Chef Rich Eaton

With over 45 combined years as a chef & food safety instructor, Rich Eaton was at least 575lbs, that is as high as the scale would go in his Dr's office,. morbidly obese, and knocking on death’s door. He had to make a change. Rich had never been a normal weight, used food as a coping mechanism to overcome insecurity, depression and just his life in general. Having been moved from home to home he always felt unwanted, unneeded and generally unloved. The one thing Rich found out early in life is that he could cook and and eating delicious food made people happy. He learned to cook almost anything but had a particular fondness for making homecooked family dinners and desserts. Some of is fondness childhood memories were centered around Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter dinners At his Aunt and Uncles home, who raised him for much of his early life. He would recall certain foods that he would associate with those particular holidays and meals. Every Friday night his Aunt and Uncles family would gather around the dinner table for American Chop Suey and fresh bread. To this day, that meal remains one of Rich's favorite meals and most cherished memories. Unfortunately, these same kinds of meals would later lead to the morbid obesity that would try to take his life. As he made and ate these kinds of meals to make him feel comfort and love, and to fill the void of feeling wanted and needed by others. Faced with mortality, Rich started his journey with a personal trainer & made changes to his diet. He began losing weight. At the same time working with his Dr he entered a weight loss program that would begin to teach him how to have a positive relationship with food as well as to deal with the emotional changes he would need to overcome to succeed. In 2020 Rich had Gastric Bypass Surgery as a tool to his weight loss journey. Knowing that he couldn’t restrict his diet long-term and be successful, Rich set off on a mission to reinvent recipes that he loved into lower-calorie, higher-protein versions that would be a sustainable part of his success. Rich realized he wasn’t the only one that struggled with weight and their relationship with food. In 2021, Rich became a Certified Nutrition Coach. He had a Fleur de lis Abdominoplasty to remove excess skin that interfered with his ability to move forward with his journey. With his new knowledge and extensive culinary background, he worked alongside a team of nutrition professionals and created Now We're Cooking. Now We're Cooking has a compilation of over 250 recipes all created for the express purpose to help others reach their achieve their dreams and reach their goals Today, Rich has lost over 350 pounds while creating and eating these same recipes.