Who’s Behind the Arrow?

Hi! I’m Cara Wenig, the creator and founder of Morning Lover. After spending my life trying to placate what turned out to be an autoimmune ridden body, I made the choice to push back on the morning routines that were no longer serving me. Everyone deserves to wake up every day and enjoy a warm, cozy, deliciously rich drink that satisfies both your tastebuds and body. So, I created Morning Lover to do just that. A small, but impactful way to make love to your body every day.

Personally, I like to understand why someone thinks they can tell me something is good for me, so I’ve added a bit more detail in the backstory below to help you understand how I became an expert in this area I’m forced to study for the tenure of my life. 😅

At 33, I went to the emergency room with chest pain, unable to breath. Four hospitals, two emergent heart procedures, one emergent heart surgery, a black eye from passing out and a chest tube made up the majority of my next month. A year later, I tested positive for HLA B27 and was diagnosed with Crohns and Ankylosing Spondylitis. I was told to start immunosuppressants before my body tried to kill me. Again.

Many of those around me had deemed me as one of the healthiest people they knew. I grew up with a mother who also had autoimmunes so a low dairy, low sugar, and whole foods diet was natural in our household. I began experimenting with elimination diets - gluten, dairy, sugar - in my late 20s while working to focus on a more plant based diet. I became a dual Certified Comprehensive Pilates teacher and was teaching at Equinox from 6am-9am then going to my day job as a partner in a small agenting firm for commercial talent. From the outside I looked like I was on the top, but inside my body was slowly deteriorating.

I eventually learned from my doctors that this was me self diagnosing. Changing my diet to heal my undiagnosed IBD and doing pilates from the age of 19 to pacify the chronic arthritic pain in my back, hips, legs and ribs. After a bunch of research, I went on immunosuppressants and innately started to take back my life again.

I was done with trying to accommodate a cultural norm that wasn’t accommodating me. I wanted to wake up and look forward to what was in my cup. I wanted to start my day without belly discomfort and nausea. I wanted more than what I was being served up, in so many ways. So, Morning Lover was born, out of necessity.