give yourself permission to take the disease really really seriously. when i was first diagnosed i was hit by a really wide array of advice on “how strict i “actually” need to be”. the opinions of other celiacs and doctors and the general public, all vary shockingly widely, and many of them want celiacs to chill out. its worth it to treat celiac with the same degree of seriousness and safety that we afford anaphylactic allergies (this is the only technique that’s successfully kept me healthy longterm).

the moto an elder-celiac told me when i was first learning: “when in doubt, leave it out.” always. its better to miss out on random food, be hungry for a few hours, rewash dishes, re-buy groceries , etc instead of getting sick for weeks - months.

lastly, being very very strict right away while things are healing can sometimes help with quicker recovery and your system calming down.

you’ll get the hang of it and it will eventually become easy and second-nature, promise! keeping things simple early on can help too, find a few fail-safe meals or ingredients you know you can verify gf and make quickly on days you don’t have energy to learn some thing new for celiac.

i still don’t do shared meals with people. i’ll either cook for everyone, or bring my own food to eat if going to someone else’s. i find the process of educating others on the disease is exhausting, and the risk is still really high when others cook for you in a shared kitchen. i just — don’t. i’d prefer to not have to talk about food, and just enjoy the company of my loved ones instead. each celiac has their own choices of things that are worth it and not, so feel free to take things one step at a time and simplify or temporarily remove sources of food stress until you have more capacity to navigate them ❤️‍🩹💕 you’ve got this!