Showing posts with label celiac disease. Show all posts

Foodie Post: Autumn Mochas

Hey lovelies! How are you today? ♥ I can't believe it's weekend again since it feels like the week has gone so, so fast. But I'm really happy to have a couple of days to sleep in and rest so that I can get rid of this darn flu soon. Today, I've had time to create two new Halloween looks and I can't wait to show them to you all. I'm a couple of posts short of having all ten Halloween looks either posted or as a draft so I'm honestly super happy abut the October content this year.

In case you're not a Halloween person though, I have another more normal post for you:

Starbucks mochas

Montreal Diaries: Sloths, Flowers and Italian Food

Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ I've been keeping quite busy with work and life lately - like yesterday when I had to reorganize my closet after 10pm - so I'm sorry for not having had enough focus on the writing. I've been quite an active instablogger though, so if you want to see more of me, Instagram is the way to go (I'm @silvertigo there, and so into posting to the stories section - so much more me than Snapchat, not that I hate SC in any way, shape or form).

Today, I'm eager to share our adventure in the Montreal Biodome and its surroundings.

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Montreal Diaries: Landscapes and Raccoons

Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ See, it didn't take me two weeks to get back to blogging. I'm improving little by little. Hopefully soon we can also get to the more normal and regular posts because they are so much faster to edit and post than the travel ones. For me at least.

Today, I'm taking you to Mount Royal and the surroundings. So hop on and let's get to it!

morning coffee

Montreal Diaries: Race Day Moments

Hey lovelies! How are you today? ♥ This summer I've been such a lazy blogger, not really photographing my outfits too much and also not having the willpower to sit in front of a computer on my free time. But I'm getting so itchy about writing that I have to really start blogging more. And taken how the weather has been lately, it's easier to get a grip and write a little something.

Today, we will continue the Montreal trip. There will be few more posts about it, and I hope you will like them. But don't worry, we'll get back to regular posts pretty soon too. And I've been working on some future posts too so that there will be something a bit new.

But like I said, today we can go through new Montreal pics and you can get a bit of an idea what the race day was like.

Ferrari Crew

Montreal Diaries: Plateau, Racing and Gluten Free Yummies

Hello my darlings! How are you? ♥ I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post, but I couldn't get myself to sit down and put enough effort into a worthwhile post. And also, I've been insanely hooked into Pokemon Go. These past couple of weeks have been quite crazy, I've been busy at work, I've been walking like crazy after pokemons, our car broke down again and last weekend we were at the cabin with guys. But today, I really needed to sit down, type a little something and get peace of mind.

So, today I'm sharing more shots from our Montreal trip - not entirely in chronological order, but close enough. This post is quite photo heavy, so grab a snack and scroll on!

Red Bull nails

Montreal Diaries: Meeting F1 Drivers

Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ I've had quite a week at work with learning new things and so on, and have been too tired to really build up a proper blog post. I was meaning to post this yesterday, but wanted to write proper content so I figured it's better to be a day late and have some thought here than just post pics and be sloppy with it. I think you'll all agree.

Today, I will share our adventures from the Open Pit Lane day, which usually falls on Thursday on a F1 weekend. So, follow us around below:

Le Dauphin

Gluten Free Life - One Year Update

Hey lovelies!

How are you today? ♥

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now, and today I'm finally sitting down and typing it for you. I hope this can be inspiring, comforting and maybe educating, even.

As many of you might remember, I got diagnosed with celiac disease about a year ago (last July), and have been eating gluten free since. It certainly has been  life change, and today I want to talk about how the past year has been for me.

One Year Gluten Free

So, what having celiac disease means is not being able to eat wheat, barley or rye - because they make your body sick. Luckily, the treatment for the disease is to eat the right food (albeit more pricey one), so compared to many others, this isn't too bad. Of course, if you are super sensitive or have the type of celiac that gives you skin rash, it's definitely not a walk in the park. As a person who nearly downs everything that doesn't run away from the plate, adjusting to watching what I eat has been a bit challenging. But on the other hand, being able to everything also helps when I've had to remove the unholy trinity from my diet. 

So thanks mom for raising a girl that isn't afraid of any dishes!

How being gluten free has worked for me so far?

I don't have nearly any friends who are celiacs, even though few eat gluten free because of gluten sensitivity or because their body just feels better without it. So I get some questions abut my diet every once in a while, one of them being "Has it felt any different since starting the new diet?".

And the truth is, it feels different. Because it feels better. So here's a list of some pros and cons I personally feel about my diet:

Pros
+ I have more energy
+ I don't feel nauseated so often
+ I'm not bloated every day
+ I don't feel as stressed
+ most restaurants (in Finland) can handle the diet pretty well
+ it is a chance to network with people all around the world
+ there's quite a lot recipes on the Internet
+ there are more and more foods out in the market for celiacs

Cons
it's more expensive than "normal" food
- you need to be careful with what you put in your mouth
- you need to have it in you to stand up for yourself to get the right kind of food everywhere
- it can give you some social anxiety
- some of my favorite foods are not on my menu anymore

I wouldn't change my diet back since I'm feeling so good with my body right now, and there are still more pros than cons - obviously, as this is my medication. I know some people think having celiac disease ruins or life - I don't agree to that. It may be a challenge, but at least you have food to eat (as I feel this is more first world disease).

How I feel about eating gluten free just for the trend

Some people think that you should do gluten free for fun or for trend, which is kind of questionable if you go to restaurant and ask gluten free but still order something that potentially has a lot of gluten in it, it might sometimes confuse the waiters as they don't necessarily know whole lot about celiac disease and how strict you should be with it. Because not that many people truly know about it if it doesn't really touch them too much.

But of course, if you like gluten free food, by all means eat it. It can give the signal that there's demand fr more gluten free products and I feel it's good for celiacs. So you know, there's many sides to it.

There are not that much scientific health benefits for eating gluten free for fun, but if your body feels better that way, why not do it. I like the fact I've gotten some of my normally eating friends to try out the gluten free alternatives, and that they have actually liked most of them. But to make my point, I don't mind if someone eats whatever is trendy because I believe it can encourage companies to bring out more gluten free options. I know many of my fellow celiacs may feel trend eaters are bad and I get it, but I choose to see the positive in it (as a marketing and business student, too).

Is the gluten free diet really a big deal?

I think this kind of depends on you point of view, but I'd say it's still quite a big deal. Like with any allergy, you have to make sure you don't get the bad ingredients in your food, you need to educate people around you, you have to stand up for yourself... The worst part for me are some little traditions that include foods, as with those I need to be careful and try to change them into my diet and so on. It can be mentally challenging at first - and for some all the time - but I feel it's totally something you can overcome. It set challenges in many social situations, sure, but it can be taken as a learning experience.

And it brings so much positive with it I don't mind that much about the negatives.

How to handle friends/family who feel it's a super big deal?

I get so awkward when people make a big deal of the things in my life, so that's why I'm including this. Of course it is important that people take this seriously, no doubt about that. And I appreciate that people feel for me for my diet since I'm kind of forced into it. But as I personally feel it's just food, as in fuel that gets you from one day to another, it's just important there is some. My way of going is to thank people for being considerate, and letting them know I love that they care, but then calming them by telling that I still live a normal life, I just watch what I eat. In the era of people choosing to be vegans, vegetarians, eating just raw food, not eating red meat etc., it's not that weird to have a certain diet you follow. 

And I usually tell that this is a diet for champions as I've heard few athletes to do it as well. ;)

How to educate people about gluten free living?

As with any lifestyle, you should tell the pros and cons about the diet. Also, if you are celiac like me, you can also tell what that is all about. Let them know your favorite dishes, share recipes, show food inspo... You can do quite a lot. 

The biggest concern people seem to have is whether my food is good. That's probably because not too long ago (I've heard) the gluten free food has been quite poor consistency (the cakes, bread, etc.), very dry and even weird tasting. I usually ease people's minds by letting them taste my foods, and they end up being positively surprised. I also try t show I actually have quite many options I can eat, so no one should be concerned about me.

How to handle social situations with food?

If it's get-together with friends, I offer to either bring some on my own, to help with shopping and cooking or to provide gluten free recipes and info on where to buy gluten free food. If it's going to a restaurant, I like to do some research beforehand to know if the place does gluten free food (I google menus, reviews, and sites that recommend gluten free places), so I can be sure I can actually eat something (more than a salad). 

I get how to some, the social situations with food might be awkward, and I can say, even to me it gives anxiety at times. But it's important to remember food is the cure here, so it's no causing a scene if you make sure your food is good enough for your body, and you're not rude for asking questions. Gluten can cause days worth of pain for a celiac, so everyone should learn it's kind of serious. I'm personally always happy when gluten free options are printed on menus, because then the responsibility is basically the restaurant's - although it's usually good to mention you need your dish absolutely gluten free so that kitchen gets the message too (and doesn't touch your food after petting bread). 

My advice, all in all for this is just to go with it, gluten free diet is just as normal a any other one. Just stand up and be clear about it. It can't go too wrong.

Do you have any special diet, or a story related to this? Let me know in the comments below!

Now, I will head to bed and hopefully tomorrow I can get an outfit post out for you. Follow me on social media for lighter updates than this. I love you all a lot, so see you soon!

Have a fabulous day ♥





Food For Thought: Gluten Free Living ♥

Hey guys!

How are you dolls? ♥

Today I wanted to talk about living life gluten free. Last summer, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease where your body can't tolerate certain crops, mainly wheat, barley and rye. Also some can get symptoms from oats, especially if it isn't clean enough from remains of other crops. The reason I got diagnosed was that I had been suffering from a bad stress and heart problems, and while my doctor wanted to check my thyroid values, I figured it would be wise to do the celiac test too as we have that in our family.

When I finally got the results, it was obvious that both my thyroid values and celiac antibody were all wrong. So I had to get a medication and start a new diet. Well, I had hoped for a fresh start to my school since the stress peak, but I hadn't exactly hoped for that. The good news were that my anxiety wasn't as bad as I had thought, my stress was actually tolerable and my heart is totally healthy.

But then the reality was that I had to learn to eat all differently. I know it's such a small thing for being healthy - and that many even do that for fun or to feel better even though they don't need gluten free diet - but it still has been a little challenge. I have had to give up some snacks and foods I used to love, but I will get used to that. For a girl that has never followed a diet in her life (except for a treat free month once when I was a teen), this is a challenge. Truly. Even though I now have to be so much more careful and even picky about what I eat, this hasn't been too overwhelming. 

Sure, I have actually grieved some foods that I can't now eat (Kinder Bueno bars, I will love you dearly, but I can't be with you anymore. It's not you, it's me.), and literally cried over them. First world problems, I know. But that has allowed me to move on with my new lifestyle, which is gluten free. Luckily, the products are mostly very delicious - or thank God I love all the food, either way - so that the change hasn't been too though. I never thought I would write about diet in my life, but since t least in Finland the gluten free way seems to be very popular topic, I figured I should write something abou my own experiences.

What I think is good about this is that at least this disease doesn't require any other medicine than food. And when I try to make more and more myself, I can also be sure that what I put in my mouth is actually healthy as well. Making gluten free food is mostly very easy, the hard stuff is actually only in the baking - and I've seen people making quite the master pieces, so I'm not even worried about that. This year, I'm hoping to learn to make proper oat bread, and to bake few different sweet pastries. If I can accomplish that, everything else is just an added bonus.

So how do I feel about my new diet?

Good.

I haven't felt this great in a while, I have more energy, I don't constantly feel ill, I don't get bloated. And that is with six months of eating right. The next six months, I will be adding pure water and fresh veggies in the mix more than before, so that should be fun as well. Even though my diet sometimes feels like trouble for me and others, I still know it's the best thing for me and my body. 

And that, I wouldn't change.

Do you have any thoughts or questions about gluten free diet, or would you maybe like to see recipes that go for this diet? Let me know so in the comments below ♥ 

Let's be friends in IG!