By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

When the rest of Nashville is still sleeping, Sunny Moody’s already up before dawn, lacing her sneakers and heading into the gym.

“I get up at 4:30 a.m., and I’m usually in the gym by five,” she says, her voice bright even over the phone. “That’s my time to focus on me – before the kids, before the day. I’ve already accomplished something.”

Later, she’ll make breakfast, pack lunches, and drive her four daughters – ages nine to 18 – to school before settling into her workday. By afternoon she’s back in motion, ferrying girls between activities and wrapping things up around the dinner table, where someone’s always manning the grill. Her nine-year-old’s specialty? Salmon, kissed with smoke and a squeeze of lemon.

That rhythm isn’t just the cadence of Sunny’s days; it’s the heartbeat of her story.

It lit her on fire, literally

Sunny’s love of barbecue began by accident – or maybe by ignition. In 2017, her ex-husband needed a partner for competition barbecue. She’d never so much as fired up a smoker, but she figured she’d give it a shot.

“My very first experience, I lit the grill on fire,” she laughs. “The whole thing went up. Grease fire. Pellets feeding straight into the flames.”

Most people would’ve sworn off barbecue right there. Sunny decided to master it.

She dug in and learned everything – the chemistry of clean smoke, the flavors of different woods, the meat science behind tenderness. Before long she was competing in Kansas City Barbecue Society and Steak Cookoff Association events, as well as the Georgia and Florida Barbecue Associations, and even the World Food Championships.

“It’s a whole science,” she says. “Every piece of meat cooks differently. It takes patience.”

Within a few short years, she’d gone from rookie to world champion, earning titles in steak and live fire cooking – and later, a spot on Food Network’s Barbecue Brawl.

But what was happening behind the scenes was even more powerful.

Science of food

In the same season she fell in love with barbecue, Sunny’s body turned on her. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and a brain and spinal malformation. Her nerves would go numb and her hands would freeze.

“I had four little girls who needed me,” she says. “I needed to know how to maintain and regulate my own body for the rest of my life.”

She was 206 pounds and exhausted and the prescriptions her doctor kept giving her weren’t working. So, she turned to nutrition –learning the science of food the way she’d once learned the science of smoke. She eliminated inflammatory foods, upped her calories, managed her micronutrients, and started strength training. Ten months later, she stepped onto a bodybuilding stage.

“I didn’t do it to be on stage,” she says. “I did it to save my life.”

Her approach worked. Today, Sunny has been in remission for nearly two years without medication.

“MS doesn’t define me,” she says. “It doesn’t hold me back. On the days I hurt the most, that’s when I know I need movement the most.”

Changing the Recipe

The health transformation changed the way she looked at food – and at barbecue.

“People think of barbecue as heavy and greasy,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be. It’s just cooking over fire.”

These days, Sunny cooks – and teaches – by feel and balance.

“You need salt, heat, sweet, and savory,” she explains. “And a little umami – that flavor that pulls you back in.”

She reaches for herbs, spices, and fresh ingredients instead of sugar-laden sauces.

“You can let the meat shine, or the veggie shine. The grill does the work.”

She’s brought that same philosophy to the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, where she will serve as a judge this weekend – something she’s done since 2021.

“Barbecue and whiskey are both low and slow,” she says. “They take time. They take patience. And when you bring those two worlds together, the smoke and the oak, it’s magic.”

Sunny smiles when she talks about The Jack.

“It’s near and dear to my heart,” she says. “There’s a rich history there – just like in barbecue. Both are built on tradition and community.”

She’s a Tennessee Squire now, a nod to her love of the brand and its values.

“Jack believes in their product the way pitmasters believe in their craft. It’s the same patience, the same respect for process.”

That respect has turned into a calling.

Culinary Therapy

Sunny now travels the country teaching what she calls “culinary therapy” – hands-on cooking classes that help veterans, first responders, and their families process trauma through the ritual of food.

“Food brings people together,” she says. “When someone’s standing around a grill, they open up. They feel safe.”

Barbecue, she’s found, can be both healing and holy.

“It’s comfort. It’s connection. You help them build confidence with their hands, and they start to heal what’s inside.”

How She Manages It All

Between travel, teaching, judging, and raising four daughters, Sunny’s life could easily veer into chaos. But she keeps a system – faith first, then family, then fire, then fitness.

“We always have dinner together,” she says. “That’s non-negotiable. And my girls each take turns on the grill.”

Fitness isn’t an afterthought – it’s the foundation. She posts her daily workouts to inspire others, showing that health is an act of discipline and devotion.

“Movement is medicine,” she says. “If I can get my circulation flowing, I don’t have flare-ups.”

The Last Flame

Ask Sunny to choose between all her titles – pitmaster, champion, trainer, motivational speaker – and she hesitates. Then she smiles.

“Probably motivational speaker,” she says. “Because I love helping people overcome fear. But pitmaster’s right there, too.”

In a world that often celebrates instant gratification, Sunny Moody has built her life around the opposite: patience, purpose, and fire that refines instead of consumes. Whether she’s judging world-class brisket in Lynchburg or teaching a veteran how to light his first charcoal fire, her message is the same – good things, the best things, take time and commitment.

And that, in barbecue and in life, is the true meaning of low and slow. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the hometown newspaper of Lynchburg, Tennessee the home of The Jack Daniel Distillery. We get an up-close, insider view of news and events happening in The Holler. If you’ve visited, and would like to follow goings on here in Lynchburg until you return, give us a follow over on Facebook.}