Hello, old and new readers alike! After a few days of being stuck at home, I thought I would take some time to revamp my old food blog website, and you're looking at the result. A lot has happened in the last two and a half years (!!), and hopefully some of my upcoming posts will reflect that.
The first big change that's happened since 2017, as many of you well know, is that I got married to the love of my life, Matthew Groves. You'll see his name pop up a lot on future blog posts, as he is often my co-chef, sous-chef, and/or recipe taster. He also has been my number one support system for the second big change that has happened since 2017...
On December 18, 2019, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Before being diagnosed, I knew almost nothing about this disease. I knew it had something to do with your sugar levels being too high, but also that if you see a diabetic person about to pass out, you should give them... sugar? I knew there were shots involved (insulin), and possibly some kind of monitor you could attach to your skin (a continuous glucose monitor, which I now have). Otherwise, I would have a lot to learn.
Luckily (and I honest-to-God do feel really lucky ), I love to learn. I love science. And I love data. So the prospect of learning more about the disease, the science behind it, and gathering data about my own body really didn't seem especially daunting. I've always paid close attention to what I eat, sometimes measuring or recording to get a better sense of how many nutrients I was getting each day, so this just required another level of diligence, but of the same kind I was already used to.
After living with T1D for just over three months, I still do feel lucky that I enjoy learning, and I feel incredibly lucky that most of my diabetes supplies (of which there are a lot), are cheap or free, which way too often is not the case. Even in these short few months, however, I have had my share of lows (both mentally and physically!). They say diabetics have to make hundreds more decisions everyday regarding disease management, which can easily lead to fatigue and burnout. I've definitely had days where I've felt like I was riding a roller coaster, chasing after my extreme blood sugar levels to try to make them normal and only bouncing between too-high and too-low numbers.
But overall, I have been learning a lot, and I hope to both share that journey with you and help you learn a little bit too. This blog will still be focused mostly on recipes (and yes, type 1 diabetics really can eat whatever they want, with a little planning). My views on nutritional science haven't changed much since being diagnosed, although it is really interesting to see the effects of different foods and exercise on my blood sugar levels, and learning more about insulin has helped me to gain a new understanding for how the body processes sugar and stores fat. I hope you enjoy the recipes and science I plan to share, and please subscribe if you'd like to be on the mailing list for any new posts I write.
As always, stay healthy, enjoy real food, and keep learning!
Oh, and one last thing that has happened since my last post: we got a puppy! Enjoy an adorable picture of our dog Millie.
Until next time,
Sarah
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