PLEASE DON'T FEED THE CELIAC

Why do people feel they have to feed me? Offer me food? Go out of their way to make sure I have something to eat?

One thing I hate about this world is that it's food based. Go to someone's house and they offer you coffee, cookies, or lunch. Sometimes I wonder if they really want to eat cookies and my visit is the excuse to get a treat for themselves. With other people, it's their mission. I explain about Celiac Disease and tell them not to worry about me. I either bring my own food or wait till I get home. Still they persist.

"It's okay, I checked," they say.

I quietly assure them it's okay and still they push. I'll try, "I'm not hungry," or "I ate before I came," but short of pushing food in my face they keep at it. "Take just a bite, I want you to try it."

Politely I try to change the subject and sometimes this works. Like distracting a dog from a bone.

What I really want to do is scream. I want to get up in their face and yell, "No means no! I don't want your freakin' food and I'm not eating any of that sh*t! One crumb can take me down for three days and I'm not going there just to please you with your one bite nonsense! DON'T FEED THE CELIAC!"

Whew! Too bad good manners prevents me from doing that. 

And what was your worst food moment?

Celiac and Weight Gain...

When first confronted with a doctor who said to me, "Could be Celiac Disease but those people are really thin, so it's not that." I believed him. What did I know? What did anyone know about Celiac Disease ten years ago?

So I began going gluten free to see if it helped and it did. Long story short, the doc now thinks I'm Celiac but to get an accurate test I'd have to go back to eating gluten which makes me sick for days.

One thing I noticed when I went gluten free was that I felt deprived. There were now so many things I couldn't eat. No cookies off the shelf, no crusty Italian bread with dinner, no Life cereal. :(

Sucks.

When I found cookies or breads on the health food store shelf I bought them all up and ate to my hearts content. After all, everyone else had so much to choose from and what did I have? An expensive trip to the Health food store and limited choices. Why shouldn't I get to have some enjoyment with food?

Oh the humanity! Oh the pounds!

Most GF food is not low cal. In fact its more high in fat than its glutenous counter parts. And it all lands on the hips and thighs. Before realizing why my pants were getting tighter I'd simply buy another size. After all, I'm Celiac; weigh is good, right?  And I deserve to enjoy food no matter what!

Wrong. A healthy weight is good....we know that, but using this disease to eat to excess was a good excuse.

It took time but gradually I came to realize that GF food needed portion control just like everything else. More salads and meat, less breads, pastas and cookies. It was a learning curve that gave me more curves but I'm fighting my way back down.
Lesson learned. GF food has calories too. Sometimes too many.