The Bake Shop God Was Building All Along

There is something so poetic about a girl who was once afraid of food and had nightmares about eating chocolate but turned into a cottage baker. And not only a cottage baker, but a personal trainer by morning and a cottage baker by afternoon. It’s an interesting combination. As a whole, it almost sounds like an anomaly. You might think, “That’s not what I saw coming.”

Well... that girl is me.

And this is the story of how baking and exercise helped heal me from an almost deadly situation.

At 13 years old, right before I started my freshman year of high school, I was diagnosed as obese, prediabetic, and hypothyroid. I was definitely on the heavier side, no doubt about it, but my relationship with food was the real culprit.

As a kid, I struggled to make friends and fit in. I would come home after school looking forward to whatever was in the snack pantry. It was never the healthiest food, and I don’t blame anyone for that. But my vice was eating large quantities of it. Food became comfort.

So, without really addressing the unhealthy relationship I had with food, my doctors put me on a rigorous diet.

For a few months, things went well. I was eating vegetables, watching my portions, and since I had already been active as a cheerleader, the exercise helped too. The weight slowly started coming off.

It was around the 20-pound mark that people began noticing.

They congratulated me. They complimented me.

I was so happy. People were finally paying attention to me for something positive.

I took that feeling and ran with it.

“Wow... this feels amazing. Let me keep going.”

Unfortunately, that quickly turned into another unhealthy relationship with food.

I started eating less and less. And if I felt like I had overeaten, I would find a way to get rid of it.

That cycle continued through most of my freshman year.

Eventually, I ended up in the hospital with severe GERD and blood sugar so low that the doctors immediately knew what was happening. After that, I was placed in outpatient therapy. (And honestly, I could write an entirely separate post about why I think outpatient was worlds better than inpatient.)

I remember being terrified.

“They’re going to make me gain weight again. Everything I’ve worked so hard for... I don’t want to lose it.”

I walked into my first appointment completely pessimistic. I even asked my therapist and nutritionist, “I want to lose my stomach. Can we work on that?”

Looking back... my mind was so deep in the gutter.

But she was a Godsend.

One of the most shocking things she ever said to me was,

“I’m going to have you eat ice cream—or another dessert that scares you—every single day. We’re getting rid of that fear of food.”

I thought she was crazy.

How am I supposed to get healthy by eating ice cream every day?

But now I understand exactly what she was doing.

I wasn’t just afraid of food—I had attached shame to it.

Foods that once represented comfort now represented guilt. They were either something to binge or something to avoid. There was no middle ground.

She wasn’t trying to teach me to love ice cream.

She was teaching me that food wasn’t my enemy.

Too much of something is unhealthy.

But so is running away from something your body still needs.

So I started as cautiously as I could.

One tiny scoop of vanilla in a cup. The lowest-calorie option I could find. I didn’t want to get too carried away with this crazy experiment of hers.

Eventually, though, I got bored of vanilla.

So I ordered a flavor that reminded me of one of my favorite middle school book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Blue Monster.

It had chunks of chocolate chip cookies and Oreos.

If you know, you know.

Before long, I actually started looking forward to it.

“Wait... am I actually enjoying this?”

Every afternoon after therapy, my mom would drive me to the ice cream shop, and that little scoop slowly became something I anticipated instead of feared.

Her experiment was working.

A few months later, I stumbled into the world of YouTube baking videos. People were making healthier versions of chocolate chip cookies, waffles, brownies, and all the classics.

Eventually I thought,

“Maybe I could try this.”

And I did.

Baking quickly became one of my favorite hobbies.

Cookies. Waffles. Brownies.

I was obsessed.

But this time, it was different.

I wasn’t baking from a place of shame or comfort or fear.

I was baking because I genuinely enjoyed creating something.

Somewhere between cookie dough and waffle batter, something inside me started healing.

Around that same time, I quit cheerleading.

That decision helped more than I expected.

Instead of participating in a sport where I constantly worried about fitting into a tiny uniform and looking glamorous on stage, I found CrossFit.

And I fell in love with it.

I even started baking protein bars and other snacks to fuel my workouts so I could lift heavier.

That was when I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

I wanted to help people build healthy relationships with their bodies.

I wanted people to see food as fuel—not something to worship, fear, or earn.

I wanted to help people build bodies that would serve them for decades.

So that’s exactly what I spent the next several years pursuing until I became a personal trainer in 2021.

And through it all, I never stopped baking.

As an adult, I bake when I’m celebrating. I bake when I need to unwind after work. Sometimes I bake simply because I want to make someone smile.

I bring cookies and cakes into work to share with people. Funny enough, it actually became one of my favorite ways to make friends.

And that’s probably my favorite part of this whole story.

As a child, I came home from school and used food to fill an emotional void.

Today, I come home from work and use food to bless other people.

That’s a redemption story only God could write.

So baking...

She has a very special place in my heart.

And that’s why I’ll continue building Ana’s Bake Shop TX.

Not simply because I love cookies.

But because every box I package reminds me of what God has done in my life.

The girl who once had nightmares about eating chocolate now spends her evenings baking it for other people.

When I step back and look at the whole story, it’s impossible for me to call it coincidence.

God paved the way.

He was with me through every diagnosis, every therapy appointment, every scoop of Blue Monster ice cream, every workout, and every batch of cookies.

And He will continue to be the foundation of my bake shop.