Maybe Don't Eat This Stuff
What does “Grazing Kayne” even mean? Aside from being cute (I mean, SO cute, right?!), the name of my business is pretty personal. And it’s not just because my name is half of it. I named my business after my own journey (or struggle, if you want to be emo, which I don’t recommend) to figure out what foods really gel with my biology. It took me years to figure out The Kate Diet, or how to graze my own way. And guess what? You never have to follow it.
What works for me might work for you. It might not either. Which is fine, because why would it? We don’t share any biology, unless you’re my mom, my dad, or my sister (Hi, fam!). Our grandparents didn’t emigrate from the same countries, our parents don’t have the same pre-existing conditions, and most importantly, you’re not me. It’s called bio-individuality, and if you’ve ever tried a diet and it has failed you, you now have a fancy word that you can blame it on.
I didn’t know what to blame for how I felt for a really long time. From ages 19 to 27, weird health stuff became my new normal. From stomach ulcers to anxiety attacks, and ER visits to MRIs, it was always something. I was underweight, anemic, and had high cholesterol. I had my thyroid checked. I saw a cardiologist, neurologist, ENT, and naturally, a therapist to make sure it wasn’t all in my head. My doctors knew me by name, and so did my pharmacist. It was like Cheers, but more expensive and stressful.
While all of this was going down, I lived in Boulder, CO. As things like “gluten-free” and “celiac” became commonly understood terms, I began to wonder if I was one of those allergy people (those high-maintenance hippies…). My docs agreed it could be the case, so I got a test. To be more specific, since a lot of allergy tests are thought to just point to the last stuff you ate, I got 4 tests. Blood, skin, stool (Sorry. I promise to write about food in really flowery language soon), and muscle. They all read the same—I had an allergy to soy and wheat. And borderline eggs.
Cake is life.
Lady Gaston, in her youth.
That was pretty tough news. I was running a baking business out of my home, I ate eggs for breakfast nearly daily (just call me Lady Gaston). Soy was kinda weird, but sure enough, once I took it out of my diet, a lot of my health issues started to fade. When the “noise” of feeling terrible all of the time went away, I was able to more clearly discern what foods made me feel awesome, and what foods didn’t. I don’t want to downplay how completely life-changing this was for me. So much so that I ditched a great career to pursue the connection between food and better health as my full-time gig. It shouldn't take 7 years to figure out why you feel terrible. It's my absolute calling to help people avoid the same rigmarole I did. And while I can't diagnose anyone with allergies, or an autoimmune disease, or whatever it is that's making you feel less than stellar, I can cook the crap out of stuff that will make you feel better once you know. Stuff that supports your health and your one-of-a-kind body that doesn't taste like health food.
It took me years to hack how to cook the things I love within my new health landscape. And so, the recipes on the site are what I put on my plate after a lot of life and medical and trying-and-failing stuff. They’re made for me down to the very last ingredient. I think they're delicious (normal non-allergenic people agree!), and I recommend them if they jive with how you want to eat. If you’re not down with them, that’s ok. As someone who can’t mow down certain eats, I get it. The way you do food might be waaaaaay different from me, and that’s your thing. I don’t put people into little dietary boxes, because I don’t put myself in one (at least until the gluten-free-except-sometimes-beer-pseudo-paleo-but-vegan-ish diet catches on). It’s why each time I meet with a client, we talk about them—their foods, their health, and what they need to feel good and not be on a first name basis with their docs. That’s how I got to Grazing Kayne. And that’s how you’ll find the foods that define Grazing Smith, or Grazing Thompson, or Grazing Whoever You Are. That's the stuff you should eat.
