Why I’m Grateful for Celiac Disease

May is Celiac Awareness Month! Probably the second most important thing on my calendar after World Penguin Day. I know not all of our readers have Celiac Disease, but we thought it was worth mentioning and talking about. In the next week we have some fun things planned, so stay tuned.

Generally when it comes to Celiac Disease and me, I try to keep a casual approach. While I take my health very seriously and I carefully follow a gluten free diet, I try not to make my health issues the center of my conversations or activities. I know that others have a different approach, but for me I have this whole Celiac Disease thing down, and I prefer to focus on the rest of my life as much as possible.

BUT, I realized that Celiac Disease is worth talking about and making others aware of, and not in a woe-is-me-my-life-sucks-because-I-can’t-eat-cake way. Because of this, we’ve come up with a few ways to spread awareness this month that are positive and (hopefully) not too obnoxious. Looking back, my diagnosis of Celiac Disease has changed my life for the better and I wish I would have been aware of it sooner. For that reason, we’re spreading awareness this month!

And speaking of, I also realized that today marks 5 years since I’ve been 100% gluten free! At times it has been far from easy, but I have so much to be grateful for. So in the spirit of positivity, some reasons why I’m grateful for Celiac Disease:

• I am WAY more healthy than I ever would have been. I know that eating gluten free doesn’t automatically make you lose weight, but it sure did make me conscious of what I eat. If I didn’t have Celiac Disease, I would be eating doughnuts like, every day of my life. And Twinkies. I think Celiac Disease has saved me a good 40 pounds.
• I learned to cook and bake. You pretty much have to when you’re gluten free, and though I’m still working on it, I’ve come a LONG way from my freshman year of college when I could barely scramble an egg.
• A few years into my diagnosis I hit a major rough patch with my health. It was rough, but it reminded me that I should make the most of what I have, so I started trying new things. As a result I learned more about photography, and though I’m still far from where I want to be, it reminded me that I can do anything I want to do, disease or not.
• Being gluten free was like a built in litmus test in my dating years. If a guy ate pizza in front of me, or offered to take us to Subway for lunch, I knew he wasn’t right for me. 😉 When I started dating my future husband, he told me he wasn’t going to eat gluten in front of me and he never has. That, and his deep appreciation for all things Texas indicated to me that he was my soul mate.