I have severely neglected the Glupid Moments category in my blog, which is crazy, because I, like you, experience them each and every day. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t feel the negative or positive effects of gluten sensitivity. It has changed my whole life regardless of whether I want it to or not. It’s a challenge, a blessing, a super duper curse, a burden, a constant reminder that my poor body, in a lot of ways, doesn’t perform like it’s suppose to. There are so many things that I hate about this whole thing BUT I appreciate that it has pushed me to look further into the things I eat, it’s forced me to be more responsible about getting more sleep, and it’s compelled me to eating the right types of foods and staying on top of my health.
I like to share these stories so that others who are burdened with C/GI has someone to relate to, to remind them that they are not alone in this battle. We can laugh at the stupidity of the glupidity that we go through. I am certainly not trying to complain in any way. (Although it might seem that way, but hey, don’t we all get to complain occasionally?) Hopefully by the time I end up writing these posts, we can laugh about it!
So for my calling at church, I am involved in what’s called Activity Days. Its for the girls in my ward, ages 8-11. We meet twice a month and we have them do a variety of things like service projects, learn about babysitting, go to museums, things like that. It’s really fun! Well, every year we put on a Daddy Daughter Dinner for the girls. It’s a special hour during which they get to enjoy a little date with their dad. It’s cute!
This year we did a Luau with fun food and music! It was such a great turnout and the girls had a blast! Except, I have this thing…
So usually what I do before I go to any activity where food will be served is eat a light meal just in case there’s nothing I am able to eat at the event. If I trust the provider (usually this happens when I go to family dinners) I will ask whomever made the dish, what ingredients were used, etc. I can usually get a good feel of what their knowledge of gluten is based on the convo I have with them. My husbands family is usually so awesome when it comes to gluten free alternatives! But, at one of our get-togethers, I was too worried about what was in the meat so I just didn’t eat. And It. Looked. Amazing.
All too often I put on my big girl pants and I am TOTALLY okay with not participating. I can usually justify it by thinking that what I made at home was much healthier or some such thing. Before the dinner, I helped with placing the most delicious looking white chocolate macadamia nut cookies on a tray (I can touch gluten filled products, my sensitivity is not that severe). I’ve been on this health kick for the latter part of this year- I haven’t used white sugar in my baking in SO long. I replace it with pure maple syrup (which is low on the glycemic index) and I try to replace any white flours with either buckwheat, almond or oat flour (like in these healthy pumpkin cookies). For some crazy reason I was just at a weak place and I just wanted those cookies so badly!
The whole experience of not eating the food with everyone (I’m such a social eater), and handling those divine cookies, just reminded me of how freakishly annoying this whole thing is. Just the fact that I couldn’t have it, made it that much worse. If I could have had it, I might have helped myself to maybe one. Instead I went straight to the store, grabbed a tub of Pillsbury’s Gluten Free Cookie Dough, cooked up the entire carton and Bri and I had a great time!!! Ha ha! Bri and I will get this way about once or twice a year. I feel like its totally normal to crave gluten food and I think it varies depending on the person and circumstances. Luckily I have her to tell this to and she can totally relate.
After consuming more cookies than I’m proud of, I felt a tiny bit better. Food is an emotional thing for myself and many other people, and I knew that there was no stopping the instant craving. It was something I just had to get out of my system. I am so so grateful that there are wonderful things out there, like the cookie dough, to make me feel much, much better. To have something taste so much like a true chocolate chip cookie, is, in my opinion, priceless.
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