As you may have noticed, I have taken a step back from posting recipes for several months. My husband and I adopted a new dog back in January, after losing our beloved greyhound Blaze last summer. Having her has been equal parts fun and chaotic. She’s young and has spent her whole life in a kennel with other dogs, so she knows virtually nothing about living in a home or as an only dog. She’s super energetic and would be running around all day if given the chance.
During my unintentional hiatus, I started to realize that I was feeling uninspired to create new recipes every week. I no longer felt aligned with subscribing to one single way of eating, as I had done for many years now. I’m trying to figure out what works best to truly nourish and heal my body from food intolerances, rather than simply avoiding foods that gave me issues years ago.
I found that by avoiding and labeling foods as “bad”, it was creating a lot of stress in my body. What if my food comes in contact with X, or even comes NEAR X, then I will feel terrible the next day, won’t be able to work, blah blah blah. I was stuck in a very negative food spiral for many years. No wonder my list of foods was getting smaller by the day and my anxiety was building.
I’m still figuring it all out, but what I do know so far is that releasing so much stress around my diet has been a game changer. In fact, I hesitate to even use the word “diet” because I’m not restricting myself at all anymore. My goal is to eat as much of the foods that feel nourishing to my body as I want, and to treat myself every once in awhile to something that might not be “good” for me, just because I want it. Something I never allowed myself to do previously.
For anyone asking, I am diving into the pro-metabolic approach right now. I experience many of the symptoms of a sluggish metabolism, despite being lean. I have a very low body temperature, hovering around 97 degrees in the first half of my cycle, I experience a lot of irritability, anxiety and hormonal dysregulation, among other symptoms. I’m currently reading How To Heal Your Metabolism, and finding it incredibly insightful. I hope you’ll join me on this path to no longer symptom chase, but to instead find my way back to health at a deep, cellular level.
Lastly, I’m thinking about incorporating more lifestyle posts here, since I’ve been quite burnt out on only posting recipes. Some of the things I am really into right now include gardening, slow living, sustainable and low-waste living, self-improvement and natural home decor. I’m still very much going to be posting ancestral-type recipes, so don’t fret if you come here primarily for that! Let me know in the comments below if you are excited for this new direction, and what kind of posts you would be interested in seeing.
Thank you so much for all of the love and support <3
-Deanna
