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The “10 Year Challenge”
I’m sure a lot of you have seen the 10 year challenge floating around the Internet lately, especially since we’re about to start a new decade. If you’re not familiar, the 10 year challenge is when you post a photo of yourself from 10 years ago and one from this year to see how much you’ve changed (or not changed).
While I haven’t necessarily partaken in this trend, looking back 10 years has really got me thinking about how much has changed for me since 2009 – especially when it comes to food. So, for my 10 year challenge I’m going to look back at my celiac disease over the last 10 years.
Back in 2009
I’ve talked about it before, but my journey with celiac disease started 10 years ago when I was starting my final year of high school. I had no idea at that time that that’s what I had, but I started feeling sick all the time. I was far from pinpointing what it was that was causing my problems, so I hadn’t cut out gluten or any of my other allergens.
What I Thought About Gluten-Free Food
2009 me really knew nothing about gluten-free food. Seriously. I know that I’d heard of gluten-free food and celiac disease, but I definitely didn’t know just how many foods contained gluten (outside of bread and other baked goods). Because of this, I’m sure that I asked celiacs all the same questions then that annoy me now.
10 years ago, I also thought that gluten-free food was kind of awful. To be fair, it wasn’t as good as it is now. It’s not like no one could make good gluten-free food, but generally speaking there wasn’t as much demand for it as there has been in the last few years.
If there’s one big takeaway about my 10 year challenge it’s that I learned a lot about gluten-free food, but it seems like restaurants and companies have, too. For example, grocery stores seem to carry more gluten-free options than before (and many of them are better), and restaurants have many more gluten-free and allergy-friendly menus.
Learning About Celiac Disease During the 2010s
Another major takeaway that I have from this 10 year challenge is that I learned a lot about not only celiac disease and gluten-free food, but also food in general.
For example, I became convinced that there were foods that I would never eat again. The only desserts that I thought I could eat (and that didn’t taste like cardboard) were fruit or sorbet, and I’d given up on trying to eat pizza. When I did eventually start making these kinds of foods again, it also took me a long time to realize that I didn’t have to use rice flour to bake everything, or that I might need to make something multiple times before I get it right (like the gluten-free bread pictured below). As much as a pain as that was, I’m glad I stuck it out and that my cookies are no longer as hard as concrete.
A test loaf of gluten-free bread that needed some work.
A test loaf of gluten-free bread that turned out well (with a few adjustments).
I also learned that I could (and should) cook. I’ve become 1000x better at cooking over the last few years (thanks to Peter), which has opened up my options for what I can it. It’s also saved us a lot of money, especially because pre-made gluten-free foods in the stores tend to be heavily marked up because they’re listed as “gourmet”—I’m looking at you, Amazon.
While I’ve been able to learn a lot about gluten-free food, there’s only so much that I was able to do alone. Aside from having people in my life learn about celiac disease along with me, I’ve also had to put in my fair share of work. I’ve had to learn how to read food labels in ways that I never expected to, and I’ve reached out to food companies whenever I’ve had any doubts about products.
Whenever I’ve gone to restaurants, I’ve had to take extra steps to make sure that I have a good experience. Between writing my allergies on cards to give to the restaurant, to having realistic expectations for what a restaurant can offer me, to knowing when to talk to a manager or leave the restaurant when I’m not getting the help I need, I’ve had to become much more assertive with my celiac disease.
I’ve even changed my diet around. I used to eat meat, and then I went pescatarian, to being a meat-eater once again when I realized that I couldn’t have soy or shellfish. Not that those changes are for everyone, but I’ve had to open up my dietary options in order to enjoy food again (and be able to find restaurants that can accomodate me).
Now in 2019
Now that I’ve done my 10 year challenge and am about to head into 2020, I can see just how much has changed just in terms of my celiac disease. I feel a million times better than I did in 2009, and I’ve learned way more about food than I could have ever imagined.
Obviously, I wish I could tell my younger self everything that I’ve learned (and to stop eating gluten), but at least after a decade of experimenting and figuring it out I feel like I’m in a good place with my celiac disease. I might have occasional flare-ups, cross-contamination, or run-ins with unclear ingredient labels (or changed ingredients), but I don’t intentionally eat anything that makes me sick, and I’m far better at avoiding accidental glutenings than I used to be.