Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayola Binta.
Hi Shayola, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I suppose my journey officially began in 2010. I can remember gearing up for my 30th BEarthday and feeling that big changes were on the horizon. The time had come for me to change the way I had been eating—and, more importantly, the way I had been treating my body.
By then, I had already stopped eating red meat and pork and had given up soda, but I was still eating just about everything else. And apparently, my body was sick of me. 🙁
I had been hospitalized three separate times for kidney stones. As if the first two rounds of pain weren’t enough, apparently I needed that third brutal experience to wake me from what felt like a dis-ease-filled coma.
On my 30th BEarthday, I began my first self-guided detox. Well…“self-guided” may be generous. I was following a book whose title I cannot remember for the life of me, but what I do remember is that it changed my life.
For 30 days, I juiced, made smoothies, and ate as “clean” as I knew how. By the end of that cycle, I felt something I had never experienced before. It was almost euphoric. It felt as though I was seeing through a new pair of eyes—physically and metaphorically. My vision felt sharp. My mind felt clearer. Something had shifted.
So, I decided to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle.
And that worked…until it didn’t.
For the next seven years, I was basically eating all the side dishes. I had removed meat, but I had not yet learned how to properly nourish, pair, or balance my foods. And my body continued speaking.
I went from kidney stones, to fibroids, to losing pregnancies.
Ugh.
By 37 years young, I was a bit on the chunky side—with some unprocessed emotions to match. And eventually, I knew it was time to go deeper. Not simply into changing what I ate, but into understanding healing through the lens of my womb space.
What followed was a 12-week journey that changed the entire trajectory of my life.
At the time, I had no idea what I was doing—but my spiritual team knew. They led me then, and they continue to lead me every step of the way.
During those 12 weeks, I became more disciplined than I had EVER been in my life. I fasted. I prayed. I learned how to pair and balance my foods. I rose at dawn. I took spiritual baths. I began developing a relationship with my shadows and an even deeper relationship with my womb.
It was absolutely magical.
By the end of that journey in 2017, I had adopted a 100% plant-based lifestyle. I started a holistic wellness practice, primarily as a chef, and began a certification program that would prepare me to assist other women as they journeyed through their own womb-healing processes.
Eventually, I went on to become the director of one of the schools within the very wellness institute that had assisted me along my own journey.
And the path continued to unfold.
Today, I am a graduate of Living Light Culinary Institute and a proud plant-forward chef. I am the creator of APot2Carry, a modern-day apothecary with an ancient flare, and the founder of Big Momma’s Green House, a nonprofit created to bring ancestral Social Rejuvenation to communities throughout the Richmond and Petersburg territories. I am also the happiest momma bear to my 3 year old sun.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, the journey was not smooth at all!
Personally, I backslid from time to time. They say relapse is a part of recovery, and I believe there is truth in that. There were moments when I ate things I knew my body didn’t particularly care for, but my heart—or my taste buds—wanted the experience anyway. And while rising at 4 a.m., during the ancestral hours, became an important part of my spiritual practice, knowing its value did not always make getting out of that bed any easier.
I learned that discipline is a practice, not perfection. Sometimes I was deeply devoted, sometimes I stumbled, and sometimes I simply had to begin again.
Professionally, the lessons were different—and, in some ways, harder.
I had to learn that simply because I was in a “spiritual community” did not mean everyone within that community was necessarily living a spiritual practice. I began to see how easily performance could supersede practice, and how integrity could become shifty when convenience, acceptance, or appearances entered the room.
That required me to develop a deeper confidence in myself—not only as a woman, but as a healing conduit. I had to learn how to trust what I was receiving, honor my own discernment, and stand on business even when everyone around me seemed willing to go along just to get along. I’ve never really been built that way.
I’m more like, “Let me just get on.” And sometimes, getting on meant walking alone.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a medicine woman and healer at heart. Whether expressed through culinary artistry, womb work, or cosmic connection, I believe that I am the medicine—and I love creating and curating medicine for myself and others.
I am both ancestrally and formally trained as a chef, and I specialize in creating memorable culinary experiences that nourish. My culinary work has been featured at Richmond’s Broad Appétit, Brewer’s Cafe, the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, Ma Michele’s Cafe, Heal Thyself Restaurant, and the Virginia Beach and Norfolk Taco Festivals.
As a womb worker, I have had the honor of assisting women here in the U.S. and abroad as they journey toward restoring wellness, reconnecting with their bodies, and developing deeper relationships with their womb spaces.
Of everything I have created and accomplished, I am most proud of healing myself enough to become a mom. That journey required more of me than any title, certification, business, or accomplishment ever could—and it continues to inform the woman and practitioner I am today.
What sets me apart is my own Hero’s Journey.
I do not offer work that I have only studied—I offer work that I have lived. I have been the woman searching, questioning, healing, unraveling, remembering, beginning again, and becoming. Each chapter has given me another piece of the medicine I now carry.
I have reached several destinations over the years, and I celebrate each of them. But I also know they are nothing compared to where I am going. So I keep listening, learning, refining and I keep evolving. The medicine evolves because I do.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I am an email or phone call away!
As long as the opportunity is in alignment with my mission, vision, and values, I am open to collaborating, creating, and bringing some awesomeness into the world. Whether through culinary experiences, wellness offerings, sacred work, community initiatives, speaking engagements, or something we have yet to imagine—I am open to the conversation.
And support does not always have to be super intricate. Send some good vibes my way, share my work with someone who may resonate with it, purchase a ticket to an event or healing journey, book an offering, or simply show up when something speaks to you.
There are many ways to pour into the work, and I give thanks for all of them.
Pricing:
- Wellness Consultations (60 mins) $125
- Community Healing Journeys $25 or $10 per Sunday
- Petite Catering (up to 30 ppl) starting at $300
- Yoni / Pro Steams (60 mins) $75
- Wellness E-books $4.99
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shayolabinta?igsi=dTJqZnh6cWozem8=
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UmiShayola
