Thursday, August 30, 2012

Gluten Free for One

As a 31-year-old single female living with Celiac Disease, my insight on living, cooking, and shopping is different of that than most blogs I read about gluten free cooking. I’m not feeding a family; I’m not a stay-at-home mom with multiple hours to devote to cooking/baking each day, and I live on a very tight budget. I can’t keep my one-bedroom apartment’s kitchen stocked with all the necessary flours and additives to create a delicious gluten free entrée. I tried one time, every single thing expired before I used it all.

I also have a different take on this whole “celiac” situation. As most people living with the autoimmune disease are thin from years of not absorbing nutrients, I am not. I am 80 lbs overweight and am working towards living a healthier and fitter lifestyle. This means trying to adapt recipes to be low-fat or healthier. It’s not easy. I eat a lot of chicken. As much as I would love to make a crustless pumpkin cheesecake when I get home from work, I know it’s not a healthy decision, nor is it in my best interest to keep that kind of food in my house. And since it’s just me, I don’t have to.

As I near my fifth gluten freeversary in a few months, I still struggle with this life style. Determining what I can and cannot eat. Being social and gluten free. Dating and being gluten free. Cooking for one, gluten free. But more than that, I struggle with fighting my own demons as they relate to food and gluten. It is about continuously reminding myself that celebrating a co-worker’s birthday by having a donut will send me into a week-long episode of tummy unpleasantness. It’s also about combating the mindset of “well, I already glutenated, why stop now?”

The worst part, is I don't know when these mindsets will stop. This is my life. It's not going to change. I need to learn to deal with it. I just want to be healthy. I want to be fit. I want to have a better understanding of what I eat and why I can or cannot eat it and make decisions that will better my health. Why is that so difficult?
 
 

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