Hi, little boos!

 

My name is Lou and I’m a food blogger, mental health and pro-recovery advocate from Sydney, Australia. At any given time, you’ll probably find me in the kitchen baking up a storm or cuddled up watching Netflix, fishing pringle crumbs out of my bra. I live with my mum, my partner Alex (you’ll soon come to know him as Alpal) and our cute-as-a-button pup, Charlie.

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Lou’s Little Kitchen is a safe place for all things food and mental health. I started the blog back in 2015 as a “health” blog, after I was diagnosed with PCOS and advised by my doctor to cut out sugar out of my diet. I did that, and then some. My website was a hub for restrictive and disordered eating, and I didn’t even realise it. After years of being exposed to harmful diet culture and making myself miserable by restricting and cutting out entire food groups, I developed binge eating disorder. My relationship with food was shattered and I didn’t know how to fix it.

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On top of that, I was already living with another mental illness: generalised anxiety disorder. I’ve been a worrier all my life but was properly diagnosed with anxiety in 2012. Living with mental illness is debilitating, but it was particularly brutal when I was first diagnosed. There was so little information out there and so much stigma.

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I’m so fortunate to have been blessed with a wonderful psychologist and dietitian who have helped me tremendously in my recovery from my mental illnesses, and I don’t know where I would be without my family, my Alpal and Charlie.

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I decided during my recovery that I wanted my blog to be a warm and welcoming space for anyone and everyone who loves food, but doesn’t want to be attacked by food bloggers or authors who give out recipes but drench them in guilt and morality. Every recipe you see on Lou’s Little Kitchen will be a celebration of food: an ode to butter, sugar and every other ingredient we’ve been told to fear. I promise there will be no mention of food being ‘naughty’ or ‘clean’; just recipes and food ideas that are fun to make and even better to eat!

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I also decided that I didn’t want Lou’s Little Kitchen to just be another faceless food blog. I love writing and creating and I want to connect with you, love bugs! And I want to talk about mental health because it is just so important. Why does the topic of mental health belong on a food blog, you ask? Because the two are so inextricably linked for me. Baking/cooking is my favourite form of self-care; it is such a beautiful and soothing way for me to manage my anxiety. So that’s why, okay?!

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I hope my blog can serve as inspiration for you to create and enjoy food and to look after yourself and your mental health. I don’t know you very well yet but I can already tell that you are wonderful and deserve all of the baked goods, self-care and love in the world!