It’s so weird to see all the kids starting a new grade and all of the college students moving back to school. This is the first time in 16 years that I can’t say I’m “going back to school.” I’m not gonna lie… It feels great! Like, I am so incredibly excited to not be packing up all my stuff and moving back to a small town and getting mentally prepared for all the stress of homework and grades! But, even without homework, I do have a big project for the next six months.

I’m gonna get a little personal real quick: I’ve had this blog for a little over a year now and I haven’t mentioned it before, but a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I’ll spare you the details for now, but what this means is that I haven’t felt like my normal, healthy self in a long time. I’ve always been pretty active and I love eating healthy food, but in order to feel somewhat normal I’ve been on lots of different drugs and steroids for the past year. However, I firmly believe that there are natural remedies that may help me.

So for the next six months I will be working on listening to my body and identifying what triggers my flare-ups. That’s why I’m adding a “health” category to my blog so you can all feel free to follow along on this adventure with me.

I already know that stress is a huge trigger and so I will be posting about ways to manage stress and find relief through practices such as meditation and yoga. But I want to share my experience with combating stress in a way that anyone can relate to. Not just those of us that suffer from autoimmune diseases.

I am also going to be starting an elimination diet at the end of this month. Unfortunately that means very limited posts featuring my favorite restaurants…. This will be tough because I. LOVE. FOOD. I’ve never done diets or jumped on the vegan, vegetarian, or paleo bandwagons because I can’t imagine limiting what I eat. Luckily this is only for a little while and it’s just to identify whether there are any foods that trigger my flare-ups.

Staying focused on my health is going to be a lot of work but it’s time I made it a priority. This disease puts a huge strain on so many aspects of my life and, honestly, I’m over it.

Don’t worry, the next six months won’t be a flood of “woe is me” posts. This is about taking action and I know I have to stay positive throughout the entire journey.

So as for other updates in my life:

• I finished my internship this week and now it’s time to focus on looking for jobs!
• Once I’m back to having a steady income I’ll be saving up for some traveling I have planned for the Spring.
• Now that Fall is here I’m stoked! I absolutely LOVE baking so I can’t wait to share some recipes for my favorite Fall treats! But this is another reason why that elimination diet is gonna suck…. But I gotta stay positive! Right?
• And then today I’m flying out to Las Vegas for the Life is Beautiful festival!

So there you have it! A new category to my blog, my next big adventure, and stay tuned for Fall food and Fall outfits!