Ep 50: Gluten Free Living with Jen from Gluten Free Marcks the Spot

Today I am speaking with Jen a Gluten Free Health Coach who not only found out she had Celiac but that all 3 of her children did as well.  She does not want families to live a life discouraged or feeling deprived without gluten and is teaching you how to make Gluten Free Living a part of your life and helping you Thrive while doing so.  Today she is speaking with us about things you can start to do in your own household to help make the change less stressful.

Gluten-Free living and GF baking - really can cover any issues here- adjusting, how impacts lives & families, how to . . .

Introduce yourself and explain how you became a Gluten Free Health Coach

-For those that need to go Gluten Free and are feeling deprived, what tips do you have for them to help look at this differently.

-Do you know of any hidden terms for gluten in products?  Or products that people may not realize have gluten in them?

-Even if someone isn't diagnosed with celiac is there a reason why we may prefer to learn how to cook gluten free and practice more of a gluten free lifestyle?

-Recommended flours for baking 

Calling all Gluten-Free Friends!

Do you like learning new things, meeting new friends and getting FREE gifts?

Then you NEED to join us for the Online Gluten-Free Lifestyle Summit hosted by Jennifer Marcks, CEO and GF Health Coach at Gluten-Free Marcks the Spot.

Top Health & Wellness Experts are ready to share insightful interviews loaded with information and strategies to help build a sustainable gluten-free life that works for you and your family.

All experts will help tweak the health of your gluten-free journey moving forward, and they each have a fabulous FREE GIFT to share with you!

The Summit runs through the month of May 2022.

Save your spot right here: https://glutenfreemarcksthespot.com/join-the-gluten-free-summit/

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Transcript

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Welcome to raising healthy humans, where you as a busy mom can come each week to find information on health and wellness for your family. Enjoy experts discussing tips to help raise children through each phase of life. Gather current information on nutrition and wellness. And listen to Courtney, a personal trainer, health coach, movement specialist and founder of form fit a community where she helps busy moms move more. Here she provides you with movement and posture tips, while sharing information you need to help raise healthy humans. Today, I'm speaking with Jen, a gluten free health coach, who not only found out she had celiac, but that all three of her children did as well. She does not want families to live a life discouraged or feeling deprived without gluten, and is teaching you how to make gluten free living a part of your life and helping you thrive while doing so. Today she's speaking with us about things you can start to do in your own household to help make the change a little bit less stressful. Hi, yeah, Courtney, thank you so much for having me on. So yes, so I have been gluten free for over 12 years now. And all three of my children are gluten free due to celiac disease. And yeah, it was a really long journey to figure out what was wrong with myself. As far as needing to be gluten free. I had gone through I can go back to high school very quickly to lying on the floor in the bathroom in pain being rushed to the hospital in college as a young mom collapsing just carrying a basket of laundry up the stairs. Just all these weird things would happen. And no one could give me an answer. So you're stressed when I'm not stressed? This is not stress. This is some something I'm eating I think and they're like, oh, no, no, no, no. I'm like, do I really do think this? Nobody would agree with me. And I mean, bloating, gas, neuropathy, canker sores. I mean, I can go down a whole big list of things that were happening and no answers. And any tests that I was given, didn't show anything either. So it's very frustrating, very debilitating. And then one day, I had a friend who was a PR representative for a hospital and she goes, Oh, my gosh, you've been complaining about this for years. I'm getting you in with this doctor. Oh my god, okay. And he looked at me and said, Yeah, you're clearly allergic to something I'm gonna send you to this dietician. So I went to the dietician. And she said, Oh, yeah, you gluten gluten is definitely gluten we're gonna look at and I was like, What's gluten? over 12 years ago, that was not a hot topic like it is today. Right? And, you know, basically, she handed me absolutely nothing against dietitians. But she she wasn't the right person. For me. She handed me a sheet of a list of breads that were gluten free, and told me to go down to Whole Foods and buy some quinoa and get some gluten free bread. And I was like, Well, okay, so what's gluten and what's quinoa? Right. So, it was a bit crazy. But I understood, like trying to understand what I was going through and learning about gluten. I was a teacher and a school administrator. So I'm very into researching and reading and, and I started reading everything I could because no one around me could help me. And as I was reading all these red flags came up for my children. So my son at the time was in first grade and key was kind of small for his age, but I was a small person myself, so I never thought about that. And he was two years behind in dental or he was behind in dental, but textbook celiac is two years behind in Dental. Oh, wow. And yeah, so I was like, Okay, that's interesting. And then my daughter was in third grade. And she had every night like, Oh, Mom lay down with me. My belly hurts, you know, and the doctor is like, she's stressed. I'm like, she's in third grade. No, you know, so that was frustrating. And she, she had a lot of bloating. She had no energy, she would run around and come in after five or 10 minutes and want to lay on the couch. I'm like, what's wrong? She's I'm so tired. I was a third grade teacher. Third graders are now tired, right? No, they have all that energy. I'm like, okay, something's going on. And then she started having these neurological tics where her hands would just fly out. Oh, like her arms would just flick straight out, like for no reason. And she'd be playing back Skirball shooting score, put her hands in her pockets. And the parents would be like your daughter is so cool. Maybe like if you only knew she's doing that to hold her hand still, because she knows her arms are gonna fly out. Right? Top neurologists wanted us to put her on steroids and do all these things. I'm like, No, there's gotta be a reason. And as I was studying and learning, I'm like, Oh my gosh, my kids have celiac disease. Like they have all the flags, right? So I went to the pediatrician, and I said, Okay, I think they have celiac disease when you put all these things together. And she said, Oh, wow, she was going to a conference that weekend. Like, she called me on her way home. She's like, yes, we're testing them. And they both had celiac disease. And like, I just think I, I never would have known my kids had celiac disease. And I don't know that anyone would have put those points together because all these things that happen were just things that happened. And no one could give me answers. Even the neurological tics. Now my daughter is 21. Now she when she went gluten free, no more she had all the energy back. She also I didn't mention she also vitiligo going down her leg that stopped spreading so that's when you lose a pigment in your skin. Yes, my daughter has that as well. Hmm. So we can talk about that. But yes, absolutely get stopped in his tracks. It's even faded. And it's it's never gone anywhere past. She has never had another alert neurological tic in her life. So she's had she had a lot of changes. My son grew four inches when he stopped eating gluten. Four inches in one year. The doctor is like, yeah, that was correct. So my, my third guy who he was born into it. today are the doctors like now keep him gluten free at 18 months. We tested him. Well, we had to eat gluten. And that was a night. That was a nightmare. We did not last very long. Is this happy go lucky kid turned into a constipated back and forth, you know, potty problems, and then belly bloating and bad behavior and not eating and not sleeping. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, well, the doctors like No, gave him gluten free. Wow. Wow. So celiac, obviously ran in your family? Is that common that celiac runs in families or it can run in families? Okay, I Yes, it can run in families. If you as a parent have celiac disease, you can certainly look for your children. I mean, because you can also have silent celiac. But you can also have the genes for it's very confusing, because you can also have the genes for celiac, and never actually have celiac. I mean, we all carry genes in our, in our bodies for many different things. And depending on how we're living, what are we turning up those genes, right work and ignite, or are we not? You know, right, right, depending on our lifestyle. Okay, so yeah, okay. That's very interesting. My listeners know this, but you don't. My my son, actually, it's pretty much all of us, myself, and my three children. We all have a corn allergy. And we present similar to a gluten allergy. different but similar. So it's interesting how these allergies present themselves, and how much like once you identify something, how much you start to realize what all these different things that were, you know, affecting Yes. Leading up to and affecting them. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's interesting. You bring up the corn because when I started my Gluten Free Journey, well, what's left to eat right, you run into there's nothing left to eat and I ate corn chips and cornbread and corn muffins. And I was more sick. Starting and and of course, your body's detoxing gluten at the same time. So that was part of it. But I found out I had a poor analogy as well. Really? Yeah. And I think it's more common than people realize. And I would hope I wish that it would be added to the allergy the top five or six allergies. top eight list. Yes. Yes. We want it to be added my younger son is corn as well. You and I are both and we we talked about that all the time. Yeah. Because it's It's in everything. Okay, but I digress. Well, I have to say that corn is is is harder. I mean gluten free living is it can be easy and delicious. That is my thing. I can show people that. But corn is harder because it's in more things. Yes. So I have to plug that. Yes, yes. That is the truth. It's in everything. Yeah, yep. Okay, so your family is now gluten free. And do you? How do you do this? Because a lot of people have difficulty A, you know, they feel like it's a terrible sentence being told that they can't have gluten anymore. How do you handle this, especially with children? Because children, I feel like my kids need more than just, you know, they're, they're, they're snack heavy. I do try to make sure that they're eating nutrient rich foods and the proteins, fat and fiber. But there's a lot of times, especially during growth spurts, they get hungry. And I feel like sometimes what they crave are those carbs. Yeah. How are you? How did you do that with three children growing? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And now my older two are in college and they eat me out of house. Exactly. So how do you do that? First, all the food it's already on? Yeah. Yeah, you? Yeah, it's a great question. It you really have to empower them. And I, you know, and I know, that comes from my background as a teacher, you really have to empower them and make them I mean, we would sit at the dinner table and say, right there, broccoli were so strong, and we make muscles and things, you know, and you kind of go overboard when they're little about that. Because, you know, we would talk about so when I started, I was gluten free, almost a year before my my children were discovered to be celiac. Before they were diagnosed, so they kind of watched me, right. So they kind of get in that. Why are you eating that? Mommy? Why can't Why can't I eat? Can I eat that? Or why can you eat this? And, you know, they had a lot of questions. And of course, you can taste this, of course you can eat it. And they saw that my food was not gross and disgusting, which is what that mentality people have is Oh, gluten free. That's gross. Right? Right. Oh, it's gonna be terrible. Well, yeah, 12 years ago, it was kind of terrible. It is come a very long way. There are more options out there, there are more. There are better products now. And you can find healthier products now. Right. So that's come a long way. And of course, you want to push people to Whole Foods. But for your children, it's really important that they feel connected, and feel accepted. And not left out. I mean, but every parent wants that for their kids, right? Everybody wants their child to not be the one that's left out, right? And my so my kids would come home and say, Oh, today Jimmy had this in lunch. Can you make a gluten free? And I'm like, Sure, let's do that. You know, so we would just keep making everything gluten free that they wanted, or that they wanted to try. So we just create recipes and as a family get in the kitchen and, and it was really fun that way, but it helps them to feel not left out. And and birthday parties. I've had so many parents say, well, we can't go to birthday parties anymore. Because my son's gluten free. Like, well, what does that mean? Wait a minute. Let's back up there. And they're like, well, he can't have anything and he just feels so bad. And this is where you come in. And you say, wow, it's gonna be so much fun at Carter's birthday. This weekend. They're going to the bouncy house and you get to bounce and you really focus, focus, focus on those activities that are not the food. Right, right. And then you call the parent you say, Hey, what are you serving at your birthday party, okay, and I find out what they're serving, I pack everything gluten free, make my children's favorite cupcake and send it along. And they have their food, they have their cupcake they're eating relatively what all the other kids are eating and participating and still doing all the fun stuff. They're with their friends, but they're eating something that's safe for them. Right? And they know even when they come home and say oh is cake was so cool. It was you know, Spider Man or whatever. And you're like yeah, but you had such a good one. Right? I was so good. You know, everyone wants to try mine or whatever. I'm like, yeah, see? I said and you're healthy because of that. That keeps you healthy. Oh, I know Mommy, you know so the more we did that the more pre planning you can do right? The more you set them up for success. Okay, that's what their friends are with their school you know, talk to the school at so many schools are getting away from food in the in the classrooms, right? parents complained about but I love because it helps them not feel left out when you write allergies. But you know, planning ahead like when my my little ones when they were in preschool. I just brought in a tub of gluten free muffins. So whenever someone had a birthday and the parents sent something in, my child had a gluten free muffin in the freezer, the teacher could take out and give them that day so they were never left out. Right. So planning ahead really is helpful and you know I'm talking to other parents to see what they, what they're serving or whatever at parties or get togethers, even playdates. Right? And that's I was going to ask you about that, like, how do you handle that? Because I would think that would be very discouraging for a lot of children who are gluten free going for the, you know, birthday cake and not being able to participate with that. So that's a great idea to bring your own. Now with holidays and stuff, is that the similar situation? I mean, if you're going to different events, are you asking people what they're going to have on hand for food and bringing your own? Is that Yeah, yeah, holidays, the same thing. I remember, you know, we had come so far with our gluten free life. And my little guy, my youngest, he was, so he's 10. Now, so about five years ago, it was in kindergarten, he was invited to a gingerbread making house. And I was like, oh, and so in my mind, I'm thinking, I'll just get all my gingerbread stuff together for him and whatnot. And it was being held at a country club, and you were not allowed to bring in any other food. And I was like, oh, gosh, and it was the first time that I was like, Oh, my gosh, you can't do this. Oh, my goodness, what what's gonna happen? He gets it, but he, what if he doesn't? And then I was like, Wait a minute. No, this is not what I believe. Because if I tell him, he can't go, I'm basically telling him, celiac is holding him back. And your allergy is, is speaking out that you can't do this. And I don't want my kids to have that message. You know, I don't want them to have that message. So he went, we talked about it beforehand, about not touching, you know, not putting the frosting in your mouth. And, and you know, you could certainly make the cake, you can make your gingerbread house and have a blast and look at all your fun friends you're gonna be with. He went, he had so much fun. He came home and told so many stories about the kids squirting those, you know, the frosting in their mouths. And that was hilarious. He built his house. And as soon as he was done with it, he walked over to a friend and said, I made this for you. Oh, wow. You know, so he knew he couldn't have it. So he's like, this is for you. And he said, I just had so much fun. Now, if I kept him home, you know what your message again? What message we have to think about what message are you giving people come up to you and say, Oh, you poor thing. Your your gluten free? Oh, you poor thing, your corn free or dairy for you? And it's like, I'm not a poor thing. Because of this, you know? And you're told that a lot. So you have to know how to handle that. Right? Right. You know, and, and with kids. It's like, oh, you can't come and and you don't want them to hold on to that message. You want to teach them that? No, you can do this. We're going to find gluten free, or we're going to have something else for you to do and you're not going to miss out. You know, so for holidays. When we went gluten free I asked my parents for all of the recipes, all of the family recipes. Because what are the holidays? The holidays are around food, right? Yep. And those foods, those dishes like my mom's creamed onions, and my dad's stuffing write that you get once a year, they have this great significance behind them. And you only have them at your table. I mean, I'm sure you felt that just eating maybe at your your partner or spouses table. You know, going to someone else's house for the first time for the holidays in your life. This is not what I eat. Yes, yes. No, definitely. That's not what I eat. were my favorite foods, you know, and you don't want to feel like that the rest of your life and we weren't gluten free for the rest of our lives. Right? Right. So we took all of the recipes and we tweaked them and we made them all gluten free. And everyone comes to our house. Everything is gluten free, dairy free, corn free. Nobody knows the difference, because it's good. So you find those recipes. If you're going to someone else's house, you bring them with you, you know, but you you plan. I plan ahead plan ahead, plan ahead. Okay, now, you make this sound so easy. I assume you must be someone who enjoys cooking or baking that. Yes, that does help a bit. So what do you recommend for that family that's really struggling with recreating like, are there certain flowers you recommend people try like the basic because I know I've worked with different flowers and I have a couple of my favorites but you have to change the recipe a fair amount to go along with whether it be almond flour, coconut flour, whatever it is. Do you have something that you recommend people use for flowers? Yeah, you brought up a good point. Every flower is a little bit different and And that that is like my biggest pet peeve about gluten free baking. And it's something I love to teach people to do. Because of that, I grew up baking with my mom, and then as a teenager, and then with my kids, and then gluten free, it's like, oh my gosh, we have to figure this out, because it was so much a part of our lives. You know, I was a teacher that made everybody a big plate of different like, 20 different cookies every year. Like I can't give that up. That's me. That's like what I do. Right? So finding how to be gluten free, and you go on Pinterest, and you get a recipe, and it says two cups of gluten free flour. The Hello, that doesn't work. Because exactly coconut flour is not going to work with two cups, coconut flour, almond flour, or brown rice flour or millet flour, they're all going to give you a different result. So I always say you've got to play around, you can try a lot of the mixes that are out there. But again, the mixes are not equally there because some have added dairy powder to them. Some have corn in them. Some will have, you know, because of our gluten, dairy and corn allergy, there are a lot we can't use it. All right, one of those things is in almost all of them. Yes. But some of the basics, you know, you can I would start with a basic flower like Bob's Red Mill to start with to see just to get into the habit of that. My favorite thing is finding the exact flowers that work. Right, right. Want to know what's going to be the best, you know, is it going to be brown, organic brown rice flour and millet flour, tapioca flour, that's a good combination that I love to use, okay, really yields a good cookie or a good muffin. But every one of my recipes were a little bit different in what flowers we use because of that, because I want the best one. Right, right. Oh, experiment, you know, start with one and experiment is really what I tell my clients. Yeah. Okay. Um, when you were talking about your children and not having them feel left out. It made me think of my oldest who is allergic to not only corn but peanuts as well. And I noticed he doesn't feel left out. But there are a lot of things that he is very uncomfortable when he goes to a friend's house, he won't eat certain things. Do you have any recommendations for families? You know, especially like as their kids are getting older and spending the night out at people's house? I mean, are you then making a whole meal for them to go spend the night? How do you How did you work with that? Yeah, that's a great point. And a peanut allergy is whole is a whole different story from a gluten allergy, right? Because you can eat gluten and yes, you're going to be sick. It just presents in a different way where the peanut allergy is a very scary allergy because you can have the whole anaphylactic and, and a much, you know, more emergent reaction. Right? Right. Yeah, those are two different apples and oranges. Right. Right. But so for the for gluten allergy that I can speak to I don't want to speak to the peanut allergy because I don't live that Right. Right. But I can understand his his feeling that way. My older two were very, very aware as well, when they'd go to friends houses. And you know, you'd have the parents who would, who would bake the blue, the gluten free brownies, right? They know my daughter's coming over. So they made her gluten free brownies. And I'd be like, Oh, that's so nice. But um, we really appreciate that. But, you know, they don't understand that if they are not gluten free. What they just baked in the bowls they used the whisks that they used the pan that they use the oven they used could all cause cross contamination and my child could still be sick. Oh my goodness. So I would just always say thank you so much it's so so so nice but because of that you know and and and your best friends start learning with you right right families that you really are with all the time your your family members and then your close friends. They start understanding and learning and living it with you so that when you are together with them there you know I have friends come over. Okay, so I made this dip and this is exactly what I put in it. Here are all the labels. Okay, thank you. We can eat this guy's you know, it's funny. And then when you find other families who are gluten free, I remember one of the first families we went to their house and they were also gluten free when we the drive home just cracked me up because the kids were like, that was so cool that we had someone else's house that's gluten free. We didn't have to think about what we were eating. And I was like, wow, that's a great observation. Yeah, yeah, they do. Just felt like that was they get it, we could eat with them. And I didn't feel like I had to ask 100 questions, because you have the kids who will not ask the questions. And you have the kids who will ask 100 questions, right? I mean, my my littlest, we would trick or treat when he was three. And he would say, he would say trick or treat is that you're making gluten free? And is it corn free? You're like, Oh, my, okay. Let's just take the candy. So yeah, so I always had treats at home that they could have swapped out so that that was a little easier. But um, no, it can't, you know, it can be, we make it hard. We make it hard. And I think planning ahead and thinking ahead, and, and just, I don't know, it's, we really make it hard. And I know, I made it hard for myself at the beginning. And after we kind of got things down. I was like, that did not need to be right, as hard as it was. And that's kind of why I do what I do now. Because I stayed home with my children, because we had moved a bit and then I was ready to go back to teaching. And my husband works a lot. So I knew if I was going to work my Well, this is gonna burn me out pretty quick. You know, and my friends are like, You need to teach people about what you're doing, because you've come so far with that. And I was like, You know what? That's right. You're right. So I started helping other families. Learn how to live gluten free, easy and delicious. Right, right. So when you have the right tools and the right steps and the right strategies, it does become easy. And planning ahead and getting in your own kitchen are also helpful. Yeah. Okay. Now, what happens if someone's not diagnosed as celiac? Is there any reason as to why we might want to still go gluten free? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. If if you've ever heard of Dr. Tom O'Brien, he is a functional medicine doctor. He's done a lot of research. And he's he's a top doctor in gluten. And he does a lot of brain lot a lot with Alzheimer's. But he he even says, Nobody digest gluten anymore. Now, I'm not here to say that nobody should eat gluten anymore. And I don't preach that. But I love to hear him say that because so many people eat, and they're sick. And I mean, when I look at that, it's like, we're supposed to eat and feel good. You're not supposed to eat and have such a bellyache and bloating and gas every time we eat, right? I mean, yes, you should have a little bit of that every so often, but you should not be having that all the time and feeling like crap after you eat all the time. Right? And we don't connect those dots. You know, and until you have a food allergy in your household, or someone you know, then you think about that, right? I mean, case in point, we ordered a pizza this week, and we don't order out a whole lot. There is this one. Gluten free. There's this one place Jules pizza. And they have celiac in their family so you know that they understand it right. So we ordered a pizza, gluten free, corn free dairy free. I went over it again and again with the girl and we have ordered from there before so they kind of know us, but the pizza arrived. And okay, I opened the box. Oh, no worst thing I said to was to my husband was did you not look at the pizza? It was like they took a can of corn and dumped it over the entire pizza. So instead of corn free, they added corn to it. And I was like, Are you kidding me? Like my son was like, why would they do that? And then we had the whole conversation and what we just said, when people don't understand an allergy, or even to think about it. It doesn't mean anything to them. Right? My husband took the pizza back. They made us a new one. We took the pizza back and she said we didn't need that back. And he said you don't understand we can't even have it in our house. Right. Right. Right. I didn't even want to throw it out in my garbage can. I mean, I did not want that corn. I don't want to see corn. I don't want it. Yeah. So Wow. But you have to remember and when you're starting your your allergy journey, whether it's corn, whether it's gluten. You You have to remember like people get so mad that their family doesn't get it. It's so mad that their kids don't get it. They just don't get it. I can't have those crumbs on the counter. Like okay, but did you get it before you started? Right? We forget that little piece. Right? Right. And you have to bring them along the journey, right? So they, they understand what you're going through and why it's so important. that you have to be gluten free. Are 100% Right? Right. So we are way off on your tangent of should everybody in free sorry about that. That's okay. But um, but yeah, so if if you so you can test negative for celiac disease. And I've had so many people say, Well, I don't have celiac disease so I don't have to give up gluten. I'm like, but how do you feel? Well, I'm always bloated and I'm gassy and I feel terrible. And I'm like, Okay, so let's take gluten out for a little while and see how you feel? Well, I feel amazing. But I don't have celiac. No, no, no. But you can have non celiac gluten intolerance. And it's a real thing. Yes, yes. You feel terrible. And yes, gluten is attacking your body. And it's telling you stop eating me. Right. Right. No. So and you keep mentioning this, the bloating, the gas, the belly aches. But there are other Oh finds. I mean, you said the tics. And can you do have a few different signs that people might want to look out for that? This might mean that you have some gluten intolerances? Absolutely. And you know, it, it takes it's I think it's an average still of 10 years before somebody is actually diagnosed to be celiac. And it could be longer if you're gluten intolerant, because we don't key into the the symptoms, right? Like the list of symptoms is so incredibly long, of what can be we automatically think digestive issues. And some people are totally fine with their digestion, but they have tics or they have migraines, or headaches. Or they have neuropathy, where you get the numbing of your hands or your feet, okay? You can have rashes, canker sores. Um, there are, there's so many different things that can happen, you know, but I think the key point is being mindful of your body. Right? And when you're experiencing Well, gosh, I have migraine every every day, like what's going on with that? Okay, we have a migraine. But let's stop and think what's triggering that, right? And people just say I have a migraine, I'm going to take this to get rid of it. Well, let's back up what's triggering it? What's causing that? Right? You know, so look at the root cause of it, instead of covering it up with other medications and things because that's just going to push you down the road into the wrong direction. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. The list of symptoms can be very, very long. Yeah, I noticed. We don't usually well, my children have pizza, but I don't usually eat pizza. And I had it one night. And then I had a couple of things over the weekend that also contain flour. And I'm dealing with these little sore spots on me like itchy. And I know, it's because I've had too much gluten in my diet this weekend. And I've now got these things on my hands. So it's very interesting. And I would not say, I mean, obviously, there's some sort of gluten intolerance, I can tell. So I don't eat it often. But I do still occasionally have it. And honestly, if I have one piece of pizza, when we go out or something that doesn't usually bother me. It's when you start stacking, you know, yes, this and then this, and then this on top of one another, that it starts to really affect you. Yeah. And, and I think what you said was really key. And that's one thing, if I do nothing else with these podcasts is trying to really express how important it is for us to listen to our bodies. Yes, that gives us clues. Yes. And I feel like it takes a while for people because we're so busy in life. And we're not seeing all these little signs and it takes years, like you said, years of it stacking up and stacking up and then finally your body is like no more and that's when the inflammation really starts to pile on and affect. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's how I felt like when I look back on my journey, that's how I kind of see how things went. It's like, alright, so I was in college, and I did okay, I did okay, did okay. And then it was like, Oh, that pain, that horrible pain that just killed me. And then I was fine for a little while. And then it seemed like it just build up a built up and built up and then it was like, you hit another wall. And it was like you're exactly what you said, your body's like, that's it. It's enough. Stop, just stop and take care of yourself. And we don't always look at that because that's not when we go to the doctor when you don't feel good. That's not the first thing they're gonna ask you. Right? Right. Yes. Okay. Here's your prescription. You know, so you're thinking, Okay, it's a sinus infection, or it's or it's this and And it's not it's that gluten is really bothering you, or corn or whatever it is. Right? You really have to listen. I had doctors tell me, stop. You're stressing yourself out by writing down what you're eating and how you're feeling. I'm like, No, I'm being a detective. And it's told me exactly what's wrong with me. Yeah, yes. And that's, that's key. We need to be detectives for our own body. Exactly. Yeah. Because we should be all feeling good all the time. I mean, you know, for most of the time, most of the time we should, we should wake up, we should have energy, we should feel good. And because you're getting older, you should not be losing your memory because you're getting older. Right? I mean, it's people are saying, Oh, I'm tired. Because I'm getting older. I'm like, oh, no, that's not the reason. Yeah, no, sorry. That's not the reason. So yeah, to re re change that thought process, you know, right. For sure. Okay. Now, do you? Can you tell me about what you offer? Been your you have, like a program that you offer? Mm hmm. Okay. So tell me a little bit about that. I work. I work with people, either one on one or in groups. So I have one on one. So I love to work one on one, because everybody comes in a different place. Right, right. I mean, you meet people, and they're either just beginning their journey, they've been gluten free for a while, and they're still not getting it, or they've been gluten free for a long time. And they're so stuck because they think it's sucks, right? Right. It's like, okay, that's why you're having a hard time. Because every day you go through this, and you think it's terrible. So you have to turn that around, you have to turn that message around. mean, the mind piece of having a food allergy, or an intolerance, or celiac disease is huge, because it makes or breaks how you live this life. Because if you get if you're on board with it, you're like, Okay, this is what I have to do for the rest of my life. You know, you're like, Oh, my God, I'm gonna give all this up forever. Oh, my goodness, you know, that mindset kills you. So I like to work on that a lot with clients, because it's such an important piece. But you know, everybody comes from a different space. So I have one on one, work with three months to six month programs. And then I also have a gluten free beginner's course, where I have it, where you go through the modules on your own for a great foundation, like learning what foods are safe and found the foundation that you need, you have what foods are safe and reading labels and cross contamination and where it is that hidden gluten, because that always is what gets us right. And you know, setting up your home and getting your family on board. So you have a good foundation, and then I have a gluten free diet to lifestyle course that I do. And that is taking that foundation and teaching you how to sustain your gluten free life. So some of what we touched upon with how do you get through the holidays and parties? Like how does that even work? Right? Right, and you get through your day to day. I mean, you go to the dentist, the orthodontist, they use gluten to glue those braces on your teeth. Okay, there are things that we don't even think about, that we go through our day with, right? This I did not know that. That's crazy. The retainer has gluten in it too. So you really you don't know these things until you know these things, you know. But just going through setting up your home, how you set up your home, how you set up your kitchen, getting your family on board, vacation, how do you take a vacation? You know, so it's all of that. And, and it's funny, because I think the biggest thing that clients come back and say me is say to me is that? I didn't know, I had to know. Yeah, no idea. I had to know that. You know, so it's that. And those are the pieces that, you know, you live and learn that. And when you're even when you're cooking and you're changing your dishes to be gluten free. It's those little tweaks and those little, just one little tweak or one little strategy that you learn that makes such a huge difference, you know, little steps makes such a big impact. And, and, and moving them from wherever they are to a healthier lifestyle. Right. You know, is so important. So yeah. Okay. And do you have recipes or anything that you are able to share with the listeners? I absolutely do. I love to do cooking classes I do. Which is I could just do cooking classes forever because there's so much fun and baking. I love to teach people how to bake gluten free and I do have a baking course as well. Just a little mini course but it's it's great to get you started. Okay, because of that overwhelm. You go to the store and you see all those flowers. You're like, oh my gosh, really? I mean, it's awesome. Because what did we use growing up one flower? Right, right. Yeah, you go gluten free and there's like 200 And it's like Which one do I use? Right? But yes, I have recipes on my website at gluten free marks the spot. We have all kinds of recipes that are all. I call them all easy and delicious because I only put them up there if they're a family approved. Okay. But yeah, we have a lot there that they can go and check out. Okay. And question and you may not do this but as you were speaking I thought I wonder if she does this. When you work with clients one on one. Do you help with like, say they have a few things that they really love that are have gluten in them? Do you help them to redesign those recipes to work for them? You do? Okay, love doing that? Yeah. It's like a puzzle, you know, and, and finding the right ingredients. And sometimes it doesn't come out that first time. Right. I mean, we we took a bit to get to our my parents all their their holiday meals. You know, it took us a bit to find those little tweaks, but you try one flower. Oh, not so good. You try another flower. Ooh, that's really good. You know, like gravy, gravy, gravy, for instance, making a gravy you can do it. There are 100 flowers to use. Of course, we're not going to use corn flour or right, right that everybody else is going to use. So finding the one like, Okay, this one's too gritty. This one's too gummy. And this one is this has an awful aftertaste. So you go through the whole process of trying different things. And here's a good tip. Sweet. White rice flour. makes the best gravy. Because it's not gritty. It's not gooey. It's not. There's no aftertaste. It's still thick and your gravy. And it's awesome. I use that for all my my cream sauces, anything like that? Yeah, so Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Yes, thank you for that. All right, is there anything else you want to make sure our listeners know about either something that you offer or the gluten free living? Just that if you need to live gluten free? Well, if you have celiac disease, you know, it has to be 100% gluten free all the time. If you have gluten intolerance, yes, you have to be 100% So many people think, but it's just an intolerance. That's okay. You know, why do you want to upset your bet your body, your belly and be sick for a few days, just to eat that piece of cake. When you make a delicious gluten free cake. That's gonna be just as good or better. Right? Right. So really understanding and working on the mindset is really, really, really important. But going in that direction, just knowing you have to be 100% gluten free, and it is for your whole life. So get it down and learn the steps and strategies and tools. And I'm happy to help you with. But yeah, so I mean, I don't want people to struggle like I did, right? We I really struggled to figure this out. And, and there wasn't a need for that. Right? If someone was there to show me the ropes and hold my hand and teach me how to do that, get in my kitchen and tweak my recipes and do that with me. It would have made all the difference in the world, which is why I'm doing what I do. But yes, I do have a Facebook group for gluten free moms can change your plate to change your life. And in there, we have guest experts that talk and I do lots of challenges and recipes and we just have a lot of fun. So that's a great place for people to come and join us and get to know our community and really start creating a gluten free lifestyle that you love. So you need to figure it out. Very important. Yeah. Yes. Perfect. Thank you so much for taking the time out today. Absolutely. It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much, Courtney. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to our podcast. I hope you found this information valuable and hope that you're able to immediately use some of the information that was provided today. Make sure to check out the show notes for all the links that we discussed. If you are a busy mom who is looking for a community where you can practice living a healthier life. I would love for you to join us over in our form fit community on Facebook. You are also welcome to join our membership for just$15 the first month to receive access to our 30 days of Hormonal Health. quick workouts you can do in less than 10 minutes each day. foam rolling exercises, meal plans and accountability calls. You can head to form fit naples.com backslash to join and that will provide you with access to our community and our membership portal for 30 days. If you decide at that point you want to cancel you are welcome to or you can continue on for just $29 a month. Now, go out and enjoy your day while practicing small healthy choices that will make lasting changes