Do you ever wish you could be your old self? The one you were before you had to eat gluten-free? I don’t mean you’d want to sufer those old symptoms again – who would? I mean having a happy-go-lucky lifestyle where life isn’t limited by food.
Prior to becoming coeliac, I was pretty easy-to-please. I ate everything, even if I didn’t particularly like it, and I was always travelling. I didn’t hesitate to go on the French exchange at school where I’d live with another family for a week. After my A levels I went to Israel to work on a kibbutz. When I missed a friend who lived in Scotland, I hopped on an 8-hour train to Glasgow.
At no point during these times did I ever have to think, ‘Will they be able to cater for me?’ or ‘Can I trust them not to cross-contaminate?’ or ‘I won’t be able to try out the famous local dish.’
How many times have you missed out on something because of your diet? Maybe a friend is having a party and they’re anxious about catering for you, so they’ve asked you to bring your own food and you feel left out. Or your family wants to go on holiday abroad and you’re worried your diet will get lost in translation.
Big or small, whatever it is, does it ever feel like you’re losing your identity? That the carefree you, the one that never stressed about anything, is sometimes replaced by a frazzled shell of your former self, wishing this diet for life would just go away?
If so, the following should help restore some sanity. So find a pen and get ready to be really honest with yourself about how you’re feeling.