117. Food Life

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
 - Matthew 4:4, KJV
 

I've had an interesting food life lately.  A couple months ago, I was sure I was developing a gluten intolerance (Celiac disease).  I know people who have it and apparently it's not all that uncommon.  I had been having weird reactions after meals and based on my intensive internet research, that was the most fitting self-diagnosis.

I've also had auto-immune symptoms in the past and been tested for everything under sun, all negative.  So the idea of going back to the doctor wasn't really a promising one for me.  I resoved to go gluten-free and cure myself.  I made that resolution about 5 minutes after I made the diagnosis, which obviously was not sufficient time for thought.  But it gave me an excuse to blow money at Whole Foods so I jumped at it.

The next day at breakfast I sat down to a plate of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and toasted gluten-free bread with apricot preserves.  The eggs and sausage were their usual goodness, but that "bread"...  Well...

Let's just say that was the end of my gluten-free diet.  No offense to the gluten-free population, or the people who feed them, but you gotta be frikkin kiddin me.  As a fat girl, bread is my favorite food group.  Cakes, cookies, sandwiches, biscuits, muffins, toast, cornbread, cereal.... These are the things that make a meal.  A food life without them is no food life at all.  So we needed a new solution.  (Sidenote:  If you don't mind cooking from scratch, Bob's Red Mill products are not half bad.  They make a yummy pancake mix.  But I can't bake my own bread every time I want a sandwich, so...)

Back to the drawing board.  That's where my mom and her tv preachers come in (again).   While I was looking for the next magic bullet, one of the teachers she watches was doing a 5-part series on divine healing called "God Wants You Well."  Bits and pieces would creep in as I wandered through the kitchen in the morning getting ready for school.  One of those bits proved to be pivotal and completely changed the way I thought about being sick.

Since I love bread, and I see no reason God would want me to not eat bread, and since gluten-free bread is gross, I decided to not have Celiac Disease.  Done.

Of course there's more to healing than just being stubborn.  The last few weeks have seen some pretty intense changes in my thinking and behavior.  But the bottom line is that I've decided not to be sick.  Maybe when it's done, I'll let you know how I did it.