If you reached this blog, there’s a chance you are wondering who the Gluten Free Grasses are. The Gluten Free Grasses consist of myself, my husband (Michael), our son (Leo) and our fur baby (Bella). The GFG’s weren’t officially established until July of 2017, but to fully understand who we are and how it led to creating this blog we have to go back to 2010. This was the year Michael and I began our journey at Millersville University. The universe placed us in the same dorm and with a little help from mutual friends we eventually met and became friends. I wish I could say it was love at first sight, but there was a period of time when I considered him “the annoying Mike”. Fortunately, Mike didn’t take this to heart and kept trying to win me over. I eventually came to my senses and we started dating in September of 2011.
Fast forward a few years and Mike proposed a few days before Christmas in 2015. You know how most people say being engaged is one of the best times of their lives? Yeah, not so much for us. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to be engaged to my best friend and couldn’t wait to marry him. However, this is about the time when my health started to decline (you can read more about my story here). Between our engagement and our wedding in 2017, I went from experiencing random bouts of sickness to feeling so sick I didn’t know how I was going to make it through our wedding day. I expected to barely make it through the ceremony and spend the rest of the night in the bathroom. I eventually learned that my symptoms were a result of an autoimmune disease and I was diagnosed with celiac disease in May of 2017. While I was experiencing the many symptoms of celiac disease, Mike was also dealing with a gluten sensitivity. So with two months before the big day, we completely changed our diet. I started to follow a very strict gluten free diet while Mike limited his gluten consumption to small quantities. I’m happy to report that most of my major symptoms were gone by our wedding and it was the second best day of our lives (nothing beats meeting Leo for the first time). We were also able to go on our honeymoon to Yosemite National Park, which we were unsure we would be able to manage a few months before due to how I was feeling.
Since our gluten free lifestyle began right around the time we got married, we took it upon ourselves to call our little family the Gluten Free Grasses. Since the Gluten Free Grasses were established, we added a beautiful baby boy to our crew and have another baby on the way! So what started off as a gluten free family morphed into more of a blended family as Leo does not need to eat gluten free. We still consider ourselves the Gluten Free Grasses because that’s where we started and we still have to manage gluten free life every day.
I first started this blog as an outlet to help me cope with life with celiac disease. I’d share parts of my journey and recipes I’ve created along the way. As I have become more confident in managing celiac disease, I realized that I want this corner of the internet to be more than that. I have learned in my own personal journey, that managing gluten free life and healing involves more than just focusing on nutrition. As a result, I want this blog to focus on holistic wellness when it comes to celiac disease. This means continuing to share the nutritional piece to managing this diagnosis while also focusing on the mental and emotional components of celiac disease. My goal is to combine my personal and professional experience (as a Licensed Professional Counselor, holistic nutritionist and 200 hour yoga teacher) in order to help you feel like you are thriving with celiac disease. I truly believe that you can still enjoy life with this diagnosis and I’m here to help you figure out how to do so.
Thanks for joining us on our gluten free journey!
-Kelsey