This whole GF thing....

Do you know how rare it is to find other people at random who are also affected by Celiac Disease? I just found out yesterday that a good friend of my neighbor's is also a Celiac. So, my mom, me, and now one more person in this town. Oh, and my friend's mom. My goodness, but that's few and far between. I live in a town of 6,500 souls. I don't think there's even a CD support group in the area, no GF restaurants, not even GF OPTIONS most places. No wonder. I'm beginning to feel like I need to start raising awareness or something. My husband and I have been kicking around the idea of a GF Cafe/Bakery for a couple of years now. I'm thinking it sounds like an awesome idea now, but I need to work out the funding, and employees and such. I should ask all my friends how they'd feel about it first, I guess, they're the only people I'd want to hire. Kind of like Ace of Cakes on Food Network, huh? Get all my friends together and build a business. Wouldn't that just rock, to be able to do the thing I love best, cook for people, and have a true love for my work? We can all hope.

For beginnings...

Hmmmmm.... I gotta say I never really expected to start a blog. Not once. Not ever. And yet, here I am. I guess I should introduce my subject matter, though it will vary, I'm sure. To begin, we should all understand that I have Celiac disease, which is a severe form of gluten intolerance characterized by an inability to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, kamut, spelt, and triticale. I found out three years ago, almost four now, and boy but my life has changed since then. I now have two children who have the same problems I do with food, I've lost 75 pounds on the gluten free diet, and I feel like a whole new person. I always had severe anxiety, depression, stomach pain, heartburn, weight gain, bloating, and gas for my whole life until 3 years ago. If I had known when I was younger what normal people felt like, I would have done lots of things differently in my life. As is, I always knew there was something wrong with me, and I knew normal people didn't feel like I did, but I felt like there was nothing to be done for me. Doctors always treated me like I was just overweight and depressed and I felt like no one ever listened to me, so I have very little faith in the medical community as a whole. Since discovering what is wrong with me, though, I no longer suffer from anxiety or depression, heartburn, stomach pain (unless I eat something I shouldn't have!), bloating, or gas. And obviously weight gain is no longer an issue, either, since I've lost that 75 pounds! Of course, I'm still a little overweight, but 10 pounds is nothing compared to 85, right? So I guess that might be enough for openers, huh? More tomorrow, or whenever I get the chance to post.