Why I Started My Blog – The Truth Behind Sincerely Katerina

In the effort of getting my shit together, I made an appointment with an integrated medicine doctor in Philly and was EAGER to learn why I always felt sick. At the time, I wanted it to be simple. I wanted her to tell me I had a bug, condition, etc, and that medicine would make me better. The exact opposite happened. After the doctor (who may I mention showed up in red leather pants – I liked her immediately) explained there was no way to know the cause of the issue without ruling things common things out, I left the office with her order to eliminate gluten and dairy from my diet for 6 months (more on that in this post). At the time, that seemed terrible. I grew up on a very Standard American Diet where cheese and bread were a STAPLE. I didn’t know what I was going to do.

Once I stopped being dramatic and having a pity party, I decided to do some research on dairy free/gluten free foods. I’d heard there were alternatives, but didn’t know anyone who was really into health food. That’s when it all started. I stumbled upon LOADS of food blogs, and became obsessed with reading every recipe and cooking every night. All I thought about was new recipes and food ideas, it was addicting. Since cooking was never something I was into as a kid, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and it quickly became a hobby that I couldn’t get out of my head.

After the 6 months of the elimination diet were up, I felt great. I didn’t want to admit it, but damn it made a difference. After slowly introducing both food groups back into my diet, I determined that it wasn’t gluten, but I was/am extremely lactose intolerant due to dairy. Determined to feel this good forever, I kept on cooking and creating new healthy recipes every day. Sometimes for fun, I would create a pretty food scene (cue white plates, syrup, and sprinkles) and post photos of my creations on my Instagram and socials for my friends to see.

To my surprise, a lot of people were interested. After a few weeks, I started to get comments from people asking “how are those dairy free?” “can you send me the recipe?” “hey i’m trying an elimination diet, can you help?”. At first, I thought it was just a few curious people, but over time, the responses came flooding in. As a place to put the answers to these questions without having to send every person the info individually, I started a blog, aka Katerinacooks.com.

This is where it all began.