Living Gluten Free Without Losing Your Social Life

If you feel like living with celiac disease and eating gluten free has put a dent in your social life, this episode will show you how to turn that around.

I’m sharing practical strategies to help you stay safe, enjoy social events, and keep your friendships strong—without compromising your health.

You’ll learn:

• How to handle situations when your friends choose restaurants without safe gluten free options
• Ways to communicate your needs confidently without feeling like a burden
• How to spot who truly supports you (and who doesn’t)
• Non-food-related ways to stay social and connected
• My top tip for avoiding gluten mistakes when eating out in a group

Whether it’s dining out, attending events, or joining in on spontaneous plans, these tips will help you protect your health and keep your social life thriving while living with celiac disease.

Ready for more support? Check out Ultimate Celiac System here  https://belindawhelantraining.com/ultimate-celiac-system and learn how I can help you regain your energy, confidence and find food freedom.

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Wish you could get gluten free meals on the table fast that the whole family will love? Check out Meal Plans Made Easy
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Music Credit bensound.com 

Chapters

• 0:48 Celiac and Your Social Life
• 2:03 True Friends Show Their Colors
• 5:32 Navigating Social Invitations Confidently
• 8:46 Eating Out Safely in Groups
• 11:41 Social Activities Beyond Food
• 13:31 Episode Wrap-Up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

If you feel like celiac disease and having to eat gluten-free is ruining your social life, then this episode is for you, because the thing is, you didn't choose to have to eat gluten-free or you know be dealing with celiac disease. It is something that you have handed to you and you have to deal with it, but unfortunately, the people in your life may be reacting negatively or in a non-supportive way, and on today's episode, I want to help you, you know, overcome some of the problems that we do face when it comes to eating out gluten-free and socializing. Now, what a lot of people tell me is the biggest part of, you know, having to go out and eat gluten-free is losing that spontaneity, and I get that. I've lived this since 2009, so I totally understand what it means to lose a part of that spontaneity, and we get to decide what part of living with celiac disease sucks and which part we get to improve, and I personally know for a fact that this is something that you can improve through strategies and communication and talking with those people that you do want to spend time with.

Speaker 1: 1:39

Now, if you have a group of friends that always organize to go to the same places that you can't eat at. You know, for example, it might be at a pizza place that has no safe gluten free options for you and you still want to be involved. You've got a couple of choices. You can go along with them and enjoy a night out and eat before you go, or you can have a chat with that group of friends and say hey guys, I would love to still join in the fun, but the problem is I can't eat at this pizza place. I don't get to be included. So can we go somewhere else? Can we try a different restaurant? Can we go to a different cafe? And if they're great friends, surely they would do that for you, because that's what great friends do. Now I'm going to explain a little bit about this pizza situation because, funnily enough, we have got book club tonight. We have a group of school mums and we do book club once a month. Sometimes it's at a friend's house, sometimes it's at a restaurant or a cafe, and tonight's book club is actually at a pizza place and it's somewhere we can't get gluten-free food.

Speaker 1: 2:49

And the lady that had organized it posted it in our Facebook group and said where it was going to be, what time it was, and I wrote on there, no worries, I'll come, I'm attending, but I'm not going to be eating. I'll eat beforehand. And I didn't write anything more than that, I just left it at that. And she contacted me separately and said hey hon, you know, do you want me to change the venue? We could go to a pub somewhere easier for you to get gluten free. I can't remember what her wording was, but she offered to change the venue and because it's a one-off, I was like do you know what? It's absolutely fine, I'm more than happy to come and just eat beforehand. You know, I just want to join in, kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 3:30

So in this situation I wasn't fussed. It's not like every single month we go to the same place and I miss out. Every month is different. So I'm happy to just go along to this and not have to, you know, make everyone change their plans for me. So in this situation I'm totally cool with going to this pizza place. But if it was every single month, absolutely I would have taken her up on that offer to yes, can we please find somewhere else to go so I don't have to sit there and smell everyone's pizza and watch everyone else eating. So it's kind of like weighing out the importance of that particular event or evening or whatever, and finding what works for you. But yeah, in this particular situation, totally cool with going along and eating beforehand, so it doesn't always have to be about me.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And what I absolutely love about situations like this is it's a bit of a filter. It shows you who your real friends are. If you are constantly being pushed aside or treated like you are being a pain, or you're making a fuss or your needs are not important or you're you know being told you're overreacting, anything like that, those are not real friends. I would never, ever, have people in my corner like that. I would never allow people to speak to me in that way, and I'm still baffled that people allow that kind of behavior. You need to either shut that down straight away or, if that continues, you know, if you've had a conversation with those people and they continue to treat you that way, they continue to speak to you in that manner. They are not real friends and that is where I would say it is not even worth spending your time with them.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Focus on those people in your life who do make the effort, who do look after you, because there are so many amazing people in this world that we get to live in, that I am sure you will find the right people to support you and, if you can spend time with them, that will lower your stress, that will make you feel cared for, that will make you feel part of a community, rather than being with a group of people who treat you like an outsider. A pain like you're annoying and you're causing a fuss. You don't need to be pushing yourself into those groups when they're not treating you with respect. So I like to look at it in this way that the right people will stand up and will look after you. So that can be hard for a lot of people, but I think it's really interesting that people do show their true colors, and it's not always just friends. This happens in relationships as well, and people show their true colors when they can't handle having to care for someone with celiac disease. It's very, very interesting. So put yourself as number one. You are so important, your health matters and you don't need to be treated like a second rate person. Now, if you have a little bit of social anxiety or you don't know how to react in certain situations, I encourage you to practice.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Practice what you might say next time you're asked to go somewhere it could be via a message, it could be in person, it could be on a phone call what could you say to that person in response to being invited somewhere? So you know, it could be as simple as thank you so much for thinking of me. I'd love to come, but I might just give the restaurant a quick ring first and find out if there's any gluten-free options for me just before I commit. That person then may say something like no worries, can you let me know? Or hey, why don't we find a different restaurant? Or have you got any suggestions of where we could all go that would be safer? That's a really great person that's listening and supporting you, but they might be set in stone that that's where they want to go. That's the only option. And if you can come, great. If you can't, whatever. That will show you what type of person that is.

Speaker 1: 7:43

But it also depends on the event. You know it could be a birthday party, it could be a special occasion, but if it's just like a, you know, a standard kind of regular catch up or whatever, then yeah, just kind of take it, as that's a really good response to just say I will give the restaurant or the cafe a ring, find out what's safe and get back to you. That's a really good way of not committing straight away but making sure that there's something there for you that you can eat. Or you might be invited somewhere that you don't feel confident that you can eat the food, maybe to someone's house, maybe to a social outing, where it's not actually at a restaurant or a cafe and they're catering for it. You can say something along the lines of great, I would love to come, but I'll just bring my own food so that I know that it's completely safe for me and I won't get sick. Something simple like that. No one's going to shun you for that. That's ridiculous. If they do, and again, that's just showing you their true colors if that's how they speak to you.

Speaker 1: 8:47

And then, of course, knowing how to ask for gluten-free food when you are eating out, making sure that you are confidently asking all the questions that you would normally ask when you eat out and get a gluten-free meal. You still need to make sure you're asking all those questions when you are with a group, big group of people, because that's when mistakes are made, and I must admit I've been out quite a number of times where we've been with a big group of people and I've asked my questions. I've made sure everything's safe, all the rest of it and my meal has been served and a mistake has been made and I have realized. And I always double, triple check. So as soon as my meal is placed in front of me, I always confirm that it is a gluten free meal. If the server or the wait staff is hesitant, I just ask them to go and double check, because often what happens when you go out with a big group of people, someone might order the same meal as you, but they haven't ordered a gluten free version and you get served their meal. So always, always, double check as it gets placed in front of you, that it is the gluten-free version and that way you are kept extra, extra safe. So that is a hot tip that I always do as well.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Doesn't matter that there's 20 people at the table, doesn't matter that there's five and it's intimate. Always, always, ask your questions. Never, ever, make yourself smaller or less important because there's so many other people around. This shows them that you're taking yourself seriously. This shows them how important it is for you to eat 100% gluten-free and be on top of it that you're not just you know doing this willy nilly. You are a hundred percent looking after your health and, like I said, anyone that says any nasty comments or makes any gnarky remarks about this, they are not your people and they are obviously very uneducated or have no idea about you and what you're dealing with. So you can educate them or you can wipe them from your life. If it's a continuous fight, ongoing behavior, and I think, as time goes on, when you live with celiac disease, you really do start to see who those people are in your corner and who supports you. So, like I said earlier, make sure you focus on, you know, strengthening those relationships and spending as much time with those people as possible.

Speaker 1: 11:12

And the last tip that I would give you is it doesn't always have to be about food. I know that eating out is a huge part of being social, but it doesn't always have to be around food. So what other activities could you do that don't revolve around food? Well, sport is a great one. For example, my husband he's gone and played golf today with one of his mates, which is perfect Kicked him out of the house nice and quiet to do recording and they've gone to play golf. They're not going out for food, they're just playing golf.

Speaker 1: 11:47

So something like that is really simple I hit a tennis, a hike, a walk. There is no food involved in that. You can literally do that for an hour, a couple of hours and you don't even have to focus on that. You can literally do that for an hour, couple of hours and you don't even have to focus on food. You could go grab a coffee, a hot chocolate, something that doesn't actually involve eating, and then BYO picnics are fun as well. So if you have a beautiful area where you can catch up with friends, this is fantastic because it is still revolved around food.

Speaker 1: 12:17

If that is a big part of your life and everyone just brings their own food, you focus on your own gluten-free, safe food. They can bring whatever they want. It still feels very social and inclusive. But you just eat your safe food or you teach those people that you're catching up with what types of foods are gluten-free? What could they bring to contribute? Checking labels when they come, asking them not to open any packaged items until they get there. There's lots and lots of ways that you can make this work for your social life. So I hope this is inspiring you to get out there a little bit more, be a bit more social with your friends, your family and making sure that you are safe and cared for. So thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. I hope this has given you some ideas and, like I said, inspires you to get out there and socialize a little bit more. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode and I look forward to talking with you again next week. Take care Bye.