Thank you for taking a moment to visit my new blog! I'm excited to be able to share my thoughts about living a fulfilling life despite having Celiac disease, food allergies, sensitivities, or intolerances. I was diagnosed with Celiac disease a year ago, and since then have learned that changing my entire lifestyle around food went far beyond knowing what to eat and what not to eat. It took an entire makeover of my relationship with food! Since making these changes, it has become my passion to help others on a similar mission in the social, emotional, and behavioral components.
My experience in learning I had Celiac Disease was a Dr. giving me a diagnosis through a blood test, a biopsy to confirm, and a nutritionist who gave me a list of foods to avoid. While all of this was useful and gave me some relief to know that there was a way to treat the symptoms I had been having, it was not comforting when I was standing in the grocery store confused about where to even begin and overwhelmed with reading labels. Didn't these Dr's know that I have other things to do than spend hours reading labels! I was angry, confused, overwhelmed, resentful of others who could eat what I could not, sad, and frustrated. In the beginning, changing to a gluten free diet was sooo challenging. I found myself finding reasons to cheat...i.e. special occassions, the holidays, my mood, and many other reasons I could come up with.
However, after going gluten free most of the time, I started becoming more aware and in tune with my body and my symptoms when I consumed gluten. Once I accepted that I really did have a problem and that I didn't want to tolerate feeling crummy anymore, I made a committment to work harder and try harder at living gluten free. However, this committment required more emotional control, more energy, more research, more talking about it ALL THE TIME, and many more behavioral, emotional, and social changes. Over time, it is getting easier and I am getting better at it, although I still have occassional incidences of cross contamination. The biggest lesson I learned, was that of acceptance, which is the key to being effective in dealing with most life issues. Once I truly accepted my situation, I was able to do what was effective for myself and feel good about it. In order to feel good about my new lifestyle, I had to let go of anger and resentment and learn to cope with new found social anxiety in a way that didn't lead to isolation from friends, family, and social gatherings. I also had to grieve the loss of many foods that I had once found comfort in.
Because of the emotional, social and behavioral challenges that arise when having to make such drastic life changes around food, I feel it is extremelty important to receive support, whether through friends, family, or even a counselor. I know it's not easy, which is why I hope to reach out to you on an emotional, social and behavioral level to provide guidance in making the changes necessary to start looking beyond the foods you cannot eat and start living life as it is for you to the fullest!
