To do or not to do?

Don’t – Give up ever being able to eat your favorite meals again (spaghetti, hamburgers, etc) 
Do – Find gluten free options of your favorite meals to make or purchase. Home made is better for you anyway – then you know everything that is going into your meal! Use rice or corn pasta etc for spaghetti, make your own buns and patties for hamburgers or buy them glutenfree in store! Simple as that.

Don’t – Give in to your relatives or friends, when they say “A little bit won’t hurt you…” They are wrong, and don’t really understand the way your body works. They aren’t trying to be disrespectful on purpose (hopefully), but most likely they really just don’t understand, and think you are being “picky”, or a “health freak” which is not the case!

Do – Take time to educate people about why you cannot eat it. Unfortunately even some doctors don’t know anything about gluten intolerance or celiac, and there is probably a lot of frustrated people out there getting a false diagnosis. There really isn’t a lot of awareness about anything gluten related.

Don’t – Become negative and feel as if you are cursed, and a victim  
Do – Be happy that you found out how to have your body feel healthy, and if you are celiac, you have prevented any further damage to your intestines.

Don’t – Take someone’s word for it if they try to tell you what you are allowed to eat (for example someone mentioning you can eat Spelt, Kamut or Semolina, Barley, Etc) you CANNOT have these, wheat is not the only thing that is restricted, all of these are as well.

Do – Your own research and see for yourself what is OK to eat. We are all responsible for ourselves and cannot blame someone else if we eat the wrong things.

Don’t – Eat a meal of someone’s just to be nice and not hurt their feelings. Vegetarians don’t eat a meal with meat just because it’s given to them, same with people with Diabetes if they get a meal to skyrocket their blood sugar. Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t take this as serious as they should, it really isn’t even an option as some people may think.

Do – Encourage people, be nice and kind, don’t hurt their feelings. Be honest with them and have them know they are loved and appreciated, but that you don’t want to get sick. If they really care, they will be happier to make you not feel ill then selfish enough to think they wasted time and effort on a meal.

 To conclude:

Love people and help them try to understand how being gluten free is for you, if they are not gluten intolerant or celiac, they honestly won’t know how you feel. The truth is, I can encourage my husband all I can, and try to take care of him to the best of my ability, but at the end of the day I will never truly understand how he feels. I can eat anything, and not get sick, he now feels the same way (except only because he doesn’t eat gluten anymore). Him feeling “normal” is new to him! He thought for years bread was unhealthy because he felt sick afterwards. It blows his mind now to have to reset his thought process and realize it’s not unhealthy or bad, it’s just bad for him because of the gluten in it .

My husband Colin has had a complete change with his diet, and he has been gluten free for a while now (of course he tried to cheat once or twice but severely regretted it, don’t think he will be doing that ever again!). I am so proud of my husband, he has kept such a great attitude even though we have had to make alterations for what he can eat, and also that now we are more limited for where we can eat out. I’m so glad that God has helped me and encouraged me to try to help my husband in any way I can with this. I trust that knowing that will be a blessing to you as well.