Healing My Gluten Intolerance: My Journey To Health
Some of you may have noticed that we were rather absent from the gluten-free community this past Spring/Summer. For 5 months (May – September) we didn’t run any gluten-free events. The truth is, nearly a year ago I experienced a major breakthrough in my health and I needed some time to absorb the magnitude of what I had just accomplished and to be absolutely sure that I had healed my gluten intolerance before going public with my story. I’m happily emerging out of an intense bout of identity crisis after my gluten-free world crumbled beneath me, when I discovered I was able to eat gluten again without any ill effects.
photo credit: Bob.Fornal
Many years of studying and dedication to improving my health has resulted in me being able to experience a full recovery and my body has healed completely from my gluten intolerance. I have been eating gluten with no ill effects since March 2010 and I’m ready to share my story with the world. (please read my entire journey to diagnosis as you will learn that I was diagnosed without a biopsy which opens up the possibility that I never had intestinal damage to begin with.)
*It’s important to note that I didn’t lie to anyone about my gluten-free status during this time. If anyone asked, I told them that I re-introduced gluten into my diet and that I would share the whole story when I was ready. I just didn’t publicly announce that I was no longer gluten-free, until I was confident that my symptoms weren’t going to return after a few months. This decision was important to me because I still want to protect the integrity of how serious Celiac Disease is and how important it is to consume a gluten-free diet (even if you have NO symptoms!) I am confident that my Celiac gene is no longer expressing itself which is very different than just removing gluten for a period of time and being able to re-introduce it again without symptoms. Please note that I am NOT claiming to have found the cure for CD nor will I be coming up with a protocol for others to follow in my footsteps. What worked for me may not work for anyone else. I am simply sharing my journey and what it took to bring me back to health because an overwhelming amount of people have asked me to.
I have to admit, I’m extremely nervous about going public with my journey since it may not be received with open arms but if it instills hope in even one person struggling with Celiac Disease or gluten sensitivity, then it will be worth it.
Since I could easily write a book about my experience, I’ve decided to break up my story into shorter blog posts and I will share links to them here, in chronological order as I continue to write them:
2010 = Major Breakthrough In My Health (please start here!)
How I Healed My Gluten Intolerance – Part 1
I have closed the comments on this post so that it functions more as a reference page where I can compile all the parts of my story in one place. You are welcome to comment on any of the posts above!
Special Note to LGFC Members:
Even though Rich and I are no longer eating 100% gluten-free we have decided to continue running this group because we still have a wealth of knowledge, expertise and personal experience to share with you. We feel that my long journey towards diagnosis, our experience working with Celiac and GF clients as nutritionists and my subsequent healing journey puts us in a great position to confidently facilitate a gluten-free group. In addition to our previous experience you might also be interested to know that we are still consciously choosing to eat over 90% gluten-free so we still have a lot of wisdom to share. The group will continue to provide valuable workshop topics that will teach you how to life a safe, happy and healthy gluten-free life.
One of our members has expressed her concern and confusion about how my husband and I could teach classes about living GF if we are no longer doing it ourselves. Since others might have the same question I thought that it would be best to answer her question publicly:
In short, because we are professionally trained as nutritionists we don’t need to be living 100% gluten-free in order to teach classes about it. On top of our education we also have 3 years of personal experience of living on a strict gluten-free diet and I have 4 years of experience working with clients teaching them how to do the same. There are many nutritionists consulting and teaching about other diseases and disorders, such as diabetes, without ever having experienced it themselves. I also liken it to my job as a birth doula or that of a male obstetrician. If you are professionally trained, you don’t need to have given birth yourself to support women in labour 🙂 It was important for me to clear that up as it’s a valid question and I hope that explains where we stand. You might also want to read our updated About Us page.
Thank you for your support! I look forward to connecting with many of you soon!
