Well, or not? - was Re: giving blood

[Guest guest]

I don't know much about South Africa, but it may have more to do

with what area of any country (city, suburbs, countryside) you grew

up or live in rather than the country itself. I had the opportunity

to be lazy about food because of where I was and how many

restaurants were available. With what I didn't know about pure raw

food, I would probably have starved to death in the middle of rural

America. And, it certainly has to do with the family that raised

you. I freaked out when my mom moved to a neighborhood that didn't

have decent Chinese or pizza delivery. The horrors!!!

Most (but not all) of my friends take great pride in finding the

best new restaurant in town , but very few can make their own

teriyaki chicken (which I can now, believe it or not!).

Everyone is coming from different places in life. One of the

difficult things in the beginning was how easily 'everyone' else

seemed to take the transition. Whereas, I needed to cry in the

grocery store aisle, a dozen cooking classes and came close to

therapy (because what sane person cries in the grocery store, right?)

to deal with this. Once I talked to a few people who were having a

tough time of it too, I felt a bit better and not quite so

solitary. I went to a cooking demonstration in my early GF days

with Lee Tobin of Whole Foods Bakery and Jax s who wrote The

Gluten Free Bible (I think that's the name of it). Both of them

talked from personal experience about allowing yourself to mourn for

the lifestyle and foods that you have to leave behind because so

often food is tied up in emotions that have nothing really to do

with food. I think this is true even if you realize intellectually

that you won't be sick anymore by letting it go.

It also helps that I'm not nauseous and tired all the time anymore,

yay!

I am being very chatty, sorry. Can anyone tell that my project

budgets are due tomorrow? It's like when my apartment got its

cleanest before a final exam.

Lori in ATL

>

> > So, for some of us, we are having

> > to unlearn and re-learn everything from the bottom up, which can

be

> > time consuming and frustrating on top of lives and schedules

that may

> > have been full in the first place.

> =============

>

> You've taught me a lot. I didn't realize there was such a huge

> difference between American and South African homes. My American

> husband grew up eating home cooked meals because his father is a

> cardiologist who is a fanatic about diet and his mother a food

> obsessed type 1 diabetic (by food obsessed I mean someone who

watches

> the calories of every mouthful, not someone who eats a lot)

>

> I think I see now why people are often so traumatized by the

celiac

> diagnosis. This has been something that puzzled me a lot. I was

so

> relieved to find out what was wrong with me that I embraced the

GFCF

> lifestyle whole heartedly. I never realized that for many people

it

> required retooling their lives completely. For me, it was just

> business as usual, I just used slightly different ingredients.

We

> have always eaten a diet rich in fruit and vegetables so the

changes

> we made to our diets were minimal.

>

> I too have always eaten a lot of meals with friends, but in my

social

> circles it generally entailed us eating homecooked meals at each

> other's homes. My South African friends in particular took great

> pride in their skills in the kitchen .

>

> thanks for the explanation.

>

> Shez

>