Happy Being Clean is a lifestyle platform that focuses on clean ingredients and lifestyle choices so you are drinking the best wine, eating well and taking care of your body & home.

About Tina

Sommelier, Private Chef, Nutrition & Wellness Consultant

My life truly has always revolved around food, wine and experiencing the world.  Some of my first memories include talking and sipping wine (don't worry I didn't live in the US at the time) with my grandfather- who had very strong opinions about French wine (if it wasn't a Pomerol or St. Emilion, then it was inferior).  My passion for food and wine has grown since and I have never stopped learning, traveling, studying, and sharing my knowledge since. I read, think, talk, research, dream all things wine-all the time. As a professional Sommelier, I get to work with my passion all the time- I have the best job in the world. And, I am continuing my education all the time. While Master Sommelier is not something I will strive for, I am working towards my Masters of Wine- which is a huge, but wonderful undertaking.

With this, my business has evolved. While I focused many years on food and cooking with wine as an wonderful pairing- my focus now on Wine, with food along for the ride in the sidecar.

My journey to eating cleaner and limiting the chemicals in my diet and in the products I use on my body as well as to clean my home started 20+ years ago when I became pregnant with my beautiful daughter.  I wanted to be sure that I what consumed (and ultimately she consumed) was healthy and made of the best and most natural ingredients.  This lead me to doing a better job reading labels.

What a revelation! I realized that the products that I was eating contained ingredients that were so far from their natural state, that they weren’t even food anymore.  Some processed “foods” didn’t contain a single real food ingredient.  And all the produce that I was eating had been treated with harsh chemicals including pesticides and fertilizers.  I didn’t want to be a science experiment anymore.  And that led me to seek out better ingredients and shopping at better supermarkets.

I worried, as many people do, that shopping at Whole Foods or natural stores and farmer’s markets would be more expensive- and for somethings it is- but when you add everything up and stop spending so much money on pre-made or processed foods, it evens out.  And best of all, my body started feeling so much better!  I felt lighter & leaner, had more energy, my skin cleared, and I was surprisingly less hungry.  I was sold.  In the long run a healthy lifestyle costs a whole lot less than an unhealthy one…

I have continued on this journey, for myself and for my family, and have since done so much research (the over-achiever in me shines through) and gained so much knowledge, that I have become a licensed nutritionist and nutritional consultant.  Additionally, with all the time over the many years that I have spent cooking and teaching others to cook, I made the life decision to become a private chef so that I can share my passion and knowledge.  The thing is, I want it to be fun (never preachy) and help create a good relationship to food for myself and for my family and friends, who have incessantly told me that I should blog about my experiences.  So here we are.

We eat as organically as possible (not everything needs to be organic), try to use mostly natural ingredients, focus on non-GMO, eat fresh every day, and grow a garden.  Yes, my kids (and my guy) eat fruits and vegetables (and not just reluctantly, they enjoy them!) because they have come to understand why.  In fact, our diets are predominantly plant-based.  I involve them in the food planning, experimenting, cooking and garden growing process.  We make being healthy fun, it is a lifestyle.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t ever eat ice cream or pizza (because what kind of life would that be), we just try to do it in a smart way.

In addition to food, we try to avoid harsh chemicals in all aspects of our lives, including beauty products and cleaning products.  The stuff we put on our bodies is just as important as what we put in our bodies, and we want to protect the earth around us, so we can experience as much of it as possible.

So, that is what this website is all about- and why we offer the Services that we do.  We will share, our knowledge, our tricks and tips as well as some recipes that we love.  We will try to answer questions that we get because we want to engage in the community- that is how we learn too!  These are our experiences and hopefully they will inspire you, but ultimately you have make the decisions that are right for you.  And if you want or need guidance on starting your journey, reach out to us- we want to help.  Thanks for reading!