Tag: celiac

Restaurants. Again.

I read articles about how others handle their gluten-free lives with great interest, though, in all honesty, most of those articles have common themes. However, every now and then, a point jumps out at me, or a sentence helps coalesce my thinking about a particular issue.

A recent article got me thinking a lot about communicating our gluten free-ness with others. The author of the article made it clear she considers her gluten issue an allergy, and that lead me to think a lot about how restaurant staff look at an order of “gluten free”. Continue reading “Restaurants. Again.”

10,000 Steps Starts with One Step at a Time

Though I didn’t realize it at the time, the worst part of my life, pre-celiac diagnosis, was the the exhaustion. I was tired all the time, and, yet, thought it was normal. Extreme fatigue after a full eight, ten, even twelve hours of sleep seemed to be my fate (and forget trying fewer hours…I was a zombie for a couple of years!).

A few weeks after I’d eliminated gluten, I realized something amazing: the fatigue was gone. It had been so much a part of my life that it took me some time to notice its absence. One day I realized I wasn’t fighting to drag myself out of bed in the morning. Continue reading “10,000 Steps Starts with One Step at a Time”

Dealing with Language Barriers

Io sono celiaca. Tengo Celiaca. Watashi wa seriakku o motte iru.

Or, how about “I have celiac disease?”

When I went to Italy, my biggest concern was the food. As it turned out, eating gluten free in Italy wasn’t a challenge. But it did require clear communication — a challenge for me as my Italian accent was probably worse than I imagined. Now, as I plan a trip to Spain, I’m not just learning rudimentary Spanish, I’m also learning to communicate the fact I’m gluten free with waiters and other restaurant staff. Continue reading “Dealing with Language Barriers”