'Happy' Warrior

Delphine Remy, a holistic nutrition and eating psychology specialist originally from Belgium, could have chosen any town in the world to launch her new subscription-based wellness program. But the former stockbroker and caterer — she’s famous for her quiche — chose her adopted hometown of Houston. She says The Happy Spoon, which encourages mindfulness in eating, might just change your life.

The Happy Spoon is a wellness program that seeks to help people overcome emotional eating. Its mission, in part, is to help folks eat — and live — better with the support of various meal plans and shopping and meal-prep guides. “It’s a 30-day subscription for unhealthy eaters who want to take a wellness journey,” she says.

Remy, who often donates her time to charitable endeavors such as cooking demonstrations, speaking engagements and writing the curriculum for Healthcorps, a nonprofit founded by Dr. Oz to focus on the wellbeing of children, explains for whom she created The Happy Spoon. “It is for anyone who would like to transform their habits into healthier ones.”

You have been a nutritionist, eating psychologist, caterer, personal chef, blogger and book author, both in Houston and back home in Belgium. What do you wish to accomplish with The Happy Spoon? I had many successes with 42 e-books, thousands of social media followers, personal clients and the like. But I felt as though I wasn’t solving anyone’s problems. There wasn’t a holistic program from start to finish that would truly make a difference — until now. I feel that I must change people’s relationship with food because how we do food is how we do life. That’s the way for me to make a profound difference. Many are in a food prison. And this opens doors to not only their food story, but to all other areas in their life.

What does the 30-day program curriculum involve? It’s a wonderful journey that starts with taking a quiz. So many people don’t even know what type of eater they are, whether they are emotional eaters, critical eaters, stress eaters. So it helps to have a starting point. There are daily steps that may take you through the kitchen, or even outside at a park for a meditative walk. There are mindful eating practices, [and 20-minute lessons on] gratitude, intention-setting, eating habits, emotional triggers, and many other aspects that contribute to your success. And, of course, there is access to wonderful recipes and much more.

Why is Houston so close to your heart? It’s my personal journey that led me here. It’s the story of the emotional eating of my youth, a difficult personal journey that brought me to a new city where I could start fresh, anonymous and on a new path. That city is Houston. I haven’t even translated this into French for a Belgian launch. Houston is the city of my heart. This is where I healed. To me, you cannot live life to the fullest unless you have a healthy relationship with food. So it is my dream to heal Houston as Houston so graciously healed me.