Taking Back Control of Your Life with Celiac Disease: Empowerment Through Planning and Communication Ep. 169

This episode is all about taking control of your health and ensuring your gluten free requirements are met, without feeling overwhelmed or left out. You have it in your power to learn what you need to live a long, fulfilling life with Celiac Disease. In today's episode, it is my hope to empower you to take the reins and stand up for yourself, through self-advocacy and communicating with others in your life.

Discover strategies for creating meaningful connections without compromising your health, and tips on planning non-food-centric gatherings. Whether it’s deciding who to spend your time with or ensuring you’re prepared for any social event, self-advocacy is key.

Tune in for practical advice that empowers you to prioritize your well-being while maintaining a vibrant social life.

Find out how Ultimate Celiac System can support your Celiac journey here
https://belindawhelantraining.com/ultimate-celiac-system

Wish you could get gluten free meals on the table fast that the whole family will love? Check out Meal Plans Made Easy
https://belindawhelantraining.com/gluten-free-meal-plans-made-easy

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Music Credit bensound.com 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Now, when it comes to living with celiac disease, it feels like there's so many things that are out of our control, and on this episode, I wanted to talk about this because there are many things that are inside of our control, and how we react to things can make a big difference to the way that we live our life with celiac disease.

Speaker 1: 0:45

So let's jump on into it. Celiac disease so let's jump on into it. Now. I was talking to a lady over on Facebook earlier today and she was telling me how she went and visited some friends interstate and they did not accommodate her child or herself, who were both celiac, and she was really disheartened by this and it got me asking the question, you know, did you let them know what your needs were? Did you ask them to go shopping for you? Did you educate them on what was needed for you to be looked after when you went and visited them? And what was the answer? The answer was no. So that was inside of her control, but yet she blamed her on the people that she was visiting, instead of taking the reins and having the confidence to let those people know hey, when we're coming over, we're going to need some gluten-free options. Is there a supermarket nearby that I could go to? Or if I gave you a list of things, would you mind going and grabbing them for me? Or I need to suss out some restaurants that we can all go to, that my daughter and I will be safe at. These other things that are inside of our control. We cannot expect people to cater for us and and you know deal with our needs If we don't educate them. People need to be told what they need from us. Does that make sense? So that is definitely within our control.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Now, having said that, I know that there are so many people that go visit family and friends and they're not looked after, even though they ask all the questions and they let their family know that you know they've got celiac disease, they need to eat gluten-free, they're worried about cross-contact, all of these different things and those people still don't make the effort. If you know this, this is where you need to have a backup plan, and I'm a big, big supporter in taking your food to other people's houses if they're not going to look after you. That is in your control. Do not go somewhere that you know you're going to not be looked after and sit there and be hungry and then complain about it, because that is within our control. This might be a little bit soapboxy, but it needs to be shared because there's no point complaining if we're not going to do something about it. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 3:12

So when we are visiting family and friends that are not going to look after us, let's take our own food. Let's make sure that we are kept safe. You know you don't have to take a meal to share with others. You can keep your meal separate if that's what you wish, or you could make something that you're happy to share with others. You can make sure that you take your own amount out first, or you have a separate dish with the same food in it, but you have that kept separate. So you don't have to worry about these selfish people that are, you know, using all the different serving tongs and spoons and all the different things. You don't have to worry about it. It's in your hands, it's in under your control, because you pre-plan, because you know those people don't care for your health, they don't care for your needs, so you need to care for yourself. That is in your control, okay.

Speaker 1: 4:06

The other thing that's in your control is if you don't like the people in your life. You don't like the way that they treat you. It is also in your control whether you choose to spend time with them or not. It might be that you only spend time with those people at certain events, such as Christmas, thanksgiving, birthdays. Whatever, you might not want to make the effort to see these people on a regular basis if it's revolved around food, or create catch-ups that aren't revolved around food. Our whole society, everything, is usually revolved around alcohol and eating and socializing in that way, but it doesn't always have to be so. You might want to come up with some other ways of interacting with people in your life that don't involve going out for a meal or going to a friend's house for a meal. There are things that you can do, you know going to different events, going and enjoying the outdoors, going for a hike, going bowling, doing different things that don't actually involve sitting down and eating. You'd be very, very surprised what type of shifts in your relationship with people happen when you do different activities that aren't just around food. So that might be worth something giving a go as well.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Another thing that I noticed very, very regularly is I go into a lot of the Facebook groups because I like to be of service and I like to answer people's questions and give people guidance and support. But what I'm seeing all the time is people going in these groups and saying, hey, is this gluten free? And they will put a photo of the food that they're asking about. They don't know how to read labels. This is in your control to learn how to read labels. If you have not learned how to read labels yet, I highly, highly urge that you make that your top priority. It is so empowering to be able to go to the grocery store or go to a restaurant or go to friends' houses and say, hey, I just need to check the ingredients on this particular product to make sure it's gluten-free. And if you can take a quick look at that product and go, yep, that is safe for me, that is a game changer. If you have to stop and go, hang on a minute, I just need to is a game changer. If you have to stop and go, hang on a minute, I just need to take a photo of this, pop it in a Facebook group, wait for some strangers to answer me. That may or may not be correct, mind you. That's very different. So learning to read labels is a huge, huge one. That is within your control. So please, please, make sure that you do that for yourself.

Speaker 1: 6:39

The next one that is definitely in your control is how you perceive living with celiac disease, so your attitude around celiac disease. You have two choices, and the first choice is to be positive about it and the second choice is to be negative about it, and if you're here listening to this show, I'm assuming you are in the positive category. I just feel that people that listen to my show and the people that communicate with me are very positive and very, I guess, focused on doing better and bettering themselves living with celiac disease. So I'm going to guess you're in that category of the positive. So this is within our power. How we look at our life, like you know. Do I feel woe is me? Do I feel that the world is against me because people are trying to gloat on me? Or do I feel that people are trying and people are trying to make the effort to look after me and provide me with gluten-free food? And you know, maybe someone did make the effort to look after me and provide me with gluten-free food, and you know, maybe someone did make the effort to bake for me but I was too scared to eat it. Well, you can still be grateful. You can still be thankful that that person made that effort. You don't have to be oh, this sucks and I can't eat the food. You can be very, very positive and be focused on the great aspects of living with celiac disease.

Speaker 1: 7:56

I shared a post the other night. My husband and I went out for tea. We were going to the football in the city and we wanted a quick bite to eat prior and we knew of this amazing little Vietnamese restaurant very, very quick service, lots of shared tables, so big, long shared tables where you can just quickly eat and go. And we were sat directly opposite this couple that were like, very close to us. The table was long and skinny. They were very, very close to us on the other side and the lady she was showing so much excitement for the gluten-free options on the menu and it was just adorable to hear her and her husband talking about the excitement and what they'd ordered and what they were going to get. And the next thing she spotted that there were gluten-free spring rolls on the menu and even I was like my ears pricked up and I'm like I didn't even notice that and then I couldn't help it. I just had to spark up a conversation with this lady because she was just so positive and so excited, just like I get when we find beautiful gluten-free foods. So you know, we had a wonderful chat and got to know each other a little bit. And you know it was funny because we were both wearing different team sports for the night. So we were going for St Kilda, my husband and I, that's his team and they were going for the Crows, so they were wearing Crows gear. We had a bit of a banter about that, but if it wasn't for the gluten-free food and me hearing her talking about the gluten-free food, we probably wouldn't have found some sort of commonality to spark up a conversation.

Speaker 1: 9:24

So I love that we have that community and we have that, you know, that reason to chat with other people and to talk about what's going on for us. And we have have so, so many great communities that we can, you know, be part of and learn from and and chat with people and share experiences. You know there's a wonderful group that I'm in that's about travel and people are in there going. Where would you recommend I go traveling and where's a good place to eat in this particular country, and you know those are some really great experiences. It's when you get in some of those other groups where they're quite negative and people just complain I don't want a part of them, I don't want to be in those groups because they're toxic and they bring you down. So it's like anything. You know, I've talked about so many different topics where toxicity does bring you down and you need to remove yourself from those things.

Speaker 1: 10:16

So, whether that's people, whether that's these Facebook groups, whether it's you know someone in your life that you just feel they are toxic and you don't want to be a part of them, you don't want to be in their life. That's in your control and that's where this power comes in, that you can take control and look after your health, look after your mindset and make a really big difference, because life is short and we have one life to live. I say this all the time make it a great life, make it enjoyable. You don't need to put other people before you when it comes to your health and your goals and what you need out of life and what you need out of your food. So that is a huge one.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Now, just the other day, I did get some feedback from one of my students in Ultimate Celiac System, because I asked her what changes have you noticed in your life and health since completing Ultimate Celiac System? So I just wanted to quickly read this to you, because this is what's in people's control. This is what you can control. So one of the questions that I asked her was what changes have you noticed in your life and health since completing Ultimate Celiac System? And she wrote back I'm so much more aware of what to look for in food labels. I'm learning to become an advocate for my own health, and Belinda's program helped to teach me what to ask the doctor during a regular health checkups to help monitor any gluten that could be sneaking into my diet. Ucs has helped me to become more confident in standing up for myself and ensuring that I'm safe when dining out. This is exactly how it should be and this is what I love to help people with.

Speaker 1: 11:58

So if you're not at that point yet, then I would absolutely love to help you get to that point. So if you want to connect with me on the socials, you can DM me over on Instagram, um the healthy celiac, or you can email me info at Belinda Whelancom and we can have a chat about what your options are to help you get from where you are now to where Jess is in that incredible feedback. So remember you have a lot of power. You are amazing. You can do hard things. You are already doing hard things, but it's about focusing on the positive and about focusing on what is in your control. So I hope today's episode gives you some great tips on making sure that you are putting these steps into place and moving forward in a positive light. So thank you so much for listening. I look forward to talking with you again on next week's show. Have a great week, take care Bye.