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In one’s journey, there are many phases, experiences, connections, voyages, events, happenings, longings, dreams, revelations, unexpected turns, and everyday life. My journey has been filled to the brim with these and more. My Dream - to receive certification as a culinary nutrition expert and continue serving and encouraging others in their journey to wellness. I have lived a blessed life. Among the most incredible blessings have been: A tremendously large and deeply loving extended family. Marrying a husband who could not love me more, standing by me for 47 years. Children Who Love Home and exhibit “Home is Where Mom and Dad Are.” A home and church life that taught values, standards, and the meaning of love, friendship, and loyalty to God, Family, Country, State, and self. Wonderful lifelong friends spanning the globe. A vocation steeped in a life of serving others. Passions that have been allowed to flourish. The opportunity to see firsthand where God’s miraculous theater of the New Testament unfolded and followed the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. Seeing our children follow their Christian upbringing into adulthood. Finding Dr. Christine O’Brien, who guided me toward wellness. (Functional Medicine Doctor and more) The opportunity to navigate the Academy of Culinary Nutrition Expert Certification Program. These and many, many more are only but a speck in the journey of my lifetime. My unexpected turn - the diagnosis of Celiac Disease. While this was not a devastating diagnosis, it was undoubtedly one, at first, that seemed unnavigable. But my upbringing of standards, values, loyalty, and a “Can Do” attitude, and the fact that the 15-year journey to health finally birthed an answer, I was highly motivated to abide by the plan that eventually would heal my body. 5 years later, unexpectedly, an additional 25 food items were restricted. Still committed and with excellent guidance from Doctor O’Brien, the journey continued. Home | Complete Health & Wellness | Lewisville, TX (dfwwellnesscenter.com) Making any significant dietary change is hard. One must look at the big picture. Our initial thoughts: “How can I cook for myself and the rest of the family?” What about attending multiple meetings and traveling frequently? One can only suffer being told, “You can eat salad,” so many times. We must remember that it is our journey. If we want the journey to be smooth, we must plan ahead, pack the right items, including emergency items, and alert our hosts of any needs. In doing so, above all we must be patient; it takes time for others to understand and remember our parameters. Although Gluten-Free was easy for me, I realized that everyone did not know what that meant. Most family and co-workers were sensitive to plan for me initially. But as time went on, sometimes it was easier to ensure there was salad. Restaurants were so afraid; they would only cook my food with salt and pepper. The things that helped me enjoy this journey were: 1. Researching to fully understand for myself what I could and couldn’t eat. 2. Carrying Garlic Salt, Cholula, and Ghee in my purse for serendipitous eating out. 3. Parties – I took gluten-free crackers for dips/cheese trays or a dish/dessert or planned to eat before or after the party. 4. Restaurants- look at the menu online, call ahead or arrive early, and speak to the chef. These steps helped reduce my stress and others who did care, but didn’t know how to accommodate me. This journey could be rough, and we could cave into excuses, but if given the chance, take time to understand, be prepared, and above all - Enjoy All the Blessings, including the wonderful world of beautiful foods that await us.

Dear all, I was recently informed buy my doctor (in Finland) that I have celiac disease. What's funny is that another doctor who did some genetic testing informed me that I had the risk of celiac as I had the following genes: HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8. He advised that I eat a gluten-free diet and this has helped a lot with gastro-intestinal problems/pain. In fact, I'm now on very restricted vegan diet and prescribed a lot of supplements by my doctors. Anyway, the reason that I am posting here is that over the past 8 years I have had some rather nasty health problems. These started with chronic pain in my right leg in particular, but along the way I have had many other health problems including repeated bouts of pneumonia, vitamin and mineral deficiencies despite a healthy diet/anaemia, repeated ulcers, and the development of intolerances to many foods including dairy products, tomato, onion/leek/etc., sweet potato, zucchini/squash/etc. and quite a few other foods, and several bones that have broken too easily (2 x ankle, wrist and clavicle). Also, I have lost the ability to fight off even mild illnesses, as I have a crazy autoimmune response. Do any other people on here have similar experiences? Have you found that any other health problems improved after you've been diagnosed with coeliac disease? Thank you for any help/advice you can offer. Best wishes, Peter

Hi everyone, I was recently diagnosed with celiac about 7months ago and it has been a big adjustment, to say the least. After struggling a lot with all the changes I decided to check out this site to hopefully get some advice from individuals who are in the same boat with me. Prior to my diagnosis, I lost over 40lbs in a very short period of time and if I am being honest it was overwhelming but I was not upset about how my body was "looking" (I say "" because now I know it was not healthy at all). Now though, I have been living gluten-free and it's a completely 180. I started trying to incorporate healthy eating ( watching my macros and trying to incorporate more vegetables and lean meats) and exercise, which has been a new addition as before my diagnosis exercise was something I was terrified of doing because of one too many close calls with the bathroom. I will say I am definitely guilty of exploring the different gluten-free snacks and sweet alternatives at the grocery store occasionally, but even with all of this I've started gaining weight back (about 10pounds so far) and it seems no matter how much I exercise or try to maintain a balanced diet the weight is just hanging around. And on top of that I feel as though now that I've started eating gluten free my body is still all over the place in terms of digestion. Before obviously as many of you have experienced, had your fair share of diarrhea and bathroom explosions, but yet I was at least going to the bathroom and it was almost consistent, now it's like I feel as though I have to be so careful about the foods I consume because now my body is temperamental about its digestion in an unpredictable way. Which is frustrating in itself because not only do I have to be careful about what I eat but I also have to now be restrictive on the types of gluten-free foods I eat. Yes, my pain and crazy bathroom adventures have gone away, which I am so thankful about, but now it's the opposite and I feel out of tune with my body completely, I never know if I'm going to have a normal digestion day or if I'm going to not go to the bathroom for days. Has anyone else experienced this or am I just a lucky individual who has somehow felt more out of sync with her body since? And if so does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this. Some days it can be so frustrating because though I feel better in terms of all the symptoms I was having before and my antibody levels have dropped significantly, It is still so defeating to see the scale go up even when I'm trying to restrict myself to a healthy diet and incorporate more exercise. I know that it is not necessarily a bad thing to be gaining some weight, because of the significant weight loss I experienced and everyone is telling me it's fine but it has certainly been a big shock to the system seeing my body change so much in such a short period of time and to feel like my body has a mind of its own and is running in circles with no consistency. Hopefully, this all made sense. Thanks <3

Good afternoon, My 5 year old daughter has just received her diagnosis of celiac's disease after a biopsy. I have not met with the gastroenterologist since the diagnosis (apparently next appointment will only be in a few months) and we have been told that we will be contacted for an appointment with a nutritionist in a few weeks. Until then, I am left with a lot of questions. This is day 2 of going gluten free and I am feeling slightly insane. I see bread crumbs everywhere! I am trying to think of all the ways cross contamination can occur and have designated a small isolated section of my counter as the GLUTEN counter, where anything bread related must happen. As I fiddled around making three different lunches to accommodate my 4 small children's particular dietary needs and preferences (the 5 year old with celiac is the eldest, and one of my twin babies has an egg allergy), I thought I would lose my mind. Bread crumbs would travel on my fingers, I worried about transporting toast to a plate near hers, and of course, the dreaded idea of toasting her first ever slice of gluten free bread in the regular toaster. I must have washed my hands 10 times and I had to restrain myself from making her eat at a separate table lest her twin baby sisters started to toss their crusts around. I am making a list of things to buy to use exclusively for gluten-free stuff: I need new wooden cooking instruments, a new nonstick pan, a new toaster... or do I? There is a part of me that wonders if I am succumbing to some kind of collective gluten paranoia. Please don't get upset at me for feeling that way! I just have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that a tiny trace of gluten left in a pan that has been cleaned could really do any damage. I have tried to think of the gluten as a poison. It's not like I would accept "just a wee bit of arsenic" in my children's food. But then again, I am visualizing gluten like a feral cat clawing away at my daughter's gut, and then thinking about the little speck of gluten leaving a tiny pinprick... which doesn't seem so concerning. So how bad is cross contamination REALLY? In your experience, based on your knowledge, based on your opinion. I'm open to your thoughts. But, please understand that at this time, I am NOT considering turning my home into a gluten-free home. I don't want everyone to be deprived because of one person's diagnosis, and quite frankly I can barely imagine how I will finance one person's gluten-free diet, let alone 6! Thanks for your feedback!