Welcome to Celery and the City!

Does anyone even like celery? Anyone?  I'm super bad at thinking of names for things. My previous twenty-something blog was titled Blunt Delivery. Over the years, the bombardment of inquiries asking if I was a drug delivery service revealed to me that perhaps it wasn't as crystal clear to others as it was in my mind.  A deliverer of bluntness, not blunts, people. #namefail

So, I'm Brit; and more information than you ever wanted to know about me can be found here. Since abruptly ending that blog a few years ago, where my health problems existed only as paranoia-induced hypochondria fueled by boxed wine and insomnia, I guess you could say I've been on a bit of a writing vacation. And if by vacation you mean buying a house, quitting cubicles to start my own business as a full time wedding photographer, and being thrust into a spiderweb of health problems - which included having to learn how to stop eating everything both I and you have ever loved - then yes, I was on vacation. And since I'm constantly getting asked "what the heck is wrong with you?" I've got it nicely laid out for you in My Health Journey. 

So now it's about time for a new blog. And a real vacation. Accompanied by a legitimate tan, sans a greasy bottle or bed infested with another person's leftover sweat. Quick Poll: hands up if you wish you could recoup all the money you forked over so you could lay in a hot bed of radiation while increasing your skin cancer and infectious disease risk? It's ok. In our defense, the busted cd player was way too distracting to focus on such trivial matters. #tanning

Since 2012, I've sort of felt like Justin Bieber's PR manager just army crawling my way through a minefield of problems - except I didn't create them by being a spoiled, mouthy, big-haired brat. And my problems were more health related than First Amendment, but you're gonna learn real fast not to get too concerned about the accuracy of my analogies. What I'm trying to say is that I'm no longer paranoid of having health issues - I actually do. OK, yes, I do still carry around aspirin in the event of an untimely cardiac arrest but doesn't EVERY RESPONSIBLE PERSON? So, I've been caught in some sort of health Tsunami. And unfortunately, I did not take swimming lessons very seriously.

Not sure where I was going with the Tsunami thing. That's so dramatic. And potentially offensive for anyone who has experienced a real life Tsunami. Luckily, those individuals have a tremendous newfound appreciation for life and wouldn't waste a minute of it on this blog.

Avalanche. When you're in the health avalanche, you feel like you're the only one. You look around (21st century translation: turn on your computer) and see all the shiny, happy, healthy people. Then you become perplexed as to how this happened to you. You aren't the one living on two hours of sleep and a McDonalds #3, washing it down with a cigarette and cheap gin. They are. But then, as you scroll through your Instagram account on a random Tuesday while eating raw carrots, it occurs to you that you might look like one of those people. In fake life computer world, you actually seem kind of shiny, happy, and healthy too- because screw reality. 

When you start to open up about what you're actually going through, the clouds kind of part and the magical confetti fairy dust flakes fall from the sky. That was a lot of adjectives. Third grade me would have gotten mad props and, like, five smiley stickers for that sentence. I always preferred stars though. Not only do you realize you're not the only one; but there are, in fact, very few shiny, happy, healthy people around. Maybe a few happy ones. But not many healthy ones. And slowly, you uncover this whole world of people who are silently suffering. People desperate for a diagnosis, conditions with no identifiable cause or cure, a list of symptoms longer than this blog post and yet, they appear perfectly fine to the outside world and conventional doctors. These people are your new friends. Their struggle is real, as they say. And you understand it in a way that others simply cannot.

Well. Wasn't that depressing. OK, shake it off.  So, people started asking me lots of questions about what I was doing to regain my health through natural and conventional approaches. One thing led to another, and then we woke up in a strange place with no recollection of what happened last night. Wait. Wrong story. But that's how this blog came about, and here's what I'm going to do:

• Saving you time. Leading you to resources, studies, and science to back the things I've learned through countless doctors, research, and experimentation. Whether you just want to live a more clean, healthy lifestyle or you are trying to get to the bottom of mysterious problems, I want the extensive information to be available to satisfy the WHY people. Because I'm a WHY person. Translation: I don't believe anything anyone tells me until I research it myself and find science to back it up. But not errrrrybody got time for that. I'll include my own recipes, favorite resources, toxin free living tips, products and supplements that have made a difference. I'll even take you with me as I travel and document how I navigate that on a restricted diet.
• Helping you feel less alone. In being transparent about my health struggles and successes, I hope that others can feel less alone and overwhelmed - like I have felt for years. Much of the world of autoimmune diseases, dietary allergies, GI issues, adrenal and thyroid disorders are just murky, uncharted territory. Trial and error. There isn't a concrete path for diagnosis or treatment. These sort of issues can - and will - make you go mad. Medical research takes over your life as you realize that you have to become your own advocate and doctor to some degree. So where does that leave all of us? Right here, baby, where I've been through most all of it.
• Confessions, life commentary and ridiculousness.  Just when you thought this was going to be all about health and bettering your life, you were wrong. Writing is how I deal; so there are still going to be plenty of confessions about my past and current life and the crazy people I meet along the way. Because there are lots, and my head needs to free up space every once in a while. My scariest, happiest, and truest thoughts will live here because writing is how I hold on. It's how I remember and how I let go. It's a direct link to the past - keeping it alive, and putting it to rest. It's therapy. It's what I know. 

 Welcome.

Wondering who's the mysterious wordy genius behind these posts? Follow this little rabbit trail to read more About Me! The use of the term genius is open to interpretation. Like just about everything else on this site.