Just Guyton

We hadn’t even been married a year when I woke up one morning covered in a rash across my breast and upper chest area.

So, we went to urgent care.

The woman who examined me said something along the lines of, “I don’t want to worry you, but you need to make an appointment with your primary doctor. This can be how a certain type of breast cancer starts.”

I didn’t freak out.

I made the appointment.

And that appointment turned into about four months of test after test after test.

Bloodwork. Mammograms. Biopsies.

They did find something in my breast, but after the biopsies, it turned out to be completely normal and completely unrelated to the rash.

Which was wonderful news.

Except…

I still had the rash.

So off to dermatology I went.

The first dermatologist informed me that they could only see me for one thing at a time. I could be seen for this problem OR that problem.

Well, silly me. 😂

I thought I was there because all these things happening to my body might be pieces of the SAME problem.

That day, I did find out I had alopecia, which explained why my hair had started falling out and my eyebrows were disappearing.

And that was pretty much that.

A week later, I was back at my primary doctor. The rash was getting worse, I was gaining weight, and all that bloodwork still wasn’t giving us an obvious answer.

That’s when weight management entered the picture.

While I was going through that, I saw another dermatologist. This one did allergy testing, and that’s when I started learning that maybe some of the things I was putting into my body weren’t necessarily the best things for my body.

And that began a completely different relationship with food.

For a while, I followed a keto diet. These days, because of medication I’m taking, I’m not strictly keto anymore. I’m primarily low-carb.

But here’s the thing:

This health journey didn’t leave me sitting around thinking about everything I couldn’t have.

It made me figure out different ways to have the things I love.

I haven’t eaten bread or pasta in more than a year.

Does that mean I’m never eating chicken carbonara again?

Absolutely not. 😂

I’ll make chicken carbonara with cabbage.

I recently found zero-net-carb tortillas, which means STREET TACOS ARE BACK. 🌮

Because I may have given up bread and pasta, but I did NOT agree to give up tacos.

Let’s not get ridiculous.

I use monk fruit instead of sugar. I use heavy whipping cream instead of milk. We generally stay away from processed foods and cook with ingredients we’re comfortable putting into our bodies.

Do we have a cheat day occasionally and order takeout?

Of course we do.

Sometimes my body doesn’t care at all.

Other times, apparently, it would like to speak to the manager. 😂

But one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that almost anything I can get from a takeout place, I can figure out how to make in my own kitchen.

And don’t even get me started on Starbucks.

Anything Starbucks can do, I can do better in my own kitchen.

I’m my own barista. ☕️

Sugar is the enemy.

Monk fruit is my best friend. 😂

And somewhere along this journey, I also found some really great people who taught me how to make some really great food. Many of them are keto creators. Even though I’m not 100% keto anymore, I still follow them. I still learn from them. And when somebody else is looking for ideas, I’ll still happily send people their way.

Because they taught me something bigger than how to substitute one ingredient for another.

They taught me to get creative.

Breakfast doesn’t have to disappear because you changed the way you eat.

Neither does dinner.

Neither does dessert.

Neither do tacos.

You just have to figure out another way to make them.

And that’s exactly what I’m doing this morning.

When I finish my workout and writing this blog, I’m heading into my kitchen to make my version of a Starbucks pumpkin loaf—dairy-free, made with almond flour, pumpkin purée and, obviously…

Monk fruit. 🎃😂

Because changing the way I eat never meant giving up good food.

It just meant learning how to make good food differently.

Sometimes you don’t have to give up the things you love.

You just have to get a little creative. 💜