Nick Czarnecki 

Hey! I’m Nick Czarnecki, Co-founder of Thrive Dairy Free. Thank you for taking a moment to meet our team.

Who I am:

I’m an avid outdoorsman; particularly interested in hiking, hunting, fishing, and nature conservancy.

How Thrive fits into my life:

It all goes back to when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I remember waking up feeling dizzy and exhausted with this odd sensation of my skin being really tight (from swelling) and itchy. Like most rational children, I thought it best to alert my parents by screaming. I suppose it was a good thing I did though because I would later find out that I had indeed suffered my first (that I can recall) severe allergic reaction.

After copious amounts of testing mixed with more…screaming (I had a fear of needles!), I finally found out that I had anaphylaxis, specifically to any and all nuts and strawberries (weird, right?). I got to join the EpiPen club. Furthermore, my body was not too happy with wheat and dairy consumption, along with anything and everything that has to do with being in nature (how ironic).. Needless to say, I clearly did not give my parents an easy time growing up. 

I happened to be one of the more fortunate cases who around their teenage years, grew out of a fair amount of their food allergies. Aside from seasonal and animal allergies, I truly believed that I was in the clear. That is until my college years. To keep a long story short, I found out that I was still very allergic to brazil nuts of all things after eating a container of mixed nuts. About 30 minutes after eating, my mouth and throat became very itchy and I started to wheeze. I ran into the bathroom to quickly pop a few benadryl only to look in the mirror and see my face was blotchy red, along with most of my body. Not a fun experience.

After college, I got a job doing inside sales with a stage lighting manufacturer and ended up moving back home since I would be traveling quite a bit. Around this time is when I met our new neighbor, Kristina! To keep another long story short; after many many months of avoiding the girl next door, we finally connected. It was on our first date that we both revealed our ailments and very quickly connected. Once we started seeing each other on a regular basis, I adjusted my consumption habits (i.e. removing dairy, eggs, and peanuts from my diet) to match hers to put both our minds at ease. 

My Goal:

Not only have I learned a lot through living a dairy-free lifestyle, but through most of my life by living a fit and healthy lifestyle. It has now become my goal to pass this information along to educate others on many of the factors that play into it.