Go Messy or Go Hungry
Delicious food for restricted diets
The Problem
It was senior year of college and I was working on my thesis project, looking for jobs, feeling a tad stressed and a lot miserable. Specifically my stomach – eating made me feel terrible, and not eating made me feel terrible. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Luckily that was mostly solved by going to a doctor and, at her recommendation, starting to follow the low FODMAP diet. I was soon confronted with another problem though: the diet, while helpful, came with a long list of “foods to avoid” and the only information I could find that explained why I was to avoid said foods was super scientific.
Early logo exploration
Research
I couldn’t just follow someone’s directions without knowing why, so I poured myself into researching FODMAPs (which stands for Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, and Mono- saccharides And Polyls… case in point right?) and gut health. Learning gave me a sense of empowerment, and gave me me the energy to start experimenting with the foods that didn’t make me feel miserable.
And so, with encouragement from my better half, I decided to start Go Messy or Go Hungry (which also happens to be my life philosophy) to share my learnings and help others with diet restrictions to continue to eat delicious food.
Development
Because I know too much to be dangerous, and because I’m a control freak, I quickly realized that a simple template site was not going to cut it for me. And so, with absolutely no knowledge of what I was getting myself into, I dove headfirst into the world of WordPress, databases, and web development.
Over the years I’ve continuously tweaked and improved the way the site is set up, and while I’m the world’s worst web developer, the experience has given me the utmost empathy with the developers I work with in my professional life.
Outcomes
GMGH has grown to a small but respectable size, has experienced about 50% year over year growth every year since 2017, and appears in the top results for many Google searches. In addition to recipes, it’s home to educational articles, travel guides, and my learnings about gut and hormone health.
As my interests have grown and changed over the years the things I write about have grown with me, but the mission remains the same: to break down the really technical information in the health and wellness world so everyone can understand. Oh, and to make a mess. 😉