I talk about my life a lot. Sometimes probably more than you might like, but I cannot always do the science. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to do the heavy research required to write. Other times it is because I have done the research and I haven’t had time to process it all. And we are planning for vacation here. Today, I’m going to talk about it all!

Life

Right now in Atlanta, it is hot and humid. It always hot these days and it doesn’t rain. It is so hot and humid you can taste the air. Going outside causes instant flop sweat. If it does rain it is a brief, late afternoon thunderstorm. I’m already losing steam by then. The morning person in me is always happy to be up and going early. So, by late afternoon, it is time to cook dinner and turn on the television.

Because it is so hot, I’ve spent a lot of time at the pool and the lake. At the same time, that means I haven’t been thinking quite as much about celiac. I’ve been worried about catching Covid and what is for lunch and where are my White Claws.

I’ve had several Covid-related mental breakdowns since mid-March. Things just get to be too much – too much tween angst, too much togetherness, too little school, too little adult time, too few breaks, just too much. But interestingly, none of these breaks have been celiac related. My breaks haven’t been about what I cannot eat but more about the world outside of my celiac disease.

Bright spot

I will say that I’ve got another bright spot on my celiac disease journey. I had another endoscopy at the end of June. My most recent endoscopy shows “no signs of celiac disease” and that is a welcome relief. Is it because I cannot go out to eat due to covid? Is it because of my awesome new prescription level digestive enzymes? I don’t know and I don’t care. I just know that I’m probably feeling the best that I have in a long time. I have more energy, no muscle cramping when exercising, and am sleeping better. I’m just doing well right now.

Vacation

We are going to the beach next week. We will be there with extended family. Typically, everyone is on their own for breakfast and lunch. We eat dinner as a group which is nice. We have been doing it this way for the past 10 years.

Historically, I end up in tears due to my inability to eat with the group at least once. It isn’t about them. Sometimes it is an ingredient that they thought would be okay, but isn’t. Sometimes it is just not realizing something may contain gluten – like wheat in ice cream. Sometimes it is frustration at having to limit where people can go to dinner because of me. Sometimes it just is hard being the one with crazy food issues.

I fully understand the challenges of creating gluten free meals once a year. Gluten free eating is really, really hard even when you deal with it every day. Imagine being thrown into a situation once a year where you have to figure it out on the fly – so hard!!! It isn’t their fault that I’m upset. I just know it is hard on all of us to accommodate my food issues and I feel bad.

To make it harder, labels suck in the US. Labels are confusing with little to no enforcement for labelling rules. It’s like a mullet – gluten free on the front, but contains gluten on the back!

What am I loving

So, I feel like I’m bringing half my kitchen. In looking at the list, it isn’t much. I’m bringing gluten free pancake mix for peach cobbler, gluten free cinnamon cake mix, gluten free panko, gluten free chicken stock, gluten free cheddar bay biscuit mix, gluten free flour, and gluten free soy sauce. Beyond those key ingredients, anything else is “normal” food. I’ll probably even leave most of those items untouched.

But this summer I’ve loved peach cobbler, the cinnamon cake, and chicken katsu. I can make myself happy with those ingredients and all of my summer favorites. If I were really to pare it down, I would only take gluten free soy sauce. Anything else can be done without for a week.

Discussion

I’m not really sure what the point of this article is other than to say, we all go through the same crap. We can have melt downs, get great news, and simply live our lives. We can be happy or sad and it can be completely unrelated to celiac. We deal with the fears of going on vacation and allowing other people to cook for us.

I guess my point is while our celiac disease is often top of mind, sometimes it can take a back seat to the world around us. That’s a good thing. Go live your life and stop worrying about celiac. disease so much! 😉