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It’s high time for a thyroid cookbook update. First, a short story, then, a short list of where Lisa and I are with our process.

As some of you may know, I have a degree in architecture. My classmates and I spent hours…and hours…and hours…in studio, toiling away at our drafting tables. Yes, we worked at drafting tables with T-squares, technical pencils, and erasers. (I guess I’m dating myself here.)

The excitement and sense of wonder and creativity that we experienced at the onset of a new design assignment always left me feeling like I’d finish the project many weeks before the due date. That never happened. Ever.

As one of my fellow studiomates once said, “Think about how long you imagine a project will take and multiply it two and a half times.” 

Yep. And it’s not because we procrastinated. It’s because we were obsessed with doing things well. We were in love with our work and wanted our projects to be good. Really good. Better than good. And, well, things just take longer than you think they’re going to, right?

You probably get where I’m going here. This cookbook-writing process kinda harkens back to one of my architectural design projects: the creativity, obsession, pride, the collaboration with other perfectionists and super creative people, and…the wow-this-is-taking-a-lot-longer-than-I-thought-it-would.

Where Lisa and I are today:

The reason we won’t have our cookbook published this spring, as originally anticipated, is because we spent most of this (brutally cold) winter slogging through the long, dense, all-consuming, complicated legal process of establishing our publishing company, Blue Wheel Press. As Lisa said, “My gosh, it’s like we’re getting married.”

The foundation upon which this cookbook (and our other cookbooks) will be built makes me so damn proud. Yes, it was a difficult journey (no habla legalese). We never saw coming what came – the decisions, considerations, and the I-never-would-have-thought-of-thats. But we couldn’t have worked with a better (and more patient) legal team. We’re perfectly poised to launch this cookbook with the utmost integrity and we couldn’t be happier.

All the while, Lisa and I continued to have regular phone meetings – sometimes with some of our collaborators – about the cookbook content (recipes! education!) and design. Our design team – photographer, food stylist, and book designer/visual artist – are top notch. Like, some of the best in their fields. As someone with a design background, this makes me GIDDY.

You likely know that the title of our cookbook is The Essential Thyroid Cookbook: Over 100 Nourishing Recipes for Thriving with Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s. This is not something we took lightly – we worked with a professional publisher-turned-attorney and a professional writer/titler to land on this. And we love it.

In January, I went on a three-day solo writer’s retreat (my first time not being under the same roof as my baby, who turns one this week!) on a peninsula on one of Minnesota’s beautiful lakes. I refined the outline for the educational component of the cookbook, put the finishing touches on our Essential Thyroid Nutrition Chart (which we hope you’ve downloaded and are putting to good use), and read a bajillion articles I’d bookmarked about self-publishing and cookbook-writing. It’s phenomenal what you can get done with your email turned off.

Okay, so I won’t get into a lot of detail here, for fear of you thinking I’m all unicorns and moonbeams, but there has been a lot of magic and serendipity around this journey. I keep telling Lisa, “Dude, the wind is at our back!”

Case in point: The first morning of my retreat, I open the kitchen cupboard for a coffee cup (yes, I drink organic, fair trade, decaf coffee), and what’s staring at me, but this…

You may know that the thyroid is sometimes referred to as “the blue butterfly.” It’s a butterfly-shaped gland and the 5th chakra (the throat chakra) corresponds to the color blue. Chakra means “wheel” or “turning” in Hindu, hence Blue Wheel Press. 

Needless to say, this was my coffee, tea, and water cup for the duration of my retreat. I could tell you other similar stories to the cup story, but I’ll move along with more practical things…

In late January, we announced that our Essential Thyroid Nutrition Chart (the springboard for the cookbook) was available for download and the response has been absolutely phenomenal. And I know it’s making everyone even antsier for the cookbook.

As this thoughtful post says, “A book is never just written. It is made.” 

Our hope is to have The Essential Thyroid Cookbook published this summer. We’re doing our darndest to bring you the best possible product we can. Your excitement and anticipation is helping to fuel this process.