Birthday parties are instrumental events in lending to your popularity status. How do you fit in at a birthday party as a child? It's fairly simple: Eat the pizza and cake, drink the Coke. My world was ROCKED when I received the diagnosis of Celiac Disease. Thankfully, I made it past the birthday party phase as I received this diagnosis when I was in seventh grade, however gluten was such a foreign concept at the time, that it was extremely difficult.

 

Growing up as a child who loved dining out (my dad would joke that he'd make dinner in the house and put it in a plastic take-out bag just so it'd be more appealing to me), this diagnosis was a difficult transition. We'd attempt to dine out, but would either be on the receiving end of blank stares, "Is gluten the same as glucose?", or 
"Sure! No problem, we'll take care of this for you!" but my chronic and persistent illnesses attributed to gluten consumption would rebut the idea that they could "take care of this".

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Thankfully, as years passed, gluten made its way into the limelight and became more mainstream. Gluten-free crusts were now available, restaurants were understanding the SSD, Soy Sauce Dilemma (yes, there's gluten in soy sauce), and eating out slowly became less and less of a chore. However, I still would leave these restaurants never feeling great. I attribute it oftentimes to the chance of cross contamination, but I also attributed it to WHAT I was actually eating. Despite the crust being gluten free, it had genetically modified corn starch, rice flour, flavorings, etc.

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As my mom is a nutritionist, I'd pick her brain often on what these foods actually do to our systems. Spoiler alert: Nothing great. I was tired of feeling lethargic, spacey, and easily prone to pain. I began to adhere to an all-paleo, and mostly organic diet, and the changes that ensued were, and remain to be, incredible. My sugar cravings completely dissipated, I no longer experienced that post-lunch crash sensation, and I began to see results more quickly in the gym.

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Though paleo may be painted as a boring, uniform diet, it's the furthest from it. I hope you enjoy all of my recipes, and they lend to your path to wellness! Additionally, if you have a child with allergies who's still in the birthday party phase, tell them 7UP's overrated anyways and it'll be worth it when they can show off their physical shape at a 10-year high school reunion.