Welcome to Life Love & Thyme!
As you might know, this site used to be called Play 2 Learn with Sarah. I started this site when my kids were little and I still had hopes of being able to homeschool them.
They grew and live threw me a few curves. In Dec. 2010 I lost my third pregnancy (after having 2 uneventful pregnancies). They discovered that I have a 2 mutated genes (MTHFR) that increase my risk for blood clots – actually 50% of the population has at least one of these mutated genes.
I discovered that by taking methylated b vitamins, I could drastically improve my chances of carrying to term. In April 2011, I got pregnant again and did everything I could to maintain the pregnancy including giving myself a shot in my stomach every morning.
I was able to maintain that pregnancy, but at 20 weeks (Sept. 2011) they discovered the baby had Trisomy 18 – a genetic condition that is incompatible with life. We chose to terminate that pregnancy rather than leave him in pain one minute longer. This was by far the hardest thing I’ve EVER done.
Within 4 months, I knew something more was wrong with me. I wasn’t feeling well. I was completely exhausted both physically and emotionally. My OB was telling me I was in peri-menopause. I was JUST pregnant! WTH?
After much research I was pretty sure I was in adrenal fatigue, but I couldn’t find anyone to help me. I finally found a nutritionist who helped me and got me on a good routine. That helped, but my kids were still little and we were now in the process of adopting.
In Oct 2013, we adopted a 19 month old little girl from China. I’m not gonna lie….it was an exhausting and draining process and we REALLY struggled for about a year. (You can read about all that here.)
By March of 2014 my health had really come to a head. I had a very heavy period for 3 straight weeks. I went to the OB and they said nothing was wrong. So I found a new doctor. He did a ton of blood tests and discovered I was actually entering full on menopause (at 41) and was pretty severely insulin resistant (pre-pre-diabetes).
Looking back, in 2005 I had started seeing doctors and nutritionists because I felt my blood sugars were off….but they were always low. And actually my blood sugars and even my A1C are still in the normal range, so your average blood test would not reveal this very serious issue.
So, I started on bio-identical hormone therapy and taking Metformin, a diabetic treatment drug. I went back for blood tests every 3 months for a year too. But after one year, even though I’d lost 10 lbs my insulin levels had barely moved.
Basically this means that my body has to make more and more insulin to get it into my cells. This causes inflammation and stress on the body and eventually the cells will stop responding and I’ll be a diabetic. Also research has discovered that insulin resistance contributes to Alzheimer’s…which scares the living crap out of me.
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is a contributing factor into the rise in diabetes and insulin resistance. So I decided to take myself off the diabetic medication and treat myself with real foods.
Now I know when you hear “real foods” you think about recipes there’s no way you could ever make or that your family will ever eat. (I read those blogs too)
My point with this refocus of my site is to focus on real foods for real families. I don’t want to break the bank by saying you must eat 100% organic 100% of the time and I don’t want to create such amazing recipes that I intimidate people into thinking they can’t cook.
I want to take you on my journey to get healthy.
I want to show you that you can take control of your health and your families’ health without medication.
I want to show you that by making small changes in your mindset, you can make big changes in your life.
I’m going to show you my thought and learning processes.
I have never been a cook. I get overwhelmed by life and homework and kids and go through the drive thru some nights.
But I want to try to be eating real, whole foods at least 80% of the time.
So what you’ll see on this site now:
- 80% recipes that focus on whole food and eating real food;
- me struggling to feed my kids healthy foods with 3 VERY different eaters;
- me sharing my story and my understanding of insulin resistance and how I’m fighting it;
- 20% just fun recipes or activities that I think you’ll like
I hope you’ll join me on this journey!
