Thoughts on Fairness {+ Lemon Bars}

Truth: Fair is an illusion and life is weird.

I wish I could take credit for coming up with that eloquent and clever sentence, but the credit goes to my friend, Melanie Dale, who is one day away from releasing her second book It’s Not Fair: Learning to Love the Life You Didn’t Choose.

If you tune in to the Finding Joy podcast you may have already heard about the book from my episode with Melanie. If not, that’s OK! Because today we’re going to talk all about it (and paleo lemon bars, of course).

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Melanie’s book couldn’t have arrived at a better point in my life. We all have moments where we feel like life’s not fair, and two weeks after the book launch package arrived at my front door, I entered my own it’s-not-fair season (INFS). This is not the first INFS I’ve ever had — just the most recent. But the fact that I’ve gone through several messy life experiences doesn’t make this one any easier.

Last week I found out that the digestive problems I’ve been dealing with since January could have been diagnosed back in April when I had a SIBO test done … but someone read the report wrong. You’ve got to be kidding me. I thought to myself as I sat on the phone with my gastroenterologist’s nurse. The saddest thing about all of this? Had I not called the office to have someone go through every page of my file (it was that or wait two months for another appointment) I may have never discovered this and continued to feel like a blimp for the rest of my life.

The treatment for SIBO is part antibiotics part SCD, and I started the elimination diet last week to get a head start. Guys. All I’m eating right now is meat, aged cheese, nuts, coconut milk and low FODMAP fruits and vegetables. The first night I ate a spaghetti squash boat with tuna, avocado, olives and olive oil while my husband enjoyed the baked ziti I made for him. Ugh. This is so not fair, Lord! Then I remembered Melanie’s book.

To quote Melanie again, “It’s going to be sor-kay. Sort of okay. I have no idea how I know this or how it’s going to be sor-kay, but I know it will be. Somehow. You will survive. You will learn to smile again. You will remember what’s important. You will love and you will live and you may even love living.”

As I walk through the next 30 days of this “unfair,” super restrictive diet, I’m keeping Melanie’s book close to my side. Not just because she has some really great points in it, but because it’s full of the hard truth, witty humor, tough love and compassion we all need to get through and INFS. I hope you will join me in reading Melanie’s latest book. For more information or to preorder (it comes out tomorrow!!!) click here.

And if you’re in an INFS, here’s a healthy lemon bar recipe to make your life a little sweeter today. Because when life’s not fair and it gives you lemons, you can make these lemon bars. <3 XOXO, Lauren.

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