Sorry.. this has nothing to do with celiac disease...

The other day in my sociology of nutrition class we were discussing family meals.

It began with, what makes a meal? If you sit and eat by yourself, is that a meal? or are you just eating. We then discussed family meals, and whether or not people still eat as a family, and if we should. The resounding answer is we absolutely should have a meal as a family almost every day.

Growing up my mother put a big emphasis on eating as a family. With so many of us, and running around all day and into the night, it was hard to sit down as a family and have a full meal. Someone was always running late or rushing through to head out to a party, late meeting, or late play rehearsal. But my mom made sure we would all sit at some point, mostly because it was the only time we would really see everyone.

So many things happened around that dinner table. Mostly there was laughter, serious discussions about the Inn, and a little bit of bickering. Sometimes there was yelling, screaming, crying, and rarely, though it happened, throwing of dishes. But whether it was happy or stressful, it was a table where we learned, where we expressed ourselves, where we grew.

It was also where we got to know our siblings. Having an age range of 18 years between eight children made it difficult for us to all be close, let alone really know each other. I barely saw my three oldest brothers, they were in and out of high school before I entered middle school. We never hung out, and even when they baby sat me and my two other brothers would always be off in our own little worlds. But through fighting over the mashed potatoes and the focus of the conversation at the dinner table we got to know each other.

In our house the table was our home. And as we discussed it in class, and whether or not it was important, all I could do was say yes yes yes. It was the center of life for me, and will be the center of life for my own family... whenever that might come about...

London Love

I have been living in London for the past few months and, my friends, I'm in love. But, to my mother's unhappiness, not with a man, but with this city.

It may just be that I am not used to living in a city where so many things are at your finger tips, but I am just enamored with London. Living and eating here has been a cake walk. Literally, I've eaten so much gluten free cake!

So here are some things I've picked up...

First of all - cider! At home people scoff at my cider drinking at parties and out at bars. It's a "girly drink" they say. But in London - and the UK in general - cider is loved by all! Every pub has at least one drought cider and a few different bottled ciders. At home I have found about three different brands of cider, but I'm hard pressed to find them in the liquor store, and definitely do not find them on tap anywhere. Here there are dozens of brands, in fact I am going to a cider festival this weekend at our local pub.

Living in Kensington has been wonderful. Partridges, a small grocery store on the corner, carries gluten free crackers, cookies, and (most important!) gluten free carrot cake! There are bakeries everywhere with cakes and goodies galore! And Starbucks is beginning to stock gluten free yummeis, unlike in the states... still my only option is a rice crispie treat (unfortunately no rice crispie treats to be found in the UK... so I guess they both have their plus and minuses).
And do you love Indian food?? Well I love it. And it is amazing! Since I cannot partake in the English fish and chips (although I do eat the chips and pray they aren't contaminated... bad Anna!), the next best thing is Indian which, because of the colonization and the large population of Indians in London, has become an "English" type food. My dining hall at school serves an Indian dish almost every night. And there are four Indian restaurants on my block. I'm in heaven! As long as you don't eat the bread, everything is gluten free! It's love!
But the city, oh the city! And this has nothing to do with Celiac disease or anything else... I am completely enamored with London. I never want to leave. Ever. Does anyone have a job and apartment they want to offer me so I can live here forever??

Yay for the Wildflower! We're really getting out there and becoming a very Celiac friendly hotel/inn and restaurant! Today someone made a reservation to stay at the Inn, and when asked how they heard of us they said they read a review on us in the Boston Children's Hospital Celiac Support Group Newsletter! Now, I have yet to find the newsletter, or how to recieve one, but as soon as I do, I'm signing up! Hey, I'm still a kid right? And it would be a great way to learn more about the nutrition field in the hospital and what steps are being taken to figure out the cause and treatment of this disease, which my grandfather quized me on constantly this weekend.

Well I have to tell you, I'm pretty much failing at everything these days. Not only have I not been writing, I haven't been eating! Sad to say though, I haven't been losing weight either. The first few days of reintroducing started off pretty well. And by well I mean I remembered to introduce things. But not so well in the fact that the first thing I introduced, dairy, came back positive on the sensitivity test. Oh the joy.
So now I am a gluten free, dairy free, crazy person. I am pretty sure my friends hate me. Not ten minutes after I introduced dairy (I had a delicious smoothie) my head started to fuzz up. That's the only way to explain it, I felt fuzzy. I could not concentrate. I was in a daze. Basically, I was high, high off milk. And it's not just the lactose I am sensitive to, I can't have yogurt either, believe me I've tried it all.
So that was a good start. But then I tried brewer's yeast. And I think that's ok? I wasn't so intune with my reactions after that. And I'm the crazy college student who can never drink just a little, so who knows. I'm just pretending it's ok, because I really love wine.
Potatoes seemed to be ok at first, but I tried them again and got that fuzzy feeling in my head. And I was exhausted. So I'm holding off a little and trying them again later.
I decided to introduce tomatoes when I "accidentally" ate hot wings one night. The accidental part was I'm an idiot and didn't think about what the sauce was made of. So the next day, while babysitting, the little girl offered me a handful of freshly picked cherry tomatoes and I just had to pop them in my mouth. They were delicious and I was perfectly fine.
The introduction of tomatoes allowed me to try eggs. I had attempted to try them a couple of times earlier in the week, and burnt them TWICE! It's like I have a complete mind block when it comes to eggs. It must be because I hate them so much. So when I knew I could smother them in ketchup, they cooked just fine, and everything turned out ok! And now I can bake again (I will not be having them on their own any time soon...)!
And then I kind of hit a road block. I ran out of money, and couldn't return to the store to buy new food. I stopped eating at home, and started scavenging for food on campus (hence, why I haven't been eating much). But I get paid tomorrow, so I'll be off to the store to pick up mushrooms and peppers and zucchini and such, and the adventure will continue.
Until then, I'm a little bit hungry...

Betty Crocker goes Gluten Free!

OH I almost forgot! I'm sure you already heard about Betty Crocker's new line of gluten free yummies, but I just had to say something about it since about 3 years ago Betty made me very sick from her frosting that I decided to dig into late one night... I was so upset that they had added wheat to something that CLEARLY didn't need wheat. But here she is making it up to me and giving me all sorts of gluten free goodness!

I've only tried her cookies, they were good, but I'm going to have to stick with Pamela's baking mix on this one. I feel like I would be turning my back on a best friend if I switched over to Betty Crocker. But three cheers to big businesses going gluten free! With this and General Mills, things are looking way up for the gluten free community!

Yesterday I finished my "hell week." Normally I wouldn't be so dramatic (ok, that's a lie, I'm always dramatic, just I try not to be on public websites...), but this week warrants it's title. First, Monday was day one of my elimination diet. I had to eliminate at least 32 foods, but really it was more than that, because I was only allowed to eat 122 foods off of a list my doctor so graciously supplied me with. At first it didn't seem too bad, I could eat a lot of meat, some vegetables, some fruits, I was set. But then I delved deeper. Every time we pulled out a recipe there was something on it I couldn't eat. And then, all of a sudden, I realized I couldn't eat potatoes. And potatoes were in EVERY gluten free flour product out there. The more I started to plan, the more I wanted cry. And on top of that, Monday and Tuesday I worked fifteen hours each. That's seven in the morning to ten at night. Straight. I had to plan all of my meals ahead of time, and make sure that anything I tried to snack on was "allowed."

Wednesday I only worked 10 hours, but by Wednesday night I was exhausted and starving. Also, I was PMSing, so I was crying about everything. It wasn't fun. I just kept thinking about how I was leaving for school in a week and I could barely manage to get out of bed let alone make myself food. I was going to starve. So I sat down and cried in self pity. Then I went to bed at 8:30 (after a huge blow out with my parents, who I'm sorry to say, get the brunt of all of my moods) and woke up a tad bit more chipper, and went back to work. I was still hungry, but had managed to get into a routine of getting the right amount of food in me that would energize and satisfy, at least for a few hours. I got though Friday and Saturday ok, snacking on almonds and finally finding a chocolate that didn't have any milk fat in it and still tasted good. I also cut back on the amount of intense hours I worked.

Then Sunday rolled in. We had a family dinner and I became more and more depressed when I couldn't join in on the cheese and crackers (I ate tortilla chips and guacamole without lime and tomato... yup, just the avocado mashed up) or have a glass of champagne to toast my parent's thirtieth wedding anniversary. And as much as I ate the chicken, sweet potato, summer squash, and asparagus, I still didn't feel satisfied. I felt nauseous and tired and extremely cranky.

Monday morning (yesterday) I woke up with a fever and the cough that I had been fighting off for a month now and grown more... disgusting. I was achy and miserable, and headed straight to the doctor.

The doctor, like most, found nothing specifically the matter, except for my fever and cough. My lungs were clear, there were no sores on my throat, my nose and ears were clear. Yep, nothing wrong with me. Except I had a fever and cough. I was sent home.

I have to stop right now because I hate the way I'm writing. I'm not writing this to make anyone feel bad, because lately all I've been hearing is "oh, poor Anna." I'm writing this because it's an experience to completely revamp your daily diet, so I'm just sharing mine with you. But I may still sound a little cranky because, well I am cranky, but that's what not having my regular meals does to me. Also I can be a huge pill when it's that time of month, but I'm working on that too.

So anyway, today I am feeling a bit better. My mother, the saint that she is, made me a huge vat of oatmeal to have every morning this week, and I have loads of almond butter and jam for snacks, and I just toasted up some almonds - which thank God I can eat, because I would just about give up on this whole quest thing without them.

Also, I have a lot of meat. We have our ground beef of course, and all natural organic turkey and chicken at my disposal. Mom says its a good thing I gave up on that whole vegetarian thing, because if I had become die hard there really wouldn't have been anything left for me to eat. Just rice and almonds. And then think how miserable I would be! Always thinking of the silver lining...

Technically I have five more days of this, but my doctor wants me to feel 100% before I start reintroducing foods so I can be sure if I have a reaction or not. That's a little tricky with this little germ that has infected me and caused this fever. Hopefully with the way I'm eating it's starving it out! But then I'll be able to start adding the eliminated 32 foods into my diet. I must admit I'll probably start with wine (brewer's yeast is on my list). Priorities. And then dairy, then eggs, then potatoes. Those are my real priorities. I have to do this day by day, and if I have a reaction to something I have to skip a day before I introduce something else. So it will be a fun filled fall semester! I'm investing in a large cooler for my car and I'm looking for a fun lunch box that doesn't make me look like a first grader, so I can bring my meals to school since I am on campus or at work from 9 to 8 every day.

Seriously, this is going to be an adventure!

So here's a fun fact, the last time I went to a doctor, I went to my pediatrician. But sadly, I'm not saying I haven't been to the doctor in awhile. Last year, my pediatrician gave me a check up. I realized this probably wasn't a good thing when I went to a new chiropractor and he laughed at me when I told him who my primary caregiver was. So this summer I decided it was time to find a new doctor.
My mother looked for someone worth while who was in-tune with Celiac Disease and is ok with my preference to not pump myself with antibiotics every time I get sick (you know, this is probably why I was still seeing a pediatrician, I still have my mom do everything for me... Thanks Mom!). So we (ha, I mean my mom) found a wonderful holistic physician in Montpelier. He's great, he works with food allergies a lot, and wants to heal the whole body, not just treat the symptoms. I loved him from the start.
We talked about how lethargic I've been feeling for the past, oh, four years. And the bouts of nausea I continue to get even though I've been very good about not eating anything with wheat. He told me I am probably having a difficult time absorbing nutrients because of damage gluten does to my small intestines when I do eat it. So he gave me lots of vitamins because I'm so probably deficient in every single one.
But the nausea? Oh that's really fun, he thought I might have another allergy! So he took some blood to test it against about 150+ food stuffs, and Friday I found out that I may be allergic to 35 things on the list. THIRTY-FIVE! So in the next few weeks (but not this week because I finally get to take a vacation and I do not want it to be hindered at all - aside from the gluten limitations) I will eliminate all of these foods from my diet, and then one by one reintroduce them. So basically, this will take at least a month and a half. Oh joy. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress. But let's hope I don't have a reaction to too many foods!
Wish me luck!