Need to feel good about life? Kimberly Snyder’s new book is a must-read

Celebrity nutritionist and Solluna founder Kimberly Snyder is a New York Times best-selling author—multiple times over. When she began writing her next book, she planned on a cute, healthy-living cookbook for kids.

Then, she says, her reality was turned upside down. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer before passing only six weeks later. “She died within three days of my son turning one,” Snyder says. “I felt like I was knocked over by a wave.”

During her “very raw and real” grieving process, she began working on a different book—something more personal than any of her previous work—that would become Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life, a cookbook-memoir hybrid that serves up more than 100 plant-based recipes along with life lessons about finding peace, joy, and happiness.

And, she says, it’s not a book that promotes enlightenment through perfection. Quite the opposite, actually. “Wellness has become trendy, but now people are stressed about it,” she says. “It’s not about how many spin classes you do a week, how many grams of carbs or how little sugar you eat, or your Keto diet. Wellness is so much more. It involves your mental, your emotional, your spiritual well-being.”

That ethos is embodied by “feeling good,” a phrase Snyder comes back to again and again in the book and with her Solluna brand. “Feeling good doesn’t mean we’re just happy and elated all the time,” she says. “It means that we’re connected to our intuition, our inner wisdom, and our true value—who we are.” Snyder explores this concept in depth in the book, revealing the struggles and pain she’s encountered in her own life. “It’s very personal,” she says. “I tell stories about overcoming eating disorders, my mom passing, and getting angry in public.”

“Wellness has become trendy, but now people are stressed about it.”

That willingness to share the less-than-sunny moments, she says, is what holistic self-esteem is all about. “I’ve always talked about nutrition from a whole foods-based standpoint, but this concept of wholism has to apply to us as well,” she says. For instance, she says, a person can eat healthy plant-based foods and sometimes have a few margaritas with friends. Or, as she shares in the book, sometimes even a celebrity nutritionist eats not-so-healthy comfort food. “This ‘and’ concept means we’re perfect and we’re imperfect at the same time,” she says. “The perfection doesn’t come from looking more perfect, or doing more as mothers and career women, because that’s an endless game. We’re these unique souls. We’re alive. And that’s where the perfection comes from.” Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life is out today.

See why this major life change led Snyder to reimagine her brand—and what she keeps in her fridge for easy, everyday eating.