Two Years, 533 Blog Posts and Over 350 Recipes

Today, August 9th, is my two year anniversary for writing this blog.  I can’t believe it’s only been two years.  Sometimes it feels like I’ve been doing this for many more years.  I have shared so many stories and recipes over these two years.

From one of my first posts-bad birthday cake

I started writing this blog so I could keep track of the resources I found on living gluten free and then dairy free too.  I also got tired of my family and friends saying that my meal was great, could I make it again.  Well I never wrote down my recipes, I just cooked.  I’m very lucky to have grown up with a mom who was a great cook who let me help in the kitchen.  I learned at an early age that you could make a lot of people really happy with food.  It was a common language, a reason to stop all of the hard work and sit to rest and enjoy the food and the company.  So now I write down my recipes and share them here, good ones and bad ones like Brad’s first gluten free birthday cake I made.

This past year I have accomplished many of the goals I set out for myself including starting a newsletter (one coming soon I promise), an event that would involve the food community at large- 30 Days to a Food Revolution, connecting with Jamie Oliver in some way- the 30 day event and he’s following me on Twitter, getting to know more food bloggers- too many to list and hope to see you at the IFBC conference, having more conversations with readers on my blog- thank you for the comments, getting people thinking about where their food comes from- a box or single ingredients,  and my first e-cookbook.  Also on my list was to meet Karina- Gluten Free Goddess .  I thought that might happen this summer while I was in Santa Monica but it didn’t.  However the year is not over and who knows.  Two other goals are to return to the BlogHer Food in San Francisco in October and attend the IFBC this month in Seattle.  Well I have my tickets for each so I think those two will happen.

As I start my third year of blogging my goals are now shifting again.  Now I want to move more towards my health and the health of others through the food we eat, the activities we do and don’t do, and the gaining of knowledge on how all of that works.  I’ve been so impressed with Wendy of Celiacs in the House and her quest to lose weight while sharing it on her blog.  She’s really working to make changes to her life and sharing what she learns.

I am starting on a similar path.  Over the past year my life has had way too many sources of stress including lots of family medical problems, the issues one runs into while running their own business like suddenly taking on 3 other jobs than the one I already had, and the day to day logistics most of us face trying to do too much in a 24 hour period.  It has really taken a toll on me.  The photo you see of me on my blog is not what I currently look like, but hope to again.  I’m over worked, over stressed, over weight, and way low on the doing the right things for my body scale.   I do eat real food, but way too much and not just the food that is good for me.  There is a lot of real food available that is full of sugar, fat and calories and I’ve been using that as my relaxation from the stress.

So now that I’ve outed myself I begin a new journey of reclaiming me and my life.  This would be a whole lot easier if all of the problems just went away and I could focus on just me.  But that is not my life and I’m sure not many of you can do that unless you are one of those famous people that has a staff to handle the details of every day living.

Diane & Scott on Pier 39- San Francisco

The first thing I did was take a 2 week vacation.  Something I was lucky enough to pull off.  Part of it was work the first week but in California which made finishing up a meeting and heading to the beach or pool worth it.  The second part was with my family.  We explored as much of the San Francisco area, on foot, as possible.  We literally walked from breakfast to bed.  We had a great time, relaxed, had someone else cook for me and tried some new foods.  It was a great way to break away from the treadmill life set on 10 that I had found myself on.  The continuous cycle of work, eat too much, sit at a desk for way too many hours and get up and do it again was killing me in more ways than one.

Now that I’ve been home for a week I’ve started to implement some new ways of doing things and gathering support.  I call it Team Diane- gathering support, knowledge, peace and love.   Someone I’m excited to have on my team is Melissa McLean Jory who writes the blog Gluten Free For Good.  I’m retaining her services as a holistic nutritionist who walks her talk.  In fact she just won the Outdoor Diva photo contest with a photo of her wearing skis standing on her head in the snow.  She’s amazing.  I first met Melissa via email and blogs when I first started mine.  I wanted to share low cost gluten free gifts to give and she shared her recipe for Mile High Gluten Free Granola.  I’m looking forward to learning so much.  I’m very excited.

I’ve also started tracking everything I eat, my workouts and daily weight on Spark People.  It’s always good to know exactly what you ate in a given day.   This is especially true if you are working to figure out what foods might be giving you trouble.  The workouts have to happen in order for me to log them in and my weight is just a number I use as feedback if I’m on the right track.

Also on my team is a good friend JoAnne.  She’s my accountability and walking partner.  She may even come back to Jazzercise with me when I get back to that point.  Each day we check in with each other to make sure we’re on track.

Scott, my husband, is also on my team.  He’s key.  His support in what I do and what I cook for meals is so important.  Without him this would be so much harder.  I could do it, but there would certainly be more obstacles.

Liz, my really cool Physiotherapist, is working to get my Frozen Shoulder healed so I can be more active.  After having done physical therapy on my other shoulder last year and physiotherapy this year, I’ll never go back.  Physiotherapy works so much better with a persons body.

I hope to be adding a yoga teacher to my team soon.  Yoga is so good for our bodies on so many levels.  There are even poses that can be done to help different areas and systems of the body function better.  How cool is that!  Can’t wait to learn more.

I’m not sure who else will end up on my team but I’m looking forward to this journey.

Before I started last week, I did sit and contemplate what I wanted to be different and the steps it would take.  They will need to be gradual and fit into the life I have while taking steps to change the parts of my life that create more barriers than assistance.  If I try to do things that are too much or too fast right away I’m setting myself up for failure.  So it will be little steps but they will be steps in the right direction.

So enough about me, what about you.  Where are you on your journey?  Are you moving along where you want to be?  If so I would love to hear some of the cool things you do.  What if this was your anniversary and you were looking back over the past year and looking ahead to the next one?  What would you see?

Are you stalled, off track or headed in the wrong direction?  Would you like to join me and we can support each other on our journeys?  Feel free to share your stories with me and with this community.  As part of my new journey, I will say that I am not spending as much time online as I used to, so if you email me I will be sure to read your notes (thank you for those) but I will not be emailing back.  I wish I could but for right now I will be utilizing my Facebook page for The W.H.O.L.E. Gang for ongoing conversations.

I do hope you will share your ideas for healthy living and even your challenges.  This is a great community and there may be someone with the same challenge or someone who needs to hear how you’ve found a way to meet that challenge.  We can be a part of each others Team!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to check out my blog, try the recipes, and share with us your recipes, ideas and stories.  I do love the food community and especially the gluten free one.

27 Responses to Two Years, 533 Blog Posts and Over 350 Recipes

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