I used to LIKE grocery shopping??!!

Recently Diagnosed Gluten Intolerant or Celiac Disease?

Freaky, right? I mean, it's not a fatal diagnosis (although it can feel that way knowing that Auntie Ann's, Cinnabon, and Subway are off the table) but it will forever impact the way that you live your life. If you're like me, and you live in a city where if you close your eyes for a second and concentrate, banjos are indeed playing everywhere, then your task may seem impossible. Bigger cities offer more options, and it will take some time for every store to "get there."

So, now, you stare at your grocery list and either weep, panic, or a little of both. Also, if you're like me, your grocery budget didn't adjust itself the day you realized you had to do this. So now, you have to do the same meals as before - or risk mutiny at the dinner table. You also have to spend roughly if not exactly the same as before. Oh, and it can't taste like cardboard.

Well, this should be interesting, shouldn't it?

Relax. Honestly, it's not that hard.

Realistically, though, it will take some time.

We did the piecemeal approach, and it worked for us. Healthwise, it may not have been the best idea. Budgetwise, it was genius. Instead of going to the grocery store and spending $400 all at once (after having already spent money on groceries for the month) on "new stuff" we just slowly replaced things as we ran out of something that wasn't gluten free.

As we ran out of spaghetti noodles - I got gluten free ones. As we ran out of bread, I bought gluten-free bread. As we ran out of flour tortillas, I cried. Then I bought corn tortillas.

Then, at our next month's grocery shopping extravaganza, we did gluten-free hard(er) core. Again, if I wasn't out of it, I didn't buy a replacement yet, unless it was something I could use immediately. If you have the finances to go do the whole thing at once, then by all means, go for it. But it also slowly worked me into changing my entire lifestyle. THAT was much harder than I though. There was no more running to Arby's for their magical sandwiches that can warm even the coldest heart. There was no "I-hate-shopping-but-the-pretzel-makes-it-better" time at the mall.

In short; food becomes only something you do because your body needs it to live. And it stops becoming everything else.