5.11.16

Well, hey stranger blog! Okay, we're going to veer off topic for a moment—bear with me, I promise this all comes back around to food. :) 

One of the keys to a satisfied life is managing expectations, I really believe that. One has to be able to recognize what expectations are there and be willing to let them go if it turns out they're not grounded in reality. 

When I was working out my mood disorder diagnosis, I struggled for a couple of years finding the therapy that worked for me. And I think one of the things that tripped me up for awhile was having the expectation that I would never ever wake up again feeling any symptoms of depression, if I was just able to find the right pill(s). 

The reality is that there is no cure for mental illness. Therapy involves finding the best combination of medication and lifestyle changes and behavioral therapy that give you the best possible management.

I have such a good system now after years of working it out. I wake up most days without even thinking about it. 95% of my life is now virtually unaffected by any symptoms. When I compare the before and after, it's hard for me to put into words the sheer joy, relief, and gratefulness I feel for my quality of life today. It's staggering. 

But that doesn't mean that sometimes I feel little waves of extremes now and again. They're easy to ride out now, by making sure I keep getting physical activity, regular sleep, good food, and friends into the mix. Also managing stress and keeping caffeine consumption at a reasonable level. 

So that's the context I want to give so that I can be honest about the expectations I have for my personal blog (something I've always wanted to do consistently that was nearly impossible before), and the expectations you might have when reading it.

My expectation is that this won't ever probably be a blog in the new-internet, blogger-boss-lady style. I don't expect to ever quit my day job to do this full time, and I don't expect to have the volume and regularity of posts to sustain that. I know there are going to be periods of consistent cooking and posting, food adventures, and my love for cuisine. But there are also going to be periods with weeks between posts because I'm focusing on managing some down days. I'm going to be okay with that, I hope you are too. :)

I want to use these moments also to share how I use food to help manage those days, because the techniques are helpful I think for anyone. So I'll try to post anyway. I want to be honest here even when I don't have things to post that are cooking related. I still gotta eat! And it can all be worth sharing. 

Since that turned out to be so long, we can get back to the food on the next post lol. :) I'm grateful for a place to share.