Every once in a while I get hit with the gluten stick, meaning I have I eaten food that was contaminated with traces of gluten and I get sick. I have some crazy allergies to anything that has wheat, rye or barley in it. People often ask me how I came to find that I was gluten intolerant, so I thought today’s blog post would be dedicated to that very question.

I’m embarrassed to admit this but my whole life I could burp like a man and could practically spell out the alphabet in one long burp if someone asked me. I was bloated ALL the time, but actually thought that was how I was supposed to look. I had someone once ask me if I was pregnant, because my tummy would expand to what a 4 month prego woman looks like. I had the worst dark circles under my eyes, that I had a phobia of leaving the house without under eye concealer. And I was plagued by acne as a teen, which I like to think was connected to my gluten sensitivity. I had all sorts of problems, but didn’t know anything different.

It wasn’t until I went to South East Asia with my husband for 2 months that I started to notice some differences in how I felt and looked. While in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam I never ate bread, because their diet is rice based. When my husband and I travel we really like to get into the culture and eat how the locals do, so no American food is allowed. On my new diet that was rich with flavor, veggies and all sorts of rice based dishes, I lost 10 pounds and was left with a wash board stomach. I didn’t have any dark circles under my eyes and didn’t have to wear make-up the whole summer. I just stopped burping, period. I had so much energy that I could climb temples for hours and scuba dive all day long. I simply felt the best I had EVER felt.

I had to ask myself what was different? Was it that I was falling in love with my boyfriend (now husband)? Was it the incredible beaches that I got to hang out on for hours at a time? Or was it just being on vacation? Those things probably helped, but really the answer was that I stopped eating bread and stopped eating like an American.

Fast forward four years later. Right now I am TOTALLY gluten free and don’t even have any glutenous product in our house. My husband is so wonderful that he keeps to my diet when we are at home too. There was a brief stint when we went to South America for 6 weeks and I ate bread the whole time, cause the Argentines pretty much only eat meat and bread; I would of died. I got fat, couldn’t zip up my pants and felt blah all the time. That trip actually confirmed that I wasn’t making all this up in my head.

So if any of this sounds familiar to anyone who might be reading this right now, you MIGHT be Gluten Intolerant or have Celiac Disease. Now a days there are all sorts of resources that you can take advantage of. My all time go to source for anything gluten free is the Gluten Free Goddess. I LOVE her and literally all the recipes are AMAZING! After using her recipes you will actually thank God that you are gluten free. That’s the funny thing, I eat better now than I did when I was eating gluten. When you have Celiac Disease or a gluten sensitivity it pretty much means that you can’t eat processed foods and have to make everything from scratch, cause it seems like everything has some by product of gluten. Yes, it is more time consuming, but wow, the food is SO MUCH BETTER tasting and better for you! Now, when our friends come over for dinner they expect to have food that is fresh, colorful, full of flavor and GLUTEN FREE.

If you want to know how to go gluten free go here and if you want to read some great recipes go here and if you want to buy a book that will make you cry in a good way cause you finally feel understood than go here.

And every post is always better with a photo.

I thought a rice paddy from Vietnam would be appropriate.