Why Going Gluten Free Isn’t Enough After a Celiac Disease Diagnosis Ep. 193

Living with celiac disease is about more than just avoiding gluten. In this episode, I uncover why going gluten free is only the starting point and share insights to help you truly thrive. From building better health to overcoming common challenges, this conversation is packed with practical advice and inspiration to help you feel your best while managing celiac disease. 

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Music Credit bensound.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Life With Celiac Disease
• 11:14 Taking Action for Celiac Disease

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

On today's episode, I want to share with you some reasons why going gluten-free is not enough of a focus for those of us living with celiac disease after a diagnosis. All right, welcome back to this week's episode. Now it's super important to understand that once you get a celiac disease diagnosis, it's not just about going gluten-free. This was a mistake that I made when I got diagnosed back in 2009. I just thought easy, change my diet, it's fine, no problems, that's. All I have to do is eat gluten-free, Not an issue. But fast forward to now and I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is way more involved than just eating gluten-free, and I've noticed recently that there's been some questions that I keep getting asked over and over again by various people. Whether it's through my YouTube channel or whether it's through the podcast, whether it's on Instagram, my email list, the same sorts of questions seem to be popping up. So I thought I would do this episode to cover off some of those questions, because it might be something that you've been thinking about but hadn't actually sent through the question and got a personal response from me. So there's a number of other areas within living with celiac disease that I think are really really important and can make a huge difference to how you feel and how you live with celiac disease. So it's five main areas that I wanted to cover off today. So the first one is healing takes time, and I have talked about this in depth on an episode, but it still comes up so often and people want to know when am I going to feel better, Belinda? When is it going to feel great once I'm living this lifestyle and eating gluten free? And the problem with that question is it completely depends on you. It depends on your lifestyle, how long you had symptoms prior to getting a celiac disease diagnosis and what you're doing since you got your celiac disease diagnosis. Now, if you are, you know, doing all the right things and you're looking after your health and you're you know you're doing those recommendations of exercising, making sure you're eating a good broad diet, recommendations of exercising, making sure you're eating a good broad diet then your healing time will be much faster than the next person who may be sitting on the couch and eating junk food, but it's still gluten-free, and it will also depend on how long you lived with those symptoms prior to getting your diagnosis. So obviously, someone that has more damage in their intestine will take longer to heal, Like some people have flattened villi, and that villi needs time to heal. And if you've cut out gluten completely, then that villi has time to heal. But if you say, go on gluten-free and then you accidentally get gluten every single month, it's going to take longer for that villi to heal and for you to start absorbing your nutrients and to feel better. So it's one of those things that's kind of like how long is a piece of string? It completely depends on your personal situation. So, again, it's one of those things that you can increase, rather speed up.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I should say you can speed up your healing by focusing on a lot of recommendations that I give here on the show and through my coaching and my programs. The next one is keeping an eye on nutrient deficiencies. So this is a big one for me and this is why I always recommend that you get yearly blood tests. So some people kind of not slam me directly about this, but I've seen a lot in the online space that it's ridiculous that we should get yearly blood tests. But no, I'm a big advocate for this because if you can have a look at what's going on in your blood and your doctor can have a look at it and go hang on a minute. You know you're low in iron or you're low in vitamin B and you can get given that information. Then you've got the power to change that, haven't you? You've got the power to then go hang on a minute. I need to change my iron levels by either taking an iron supplement or increasing my food intake that's got iron in it or whatever it is that you're actually low in, so you can change your diet, you can change what you're consuming, and that makes you feel better if you can keep on top of those nutrient deficiencies and make sure that they're not a continuous problem for you. So obviously, as your body starts to heal, your body will absorb nutrients more.

Speaker 1: 5:12

But for many people, it's not just about, you know, absorbing the nutrients. If you are not eating the nutrients that your body needs in order to thrive, then of course you're going to have nutrient deficiency. So it's about consuming a beautiful, broad diet of healthy foods and making sure that your body's getting what it needs to thrive, not just survive, Because I'm a big advocate for living your best life and feeling the best that you can, and when your body has what it needs to thrive. That's when you get to feel amazing. That's when you get to go on and live with celiac disease and it's just part of who you are and it's not, you know, holding you back and making you feel crappy. It's making you feel amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:58

The next one that I see is gut health issues, and this can cause so many problems, and when we have gut issues, there can be a number of different things that cause gut issues. So things like stress, infections, parasites can cause gut issues. Not having a good gut microbiome. That can cause ongoing health implications. And you know you want to keep on top of your healthy gut. You want to make sure that you're consuming, you know, probiotics, prebiotics, making sure you're having fiber, making sure you're lowering stress, drinking lots of filtered water all of these things that can help with your gut health.

Speaker 1: 6:40

I do have a free ebook that's all about improving your gut health, so I will link that below as well. So grab yourself a copy of one of those, if you haven't already, because there's heaps of amazing info in that book that I won't need to kind of bombard you with here. You can take that, read it, take those recipes and and work towards improving your gut health. So grab that. I'll pop the link below in the show notes. All right. And the next one is getting on top of cross-contact. So it's all very well to say, yes, I'm eating gluten-free and you know you have a beautiful gluten-free diet in your own home, but then perhaps you've got people in your home who aren't respecting your boundaries and you are getting sick from getting, you know, gluten from cross contact.

Speaker 1: 7:29

In the very early days I didn't realize I had to have a separate toaster. Now I don't use the same toaster as everyone else. I've been doing that for a very long time now, but in the very early days I didn't realize it was an issue. Doing that for a very long time now, but in the very early days I didn't realize it was an issue. Some website claimed that that is a myth and that you can't get sick from crumbs from a toaster. But I just think me personally I think that's a joke, I think that's ridiculous. That is a huge risk. So I don't take any risks with sharing a toaster anymore because, yeah, it just. It seems like one of those easy things to just have separate toaster and to make sure that my family keeps me safe in the kitchen. So get on top of your cross contact, learn more about that, learn more about how to keep yourself in your, keep yourself safe in your own home, in your work environment, school, wherever it is that you consume food or get your food from. Because, um, Cross contact's a game changer for so many reasons, because if you're getting little tiny bits of gluten here and there, your body doesn't have a chance to fully heal, and that's where all those issues that we talked about previously on today's show can lie. So that's a big one.

Speaker 1: 8:43

And the last one, which I think is super important as well, is managing a new life balance, because, let's be honest, it is a new life. It is completely different to how things were before, and once you can get on top of how you feel living with celiac disease, it can make a big, big difference to how you look at life, how you go about your life. If you are feeling, you know, peed off at the world and down in the dumps and not wanting to go out and enjoy life, then this is where it's really important to draw a line in the sand and go. How can I step over this and how can I move forward so that I don't let celiac disease hold me back Because so many people they don't eat out, they don't go to friends' houses, they don't travel, they eat at home every single day because they're so scared and don't know how to manage this new way of life. So if that's you, please, please, seek help to get through that problem, because I'm sure you can agree that that's, that's no way to be and you probably feel like you would like to step over that line and you would love to get past that, but you don't know how. So if you want support with that, please reach out, because I can certainly point you in the right direction for how I can support you with that.

Speaker 1: 10:05

But know that it is a big change. Know that it is. It is normal to feel all the feels and I've talked about grieving gluten previously and grieving your former life and know that it's okay. It is okay to feel that way. I feel pissed off at the world. Sometimes I feel angry that I can't have things, but then I snap out of it. I don't let it consume me, because it does hold you back if you feel that every single day.

Speaker 1: 10:33

So I hope this inspires you to look after your overall health and to make some small changes. So you know, if you were one of my clients, every single session we sit down and we go okay, what's a couple of goals that we can work towards? So maybe take away this from this episode and think to yourself what's two changes, that goals that we can work towards? So maybe take away this from this episode and think to yourself what's two changes that I could make in the next week. Before I listened to the next podcast episode, what's two little things that I could do? Could it be adding in more vegetables? Could it be adding some more exercise? Could it be doing some meditation to lower your stress levels? Could it be learning more about celiac disease so that you can thrive with celiac disease?

Speaker 1: 11:15

What are two simple steps that you could take this week to be better with celiac disease and to live a more fulfilling life? Because when we take those steps, it's all about action, not just listening. So you know, I could tell you everything in the world that I know about celiac disease and I share a lot on the podcast, and I share a lot on the podcast, I share a lot on the show. But if you're not taking those steps and you're not putting those steps into place and taking action, then it's just more information. It's not helpful. So I hope that inspires you to make a change this week for the better and I look forward to sharing more with you on next week's show. So thank you so much for listening.