About me

update: 1st Bloggiversary: 6th January 2016

So a year has passed and I have survived my first year as a food blogger! I have created 161 posts and made lots of friends along the way. I have now been following a vegan diet for a whole year along with trying to keep wheat free (and mainly gluten free), avoiding refined and processed foods and more recently reducing my sugar intake. I’ve had a whole year of drinking green tea and herbal tea without one drop of coffee. I’ve gone from craving chocolate and cheese, drooling over cakes, salivating at fresh bread and cookie smells to eating just what my body needs when I need it. I have made healthier versions of cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits and chocolate and although I have not restricted my calorie or fat intake this year, I have lost 10kg somewhere along the way! 😀

My health is slowly improving. I have tons more energy than I had previously – although that doesn’t stop me from overdoing things and then feeling wiped out! (I might learn pacing skills one day)! My aches and pains still come and go but my body is now able to deal with them in a much better manner. I finished my nutritional dissertation this year as well as completing a plant based cookery course which has taught me some great techniques which I wasn’t aware of.

You would think after a year I would have got my head around WordPress but it still puzzles me how to put things where I want and how to like a comment from my phone! Hopefully this year I’ll make a few changes (I did change the theme) and make the blog more user friendly!

Thank you to everyone for reading, liking, commenting and following, and if you haven’t or you’re not… come on! We’re all friends! 🙂

https://lifediethealth.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/1st-bloggiversary-colourful-vegetable-quad-bake/

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New Blog: 6th January 2015

The short version…

I am a Nutritional Therapist with a love of cooking and baking. I live in England with my wonderful husband and football crazy son. My health is not great as I suffer with several chronic illnesses which I am steadily trying to improve through my diet. Please be patient if I don’t blog for a few days as I’m probably in the middle of a fantastic new recipe! 🙂 Thank you!

The more detailed version…

I decided to start this blog at the beginning of 2015 as writing is something I always do, just never remember where! I have worked in catering for numerous years holding almost every position imaginable including a short stint as Head Chef and I have recipes stashed away everywhere. A food blog therefore seemed the ideal place to start! 🙂

In 2010 I was working several jobs, every hour possible with never a minute to breathe and then my health took a beating! Suddenly I was incapable of doing the most basic of tasks including getting out of bed and eating! I was lethargic, fatigued, had blurry vision, fell over if I stood up too long, I couldn’t walk in a straight line without using a wall to lean into and I found myself having to crawl on hands and knees just to get from the sofa to the bathroom! My whole body was a constant ache and certain parts of my body when touched made me reel in pain as if I’d been branded with a hot iron. I saw Doctors, had x-rays, MRI scans, CT scans, nerve conduction studies, lung tests and blood tests. Once I collapsed outright and spent the whole day admitted on a hospital ward but they told me I was a “mystery” and it must be because of my “Lupus”.

I’d got off lightly with my lupus previously (suspected since 2005) nothing much to worry about apart from frequent mouth ulcers, needing the odd wrist splint occasionally and a butterfly rash across my face which just looked like I’d caught the sun (even in winter)! I developed more symptoms, pins and needles in my arm, severe stomach cramps, losing vision on my left side, light sensitivity, heightened smell awareness, intolerance to noise, painful gums, semi-conscious episodes and a reaction to sudden temperature change. So the next four years were spent regularly visiting the hospital particularly to see rheumatology, pain management, ophthalmology and neurology. I was given medicine after medicine, some gave me more frequent migraines, some made me hallucinate, some made me sick, but nothing would take away the pain and the fatigue.

Finally I was diagnosed with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Osteoarthritis and possibly POTS… to go alongside my Lupus (SLE), Raynaud’s Syndrome and Freiberg’s Disease. All this time my husband and my son had been looking after me, cooking, cleaning, dealing with the everyday stuff and even feeding me when I was unable to even drink from a glass or hold a spoon. My pilates, my swimming, my gym visits, the exercise classes… everything had stopped. My friends… that’s when you know you have “real” friends! I couldn’t go out but they would visit or send flowers or make nice gestures which real friends do. 🙂

Cut to the here, the now… 2015! I still have my health problems. Most are classed as chronic illnesses which won’t go away but there are things we have learnt along the way which make things easier. For instance, I have learnt (not very well) to pace myself and stop when I need a break, I can talk into my laptop and it types for me 🙂 a massive plus! My laptop can also read to me so I can see what you’re all posting! 🙂

I have been studying nutrition for numerous years but my latest qualification requires a dissertation and my subject is how food affects our health. I have been a vegetarian (and/or pescetarian) for over 25 years but this year I am trying something new 🙂 This new way of eating started out for research purposes but is proving so beneficial that I will aim to continue. As you will see from my posts they are all vegetarian, however as I am dairy intolerant I had already switched to using dairy free products (except chocolate during my weak moments)! However, now I am totally dairy free and egg free too 🙂 which with ditching the fish would class me as a vegan for diet purposes. However, not content with that I am testing a wholefood diet free from refined sugar, processed foods and also free from wheat and yeast. Already in this short period, my energy levels are gradually increasing, my pain levels are reducing and I no longer constantly think about food because what I am eating actually satiates me and is full of nutrition rather than empty calories! You’ll find on my blog recipes which follow these principles, many cooked by my husband, some cooked by (or with) friends, some even cooked by my son. My intention is to post daily (not necessarily at the weekends) and to give you the chance to benefit from some of delicious meals, snacks and cake which are helping me in my journey. 🙂 If you have read all the way to here thank you 🙂 I am pleased to share my story with you. Please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments and I will try to respond as soon as possible.