About Me

Hello, all:  I’m Melissa Prunty Kemp.  Welcome to my blog.

For the last 27 years, I have taught undergraduate English composition, literature and creative writing; I was also an education manager.  Currently I teach English online and remain a freelance writer .  I currently live in sunny Atlanta, GA.

My education background is varied—I earned a B.A. in Psychology from Hollins University in Roanoke, VA; an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech.  I am now a graduate of Queens University of Charlotte with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing–I am a poet and you might just find a poem or two here from time to time.  As you can see, education and writing are my life!

How did I get to writing a blog about health and wellness?  I’m a closet queen in a lot of ways.  I have been reading, studying and applying principles of natural health, natural healing, herbal medicine and organic gardening since 1990.  I credit my discovery of Harvey and Marilyn Diamond’s Fit For Life for saving my life during a divorce and for giving me a foundation to understand how food works in the body.  Since then, I have done my best to control my weight, a lifelong problem; but in fact, I was less successful the older I got.  By the time I moved from Ohio to Georgia, I would be poised to gain 50 – 70 lbs!

At 335 pounds, I realized that I had to do something.  I was getting sick and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.  Plenty more study and a drastic change in diet lowered my weight by about 50 pounds, but that wasn’t nearly low enough.

I continued to struggle and finally got to a point of having lost 101 pounds from my highest weight.  But I still have about 85 pounds to go.  So, what better way to keep myself motivated, and hopefully motivate others, than to write about health, wellness and weight loss.

I hope you will enjoy what you find here and let it help spur your and others on to better health!