My name is Katie and I was diagnosed with Crohn’s and Coeliac Disease when I was 18.

My journey began way before this age, but I never imagined that I’d be diagnosed with a chronic illness. No one does, and it’s really hard accepting this and accepting that your life will change forever.

This is my blog. I was first diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, at the age of 18 which completely changed my lifestyle and dietary requirements. Realising that there was actually a medical reason behind the way I felt, the way my body reacted to certain foods was kind of a relief. What did this mean for me? At the age of 18 I loved socialising, training and I’d just landed my first full-time job in London. I was booked in with a nutritionist after the diagnosis, but that appointment never actually transpired for a good two years, so I was forced into learning about nutrition off my own back, which turned out to be something I absolutely love – training, nutrition and therefore, Katie’s Life Kitchen.



Gluten free alternatives were not massively available in supermarkets when my diagnosis hit me, restaurants had no idea what gluten free meant and my pallet was pretty limited. Honestly, I became so used to eating a specific diet pretty quickly and what seemed like a huge issue, actually wasn’t that bad. It made me a lot more forgiving if people couldn’t cater for me. I didn’t miss the foods which I couldn’t eat at all because of the pain they caused and I was forced into creating a new lifestyle for myself.

After working in London for a year and learning so much about nutrition, training, food groups, experimenting with different recipes, baking etc. Work gave me the opportunity to move to Miami and run the North American sales team. Immediate feeling – extreme excitement, after math feeling – absolutely terrified. I was comfortable at home, eating foods which I knew would be ok to eat. Going aboard though, what did that mean for my illness? What happens if the supermarkets don’t cater for me, what are the restaurants like, do they understand what gluten free is? All these throughs were running through my mind and looking back they all seem a little irrelevant now. Of course, any supermarket will sell meat, fish and vegetables!

After living in Miami, I realised my passion in life. What I wanted to achieve and what direction I wanted to head in. I absolutely loved living on South Beach, the lifestyle it provided, the training, the people. It will always hold a special place in my heart. During this time I really delved into South American cuisine, Mexican food especially. Through meeting new people in the fitness industry, trying out new products and experimenting with new ingredients, I started to create snacks, meals and salads to suit my dietary requirements. Every Sunday I’d spend the day shopping and cooking – I loved every second!



Shortly after my 21st birthday, I accepted a position at a different firm back in London. My diet was on track, as always. I went back to bodybuilding after practising Cross Fit in Miami and I was ready to come home. My health wasn’t great. The travelling, stress and pressure from work over the past years had really started to take a hit and I needed to get this investigated. Every single day I faced crippling pain and I knew something wasn’t right.

Since the age of around 15, I would always suffer with severe stomach pain in the afternoon, from around 2pm. I put this down to my diagnosis; bloating being severely uncomfortable. This become increasingly worse day by day, week by week, until my mum would have to rush me into A&E and I would be admitted to hospital for a week for two whilst the hospital ran tests. This process happened on many occasions. Pancreatitis, gall stone, gastroenteritis, liver failure, kidney failure. It was never ending. After two years of being in and out of the hospital, and put on every drug under the sun, I was finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease which was initially treated through steroids. However, due to consistent steroid use, I started getting internal infections and organ failure, so my Gastroenterologist moved me onto biologics. I was allergic to the first, Humira, but now I’m finally happy on Vedolizumab.



Since returning to the UK and my diagnosis, I started to put plans in place to launch Katie’s Life Kitchen. I became a qualified MNU Certified Nutritionist, an evidence-based practitioner to further my skills and nutritional knowledge when creating amazing, delicious meals.

I will continue to train, keep healthy and expand my knowledge. To keep learning. To share this knowledge with you, to help you as much as I can.

Living a healthy lifestyle and keeping active has been a huge part of my road to recovery. I always listen to my body and keep a positive mind set – I truly believe that this illness doesn’t control me. Sometimes it tries, but I fight back. I ensure that I keep up my activity levels, even when I’m hit with chronic fatigue. When my alarm goes off in the morning, most of the time I really don’t feel like getting out of bed – I count down from 5 and on 1 I take action. The 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 process from Mel Robins has really helped me in many aspects of my life. This disease isn’t fair, it’s not a choice and you are allowed to feel sad about that. But do not let it take over your life. Do not let it dictate your limits.



I launched Katie’s Life Kitchen to help reduce the stress of having to make diet decisions, to help as many people as possible who might be on the same path as I once was, to provide quality ingredients, and delicious meals and to support those in need. I wanted to give anyone who suffers from sensitive digestion, coeliac disease, intolerances, if you have specific trigger foods, IBS, IBD, the platform we need to actually have a variety of food choices which we can eat with confidence! Not just 1 or maybe 2 meals on an entire menu! I’ve labelled every single meal so you know exactly what’s low fibre, low FODmap etc. I want to help you get your life back and live your life the way you want to live it. To love your body, because it will love you back.

I hope my blog has given hope to others going through a similar journey. I want to raise as much awareness as possible to help others mentally and physically.

Love Katie xxx



Katie’s Life Kitchen is the UK’s only meal kit provider suitable for people who suffer with IBD, coeliac disease, gluten and dairy free intolerances along with IBS and sensitive digestion.

We focus on providing high quality, fresh ingredients straight to your door. Our sustainable, high grade packaging system ensures your ingredients stay at the perfect temperature throughout their journey to you.

Make sure you write down all of your trigger foods in the box at checkout (just above the delivery calendar) so we can make sure they are all removed (and substituted if possible). Avoid those flare ups, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat boring food! Try our healthy meal boxes today. Let me know how you get on, I’d absolutely love to hear from you.

info@katieslifekitchen.co.uk