja hopes to inspire the unstoppable gene in all of us, through encouraging more healthy eating into our own daily lifestyles. Continue reading to hear Silja, in her own words!

 

Where does your passion come from?

My passion kind of came as a kid. I grew up in a very Norwegian household, which luckily meant cooking all of our meals from scratch. I feel a bit spoiled in that way. My mom and dad raised us that food is medicine and that you can really change your health and the way you feel based on what you are eating. I understood that food could make me happy and that it could make me better if I was sick. That changed when I watched my mom switch our diet when my dad got diagnosed with colon cancer. When somebody has cancer, you think ‘I will do anything to make them better’ and so one of those things was switching over our foods. We would get most of our food from the farmer’s market, which is kind of how it all started. I can really see how important health is, especially when it comes to food.

 

Can you tell us more about Silja From Scratch?

I started Silja From Scratch after my mom got diagnosed with cancer. She had pancreatic cancer and she fought it hard. Now, it’s been four years and she has tested all clear, which has been amazing. I was with her for most of the time she was getting chemo and food was everything. It was all I could give. I’m not a doctor so I can’t fix her. The only way that I could help was to make sure she was eating really healthy meals. We would change little things in our diet where we would stay away from processed foods and eat more unrefined foods.

 

How did you start photographing food?

As a model, being photographed was a cool way where I learned that food has a story too. You’re selling clothes and those clothing pieces have a story. I really wanted to show food that created craving and food that made it look easy for somebody. I don’t want people to feel like it’s overwhelming to cook a healthy meal. It could be as simple as 3 ingredients – tomato, mozzarella and basil. Healthy food and what I teach in my food blog is kitchen confidence. Sometimes, we lack kitchen confidence. Going into a kitchen with all of these things that you might of not seen before can totally kill your confidence because you might be like ‘I don’t know what to do with this’. For me, it’s kind of my lab. As a scientist, it’s where I put things together and if it doesn’t work out, I will try again. That’s the cool thing about food. It is forgiving and you can try again. You can try different things and it’s really exciting because it tells a story. Food photography is the way that I want people to see my food. It’s like ‘Wow! This is so good, yet so simple. It’s healthy.’

 

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