What is My Story?

Hi, Welcome to my BLOG!

I am excited to share my journey with you and to hopefully help you to find many many joy-filled gluten free moments & experiences!

So, what is my story?

Well, it started 17 years ago when a move to a tropical climate, with its incumbent humidity, caused my life-long fatigue issues to go into hyper-drive, and I suddenly found my energy levels dive bomb to such an extent that I was finding it difficult to manage more than getting our 3 boys off to school before I had to head back to bed for half the day. I also started to notice the ‘6 month pregnant belly’ that arrived each evening and then disappeared the following morning. Not a girl’s best friend.

Investigations to find answers followed and a blood test pointed to a wheat intolerance. My doctor recommended I also avoid dairy, as excess consumption was causing stomach pains. She did mention that the test also showed a high antibody count and that I might have coeliac disease, but at that point she did not recommend the endoscopy diagnosis which, in hindsight, was not very good advice. So as a result I started to ‘mostly’ go off gluten, but still indulged with some fresh bread on Sunday hot chips day, or a little bit of cake when temptation got the better of me. This little party lasted until my new doctor informed me that if I did actually have coeliac disease, I had to absolutely adopt a completely gluten free diet and I couldn’t ‘play around’ with it any more. So I had the endoscopy and was confirmed as coeliac. This was 15 years ago.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to admit that up to this point I had not been the most tolerant of those with ‘dietary issues’, and so was quite appalled to find myself as ‘one of them’. It took a while to get my head around it. I was extremely apologetic to anyone who was in a position to provide me with food, and often actually did not let them know I needed gluten free as I didn’t want them to have to go to any extra trouble. However, as my reaction to gluten started to escalate, I realised I needed to take ownership of my health. This usually involved sourcing gluten free alternatives to allow me access to other gluten free components of a meal that may be provided and taking them with me when we ate out. I would take some crackers in a small Tupperware container so I could have dips and cheeses that were served, I would take a Schar bread roll (I LOVE Schar!) out to restaurants and did not hesitate to ask them to heat it for me (if they had no gluten free bread), and I would take a small cake (usually a macaron, my favourite!) to any occasion that would involve sweets/cakes as I learnt how hard it was to watch everyone else have all the fun while I missed out. Tupperware was my friend.

And I became passionate about finding restaurants and cafes that served up gluten free cakes that were NOT Orange-Almond cake, friands or Byron Bay cookies…which were literally almost the ONLY option at any café for my first 5 years as a coeliac.

So there you have it.

After years of having to miss out, of having to not engage in the same food delight of those around me, of having to cope with cranky, judgy, ill-informed waiters, and of having to plan plan plan for any food occasion in order to be certain I can participate…I am pretty passionate to help connect other coeliacs with good food experiences so that you can have more food joy in your life…so you can have fun & celebrate with loved ones at venues where you are catered for, where your enjoyment is considered and where you therefore get to feel included.

And so, I would love for you to join me on my journey to document the most amazing products & places, and destinations around the world that love on the gluten free community and bring joy to our hearts. They’re out there people…and we LOVE them for their efforts.

And, if you have a joy-filled gluten free moment that made you smile, I would love you to share it in the Comments below.