As you can probably tell I started my blog one year ago today so to my blog and my writing, HAPPY 1ST BLOGOVERSARY!

I started this as a means of not only supporting myself through my gluten free journey but also helping others by sharing my story. I can tell you though that I did not expect to continue for this long, I figured I would lose interest. My first post, My Ancestors Survived Potato Famine and all I got was this Lousy Celiac Disease, shows my bitter side. I think my first few posts do. Now, thanks to over a years worth of gluten free eating and social work school Celiac Disease is not something I must contend with but something that makes my life much richer. Of course there are still days where I lament the loss of my ability to eat regular pizza but those days are out numbered by the days that I appreciate finally living a healthy life after an 8 year battle.

 I have been reflecting a lot lately on my journey that got me to a diagnosis, on the days of not keeping down food and finally giving up on eating all together for days at a time. Here is a photo of what I looked like after several months just like that:

I’m the girl in the front, the only one wearing glasses. The one with the thin arms and the small face. To most strangers I look like a tiny, somewhat healthy girl, but I had lost 50lbs in 5 months. To my friends and myself though I was ‘Ethiopian looking’ and unhealthy. At the point of this picture, end of the semester freshmen year of college, i was likely eating 1 apple or one sandwich a day if that and would go days without eating because I had become afraid of food. I rarely kept food down, I remember having that difficulty most when eating products containing gluten, yet the fear of not knowing what was wrong and of costing my parents more money on top of college kept me quiet. I almost constantly had to nap at least twice during the day due to exhaustion and suffered from what I now know was insomnia and depression. I kept my hair back because I felt it was too thin to wear down.

However, I was diagnosed after 8 years and started this blog a year ago which changed things for the better. Here is a more recent photo of myself:

I may weigh more than I would like to at this point, but I look and feel healthy and happy! I keep food down, I love food again and my hair is thicker! You can’t go wrong with that.

Those sickly times post diagnosis are not times I wish to relive and they are times that I hope to help stop for many undiagnosed Celiacs. Through this blog, and my work as a social worker, I hope to have the change to do that!

So, Happy 1st blogoversary to my blog and thank you to all of my faithful readers and followers here, on twitter and on facebook!