Originally Published Wed, 31 Mar 2021
Hello. It's me. I'm back! When the pandemic started, I really thought I had the perfect opportunity to get the hang of this blogging thing. Clearly, a year later, I did not get the hang of it, but it's never too late to start, right?
Surprisingly, I've been pretty busy lately. Because running one business without a business degree, any experience or money wasn't enough of a challenge, I started another business. So now I'm running two businesses without any qualifications, experience, or money. It's surprisingly going really well. This new project, Frederick Makers, is not at all what I'm used to with Sweet As Sugarcane, aside from pretending I know what I'm doing until I actually figure it out. Frederick Makers was my solution to the pandemic shutting down physical pop-ups and markets for artists like myself, which can be a huge chunk of our annual income. While it hasn't been safe to gather physically, I thought it was a great time to try and make these markets go virtual. To see what I've been working on since this past November, head to Frederickmakers.com!
Moving on to what this post is actually about, it's time for a new adventure. No shutting of doors, no saying goodbye to anything, just taking some time to explore another major part of my life; food. Whether I want it to be or not, food is a pretty big part of my life. My days are planned around what and when I can eat and my day-to-day life is determined by how my stomach acts, which is rarely on my side. Since I can't justify flying to a different city or driving all the way to NYC for whatever gluten-free food I have to try while we're in a pandemic, I've found some places closer to home that suffice. I also drive almost an hour out every week to go to Trader Joes and Whole Foods to stock up on my favorite meals (I also go to Wegmans and Common Market every week, but they're closer to home).
I've been on a mission this whole year to try and get my stomach issues resolved, or at least improved a bit, and I haven't made a ton of progress. I did discover that sugar destroys my stomach so I pay about as much attention to sugar as a diabetic (because I have the worst sweet tooth ever). Other than that, I haven't made a lot of improvements. My weekly trips to Trader Joes & Whole Foods have helped me find enough foods that I can eat so I'm eating enough calories a day, which has probably never happened before. This was a pretty big win for me, since I have been underweight.... forever.... but I still get stomach aches.
I decided a few months ago to do the Everlywell food sensitivity test, which only showed a handful of mild reactions, but I went ahead and cut those out of my diet. One of those was coconut, so I switched to Oatly oat-yogurt and I'm obsessed. I also got this new thing that's called FoodAIRE and I'm trying to be better about using it.
So, here we are on a new journey. A new food journey. A journey for food. I'm actually kind of excited. I can finally pretend to be a food blogger. I just got my first order from Thrive Market, so stay tuned for that update in the next few days once I've tried everything in the box. Now, here are some general food/health details that might be relevant to people on similar food journeys. Speaking of food journeys, reddit's Fodmap and Gluten free boards are my new favorite forms of social media.
Here's everything I don't eat: Gluten (celiac disease), dairy (except cheese sometimes), high FODMAP foods, celery (allergic), apples (allergic), garlic and onions (I know, poor me), tomatoes, coffee, coconut, sugar alcohols. That might be it! Stay tuned for all my fun food-related things including some recipes, shopping guides, explanations of diets (FODMAPS??) and more.
