About John and Rosemary
We’re John and Rosemary Fotheringham, the husband-and-wife team at Flourish Fundamentals. We are both certified Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioners (FNTPs), and we teach people on the path to Financial Independence how to eat and cook healthy and sustainably―without spending a fortune.
While paying off $66K of debt in less than three years, we found the Financial Independence (FI) community and quickly found ourselves binge reading blogs like Mr. Money Mustache or podcasts like ChooseFI.
A main principle of FI is increasing the gap between what you earn and what you spend, and much of that comes from focusing on reducing the big three expenses: housing, transportation, and food.
Much of the mainstream advice regarding reducing your food costs looks like this: to reach the goal of $2 per person per meal, “bulk up” meals with high-starch and high-carbohydrate foods like beans, rice, potatoes, or bread. Just get the right amount of calories, not too much, not too little, and that’s all you need. Or, quit eating meat altogether, because everyone knows meat is bad for you and the planet, right?
As Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioners, we understood the importance of not sacrificing food quality while getting to FI: that it’s actually more frugal to pay the farmer now so you don’t have to pay the doctor later.
It’s better to pay the farmer now than the doctor later.
Unknown
We knew that eating sustainably and eating meat weren’t mutually exclusive, and that most people didn’t yet know there was a better way than eating the chemical nightmare that is plant-based “meat”.
They didn’t know that they could support farmers who were doing things properly―using “nature as a technology”, which leads to happy animals and healthier soil, where previously desertified land is brought back to verdant life by re-introducing ruminant animals.
In doing so, grasslands once again thrive, and act as nature’s perfect carbon sink.
We also understood the dangers of a high-carb, highly processed Standard American Diet (SAD) and how that leads to increased disease risk―a big concern when your plan is saving enough money to retire early, including for healthcare―which becomes a big, looming unknown.
While getting out of debt, we were able to get our food bill from $1200 to $300 a month, without compromising on the quality or types of foods we knew made us feel the best.
In talking with people at events like Camp Mustache, FinCon, or our local ChooseFI group in Eastern Washington State (which we lead), we kept hearing people say they, too, wanted to learn how to cook and eat healthy, satisfying food, without spending a fortune, without sacrificing food quality, and with plenty of variety.
And we realized that with our experience of learning to eating healthy but frugally, plus helping dozens of clients eat healthier and reach their goals for the past 5 years, we could be the ones to help.
When you’re first trying to cook and eat healthy and frugally, it can be totally overwhelming knowing how to shop.
In an ideal world, we’d all get our meat and produce from a local farmer that uses sustainable and regenerative practices that are good for the animal and the earth… but when we’re just trying to figure things out at the beginning, you need things to be simple, right?
That’s where we come in. Here at Flourish Fundamentals, we share how we do Food + Financial Independence.
Our proven methods will save you time, effort, and money―and to help you feel better than you ever have before.
Our goal is to teach you how to find and cook real, whole foods: plenty of satisfying, nourishing meats, vegetables, and healthy fats, and at prices that won’t break the bank.
If this is your first time here, welcome! We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll stick around.
You may be interested to poke around resources we recommend, browse our recipes and nutrition articles, or get in touch. Let us know what you’re struggling with!
Also: join the Flourish Fundamentals Facebook Community!
Let’s do this thing!
Cheering you on,
Rosemary + John
What We Offer
30-Day Reset Course
A six week live, online course designed to help you kick the sugar and carb cravings―for good!―with the support of a small group. Our participants often say they feel the best they’ve ever felt before. You’ll get six live video calls through Zoom, access to a private Facebook group, over a dozen useful cheatsheets and guides, and daily 1-minute videos telling you what to expect each day of the Reset.
Book: Radiant Reboot
Rosemary’s book Radiant Reboot: Reclaim Your Health, Increase Your Energy & Reboot Your Life in 30 Days walks you through a 30 day, self-guided clean eating program while also teaching you the basics of good nutrition. Includes a round-up of 100+ real-food recipes, a guide to good and bad fats, tips for how to stock a nutrient-dense fridge and pantry, and much more.
Book: Eat Your Sunscreen
Are you a “sun-loving lizard”? Rosemary’s 59-page ebook Eat Your Sunscreen: Superfoods to Boost Your Skin’s Natural Defenses Against Sunburn is the ultimate guide to healthy sun exposure. Much mainstream advice around sun exposure is inaccurate at best, and harmful at worst. The book is packed with practical, actionable tips to learn how much sun you should be getting, how to make or buy natural sunscreens, learn which foods you should eat and avoid to help your body resist sunburn and tan effortlessly, and more.
Nutritional Therapy Coaching by Rosemary
Rosemary will guide you through a customized, step-by-step plan to help you reach your health goals, whether it’s balancing your hormones, reducing inflammation, losing body fat, improving digestion, healing your gut, or reducing your risk of disease.
Rosemary offers a free 15 minute, no-obligation Discovery Session. Email her using the button below to schedule yours.
Free FI Shopping List for Costco
Confused about how to shop healthy and frugally? Enter your email below to get instant access to our Shopping List for Costco.
You’ll also get our best recipes, curated recommendations, and other subscriber-only bonuses in our weekly Flourish Friday email.
THE FINE PRINT: The content on this website is strictly our opinion and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All readers and viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Flourish Fundamentals does not take responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.