Hello to you all! I stumbled across Megan’s EBT podcast awhile back and now she’s my commute buddy Monday through Friday. I am a very new food blogger, I just got the domain name in November. My site has very little on it yet, I need to carve out the time to properly write up the handwritten recipes with all my notes during development so that they make sense to someone other than me!
I have a full time job with a local home services company in the Atlanta suburbs as their SEO/PPC/Digital Marketing Specialist. At this time, I don’t have any plans to be a full time blogger because I absolutely love my job, the family that owns and runs it and my terrific co-workers.
Before coming to this job, I worked from home launching, building and running my own business focused on web design and development for twenty years. I honestly hated working from home but was committed to being fully available for my kids while they were growing up.
(As a side note: MASSIVE PROPS to so very many food bloggers who really start from scratch!! This is a steep learning curve and my head often feels like it’s going to explode, and that’s with a long background in websites, Wordpress, SEO and online marketing. I cannot imagine how others do it, and I have tremendous respect for you guys that didn’t have any tech background!!!)
The reason I started my blog was the friends, family and even my doctor told me I should. If you’re wondering why my doctor would say such a thing, that brings me to my passion about this blog, and the niche that chose me. In February of last year I spent a week in the hospital and was diagnosed with a chronic disease that would be with me for the rest of my life. Due to this condition, sodium is my worst enemy. I am not overstating that the quality of life, even the ability to have life, depend upon a strict low sodium diet. I went from not giving sodium any thought, to my life depends on restricting it. Starting. Right. Then. And. Lasting. Forever.
It was tough. There are a bizillion search results, but 99.5% are the same, tired, generic “tip sheet” stuff rehashed a million ways, all saying the same thing. A lot of noise, not much substance. They say "choose the products labeled ‘low sodium’ when in fact, some of these items can be half my daily allowed sodium in one tablespoon! That information feels simple and actionable when you read it, but then the wheels come off when you start planning your meals and grocery list. I was already an avid foodie and home cook and I was dizzy from trying to make sense of what I could actually eat.
I researched, learned, tracked, did all the things, and got the hang of it. I started adjusting my favorite recipes to be low sodium, then started creating my own recipes. I learned to track my sodium intake, and to organize a list of great low sodium products I liked with where I found them. Health wise, I’m 1000% better than I was a year ago, heck two and three years ago. I’m 50 and feel 25. I still live with my condition, but it is extremely well managed, most by what and how I eat. My doctor has cut most of the medication I was on initially.
My kids in particular said I should start a website. But when my specialist said the same, that I should teach others what I’ve learned, the thought of having a food blog really took root. I’m in a few Facebook groups who love my recipes and the resources I’ve shared with them. Which is a LOT more than what’s on my blog. It doesn’t need to be pretty and polished on a FB group post vs a website, so it’s easy to pump out content there.
Anyhow, this got really long, but here I am, this is me. And I’m very happy to have found out about this forum. And many many thanks to Megan for bringing us together, and all that she does!
