My WHY…

The last few years have been significant for me…dare I say transformational. I have always been extremely career driven. I worked hard to make my way up the corporate ladder. Then, even harder once I added kids to the mix and had to juggle prioritizing family life with my work life. I thought I was doing a decent job at prioritizing them both but there was something I was missing…prioritizing myself.

Then, in April 2022, my body decided enough was enough. On the drive home from martial arts with my boys the world began to spin. I was suddenly nauseous, dizzy, unable to focus, just not right. Thankfully we were extremely close to home when the worst kicked in and home safe before I completely deteriorated. As I stood in the kitchen trying to fight this and get things ready for dinner the symptoms peaked. I couldn’t see, barely stand, and became violently ill. I’ll spare the details of this, but let’s just say I was unable to leave the bathroom and my oldest son (5) was by my side rubbing my back trying to help me.

Rather quickly we figured out what was going on. Having had Gestational Diabetes with both pregnancies, we tested my blood sugar levels to see they were extremely elevated. My husband called a friend who was a Nurse Practitioner to ask advice and she quickly rushed over to take me to the ER. Long story short, this episode resulted in me being admitted to the hospital for 4 days as I was in DKA (Diabetic ketoacidosis). A serious and life-threatening complication of diabetes that I did not know I had. I left this hospital stay as a diabetic embarking on a whole new approach to life.

Stress has always manifested in a physical way for me. At the time, I had been going through a particularly stressful period (5 months to be exact) time at work, the most challenging period of my entire career. On top of that, I wasn’t doing anything to take care of myself mentally and physically. I knew I could be at risk for developing diabetes, yet I did nothing to change my lifestyle and prevent it.

As a result of this experience, and accepting the realization that I in fact could not juggle a well balanced career and family life I walked away from a 17 year career with a company I had devoted my life to. Perspective and priorities have shifted and I have challenged myself to change my ways and truly live more purposefully.

This account, LADA Living, is a direct result of this experience. LADA is the rare form of diabetes that I have; Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults. Considered type 1.5 it originally appears as type 2 but evolves to type 1. This is something, 2 years later, I still struggle with daily to manage as hormones, stress, food, literally everything impacts it. Living with this on top of my Celiac Disease that I developed during my first pregnancy (severe gluten allergy) has forever changed how I live. I hope by sharing my experience I can help others going through something similar as well as encourage young women to take care of themselves early on in life to avoid learning the lesson the hard way like me.

Through all of this, I still maintain my passion for food and cooking. So here we will make delicious & healthy meals. While they are all gluten free and diabetic in mind, these recipes are for everyone and easily adapted for regular eaters 🖤.