A New Way of Life.

When I originally started this blog, I was looking to just have some fun and share my love of cooking with friends and family. I spent hours in the kitchen creating new meals and experimenting, I wanted everyone to know what I was making.

I enjoyed food.

I didn’t just enjoy making food, I enjoyed everything that came with it. I enjoyed eating it. I enjoyed entertaining. I enjoyed watching others enjoy eating my food. I loved creating an experience to go with it. I loved food.

One spring day I decided to go on a walk with my husband. It wasn’t a hike. It wasn’t to break a sweat. It was just a simple stroll around our local park. We parked his truck and I jumped down. When my feet hit the ground I felt a small pain. I didn’t think anything of it.

I was equipped with my tennis shoes and my yoga pants. It had been a few months since the weather was warm enough for us to enjoy the outdoors. I was excited to get moving, and to spend a bit of time with my husband. Our busy lives sometimes get in the way of us spending actual quality time together.

We got to the sidewalk that circled the park and I noticed some pain in my knees and ankles. I knew it had been a long time since I’ve exercised, but it was weird that my joints were hurting so quickly. I still did not think to much of it.

We got about a quarter of a mile into the walk and I looked at my husband in tears. This was not just pain from being out of shape. This was something different. All of my joints had sharp pains. I had to sit down. I couldn’t walk.

I managed, with a lot of breaks, to make it back to the truck. My husband helped my get into it. I apologized over and over again. At 37 years old I was scared of what was going on with my body. I went home took a hot bath and managed to get the pain under control with some over the counter medication and some rest.

When I visited my doctor she was concerned and immediately sent me to the lab for blood work. A few days later I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. My immune system was attacking my thyroid gland and causing my joint pain.

It also came with other symptoms that I just blew off as well. Fatigue, weight gain, and brain fog.

I was put on medication for my underacting thyroid , but the only way to control my new diagnosed “Hashimoto” was through diet. Gluten had to be removed from my diet if I wanted to feel normal again.

That moment my relationship with food changed.

I was a baker. I was a cook. My son’s favorite food was pizza. I loved bread. I hosted Thanksgiving every year. Sandwiches, cakes, pizza, pot pie… My mind raced and I got negative.

Restaurants weren’t any fun to go to. Cooking wasn’t as much fun. I got into arguments with my husband when he would eat gluten in front of me.

I stopped blogging.

Then I finally realized that I might as well eat gluten and feel terrible if I was just going to make myself feel terrible not eating it. The only problem was … I was sick of feeling terrible. I didn’t want to be physically or mentally drained anymore.

So I decided that I would start creating recipes without gluten. If I wanted to enjoy food again, I would just make it enjoyable again. I didn’t need gluten to make a delicious meal.

I started creating food again. The only recipes that I’ll post are recipes that I would serve to my “gluten eating” friends. Just because it doesn't have gluten, doesn’t mean that is shouldn’t taste amazing.

I wanted to make sure I was a role model for my son. I wanted to make sure that I could be the positive person that I was before. I wanted to show my son that I could create my happiness. One diagnosis was not going to stop me from doing what I love, cooking, writing, creating, and sharing it with others.