This is going to be a fairly long post, but it’s important, so stick around.  Or don’t.  I’m not your mom and I can’t tell you what to do.

I haven’t been around the blog for the past few weeks because of the holidays.  There was just too much going on in my life to sit down and get out a few posts.  Plus I wanted to spend time with family and friends, not type behind my computer.

But now that 2019 is officially here and started, I have the time (and slight desire) to update you guys on things.

So let’s get started!

First, the biggest hello of all to my brand new niece Noella Jane!  She arrived early on the 30th and quickly became the favorite around here.  I mean, when you’re that cute, you get to be the favorite.

She is quite wonderful and is the first newborn for the Buchanan Family.  I haven’t been an Aunt for very long, but it’s quite awesome.  I can’t wait to see her grow up, be there for her, and of course, always have gum for her.  #auntlife

Another hello for 2019 is to time spent with friends.  Adam and I officially went to two holiday parties that didn’t include family members (well, that weren’t thrown by family members), which is two more holiday parties than we have ever been to.  Yes, that sounds a little sad, but we sort of isolated ourselves in Chicago.  Being back in the suburbs has opened a different world for us and we’re excited to hang out with more people and grow our tiny community of two.

My final hello for this year is to a new creative endeavor.  Over the summer, my sister taught me how to crochet.  It was something that I’ve wanted to learn for a while and I thought, what better way to spend my summer nights when I’m living in a completely different home than my husband than crocheting like a little old lady.

Spoiler alert:  I absolutely love it.

It started off a little rocky, but I’ve learned a few stitches and how to crochet pretty decently.  I made earbands for all of Adam’s family for Christmas and I’ve become obsessed with crocheting blankets.  My family calls it a sickness, but it’s been really fun to create something and I hope to do more with it in the future…

Now it’s time for the goodbyes…

Do you remember wayyyyyy back when I alluded to some health things?  I told you they weren’t fatal or anything super dangerous, but they were tough.  Well, I finally feel comfortable talking about what was going on.  I also feel it’s important to share my experience because I know there are a TON of other women who face the same challenges.

ALERT: I’m going to talk about women stuff.  Be a grownup about it and if you can’t handle it, you don’t have to read it!!

Right before I got married, about seven years ago, I lost my period.  I didn’t think much of it, chalking it up to stress about the wedding.  Well, the wedding came and went and my period never came back.  I didn’t tell anyone because I was ashamed and didn’t think it was that serious of a problem.  It would come back, right?  Having your period isn’t that important, right?  It’s not like I was trying to have kids, right?  It wasn’t that serious.

Spoiler alert: your period is important and you need to have one.

About 2-ish years ago, I finally decided to get my act together and figure out what was going on.  I had finally told Adam about my lack of period (about 3 years into the whole ordeal) and knew it was time to tell everyone else in my family.  It was tough because for some reason, I thought they would judge me?  Yeah, that was silly.  They only showered me with love and support.

So I went to the doctor.  She told me that I seemed healthy and referred me to a gynecologist.  They gyno ordered some tests, including an ultrasound.  She said that while I didn’t have most of the symptoms, it seemed like I had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and told me that birth control pills would probably be the only way to get my period.

I wasn’t quite down with that, so I searched for more answers.  I visited a functional medicine doctor, who did some more tests and found a few deficiencies, but nothing that would cause me to lose my period.  I started on a supplement regimen and waited.  While I was waiting, I found the book No Period, Now What?  As I started reading it, I realized it was describing every. little. thing. about my life and lifestyle.  I finally figured out what was wrong: I had hypothalamic amenorrhea.

Never heard of it?  Yeah, I hadn’t either.

Turns out when you exercise a lot and don’t fuel your body properly, your body decides that there is no way you could sustain another life (aka a baby) because you’re barely sustaining your own.  So it shuts down the reproductive system.  It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the general idea.

Now the real kicker… the only way to cure HA?  Stop exercising and eat more.

It sounds so simple, but it is much harder than you might think.  I knew what I needed to do and I knew it was the time to do it.  There was no magic pill or diet that was going to cure me.  With the help of an excellent therapist, going all-in (cutting out all exercise and upping my calorie intake significantly), support from Adam and my family, and an awesome acupuncturist (who also dealt with HA herself), I got my first recovery period.

I was absolutely ecstatic and immediately felt relief that my hard work had paid off and amazed at how a body can heal when you give it what it needs.  As of this post, I have had four periods and am officially considered recovered.  I still have plenty of work to do to keep my body healthy and I plan to keep going with my recovery.

This long story was my explanation for my goodbye.  It’s time for me to move on from this blog.

I have loved every minute of creating recipes for people and I still love it, but my life is very different from the one I led when I first started this blog.  While I move towards a new direction in my health, one that includes eating intuitively and avoiding diet culture, I need to distance myself from places that call on that.

Sure, I could start a new food blog, but I’m working on not letting food have so much power in my life.  And I need to focus on eating in a way that makes me feel happy, not worrying about how others will perceive my recipes.  I know that I never used this blog as a form of money and didn’t have a ton of people checking in each week, but it was enough that I took it seriously and wanted to do right by everyone that came across it.

I’m in a new season of life and that calls for new things.  This blog is still a tie to my past and I am ready to move away from it.  I don’t regret anything I did on this blog and I truly enjoyed creating food for people to eat.  I will continue to cook delicious food and try new things, but it just won’t be on here anymore.

I’ll still share bits and pieces of my life and a ton of food pictures on my Instagram page, but my FB page and this blog will no longer be updated.  The recipes will still stick around for a bit, but I can’t guarantee they will be here forever.  If there was a favorite, make sure you save it in your own files so you can keep using it.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone that read or made one of my recipes.  I truly appreciate that and it was an honor to be a part of your kitchen.