Fresh Start
I’ve been a Celiac since I was 18. I will be celebrating my 13 year anniversary in July of this year. Wild.
This year is a big one in many ways and I am on a path of health. With very recent inspiration from one of my best friends and college roommate for 2 years, Katelyn, I am excited to forge this new healing path for the benefit of my mind, body and soul and for those around me. I am the only one that can do the work to heal myself, so I must.
Here is some background… I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in July of 2006 and immediately changed my diet. It was a no brainer, but also hard to do, especially considering I was 18 and living far away from home. I was told I always had some form of intolerance to gluten, however my severe reaction (which I’ll go into the details of at another time), was only triggered later in my life due to:
1. a major lifestyle change
2. a significant, sudden, change in diet
Up until I was 17 (almost 18), I lived at home with my mom and step-dad with mom making most of the meals my entire life. My parents divorced when I was really little, so I did spend every other weekend and holiday with my real dad and step-mom with lead to some variation in my food intake during those times.
I was diagnosed with Celiac during a week or two visit back home to Massachusetts, otherwise, I was living full-time in St. Augustine, Florida where I was attending Flagler College. (insert major lifestyle change here).
Not very short after my return to college after my diagnosis, I had moved into a new space with a new friend, her boyfriend and basically my boyfriend at the time, as well. It was a full, small, 2 bed, 1 bath duplex apartment. There was gluten flying everywhere in the air when said roommate and boyfriend would make TUNA-BOY-R-D!! All my pots and pans were contaminated (I think they were hers anyway), and all I was basically eating was EGGS and CHEESE (and chips). Plus the wine I’d intake being a 19 year old sophomore in college (who could no longer drink beer and cider wasn’t a thing yet), and most likely there were cigarettes (thanks ex-boyfriend) and marijuana. Oh the things we do to our body.
I’m beyond grateful to have been diagnosed when I was. My entire life changed. Once I ‘got a handle’ of my diet (I put that in quotations because I still don’t have a handle on my diet… work in progress), the changes that occurred were amazing. These changes have helped me steer clear of gluten as much as humanly possible since 2006.
My hair stopped falling out. My skin rashes were slowly going away (for the most part… details on eggs and daily later). I stopped throwing up every single day. I stopped losing weight (lost 25 lbs in 10 months getting me down to 105 lbs at 18). I could stay awake in class. I could remember things. My brain fog cleared and I became an academic student I didn’t even recognize. My ENTIRE life, I struggled in school. I’d get by, very average. I hated taking tests because I could never remember anything. I gave up on myself and would brush off and make up excuses for doing so poorly. Its actually really great to reflect on this time in my life. The struggles I went through mentally and physically and how things shifted as I changed my diet. Its amazing.
Whats encouraging me now as I write this, is the unknown shifts that ARE going to occur because I am making a major shift in my diet, right now, at 31. No more dairy or eggs. AT ALL. I’ve tried and gone a few months (if that, let’s be honest), here and there, but Katelyn has really helped implant the importance of this shift for myself right now.
There is a saying that goes something like the biggest experiences in the people you love’s lives, help you grow, as well. We grow together through it all. Change is the only constant in life. It is impermanence that makes life so special.
Until next time, my friends..
What are you zendencies?
~j.