Putting A Gluten-Free Weekend With Family In Perspective

[AlwaysLearning]

I just got home from a weekend out of town for a family event.
 

Before going, I was pretty concerned about having to deal with all of the questions that may arise from family I haven't seen in years about why I wasn't eating at the restaurant gathering, or bringing my own food with me everywhere.

In hindsight, that was the LEAST of my problems. Sure the topic arose and it got a little tedious for me at times. (I need to master some simpler responses to questions so that I can spend less time talking about gluten and more time socializing, but I think I'll get there with practice.) Most of my family was just genuinely curious (at least to my face) and I was kind of amazed by how many people already had some knowledge of gluten reactions or celiac.

And though I did find myself getting a little punchy towards the end of the restaurant-portion of the event, it was pretty easy to realize that my blood sugar had tanked several hours after I had last eaten, and I was able to take care of it.

But compared to dealing with other baggage that comes with seeing family, the gluten-free aspects of the trip was was a piece of cake! Family can really suck sometimes. 

I suppose the best news is that I found it pretty easy to avoid getting any cross contamination in four days. Yeah!

Take away: The food aspects of being gluten-free are minor compared to all of the other parts of life and I don't have to stay holed up at home in order to avoid getting sick ... though I may want to do better at avoiding certain members of my family in the future - for their own reasons.

[Greebo115]

Ha ha ha, I know exactly what you mean!

And that's all I can say without needing to write a book length response - families!