About Me

I've always looked at myself as a pretty normal guy, but obviously my health is nothing but that. I'm 19 years old and just turned 19 this April. I currently live in St. Petersburg, Florida but have spent most of my life growing up in Columbus, Ohio. I live in a nice house right on the water with my with my mom and step dad as well as my 2 dogs. Growing up I've always loved playing sports..baseball, football, lacrosse, it didn't matter! I'm the type of kid who always wants to be active and hates sitting around when I know I could be doing something. Football has been the sport I loved the most, watching and playing. I haven't been able to play since 8th grade due to my health issues, but it's something I always wish I could get back too. Even though I most likely can never play football again because of my Adrenal Disorder, I always do my best to stay motivated and work out when I can.

A lot of people look at me and wonder how the heck I stay so positive, and a lot of my closest friends to this day wonder if I ever get mad or upset. To the first part I can say that I've learned that carrying a burden over something you can't control will never get you anywhere. I've learned that accepting and embracing while making the most of your issues makes you turn out to be a lot happier person in the end. Now to the part where people wonder if I ever get upset, to that I can say, only when I don't eat...Haha, other than that I never really get mad or negative about anything! As long as I get my food I'm all good.

One thing I have really started taking on is creating my own recipes from scratch. Cooking and baking is something I've always enjoyed doing, but creating recipes is something I haven't had much experience with before. A lot of my recipes ironically have been accidents! Usually I'd have an idea of what I want to make and would mess up drastically. I'd end up just throwing more ingredients in until it tasted good aaannd...I've got a recipe! It really is something I have enjoyed lately, especially being able to share my recipes with people when they are done. Some of the recipes I will be sharing with you will be Paleo, but all of them will be gluten and dairy free. A lot of the things I will be sharing on my blog will be about my life as a teenager with Celiac Disease and just providing info to help make your lives easier. But I try to throw in some recipes along the way too!

Out of everything I do, connecting with people, sharing recipes, and working on my blog is something I enjoy most. I love helping others out with Celiac and knowing I've made a difference in their life. I have been trying more to be a role model for other teenagers with Celiac to show them that living on a gluten-free diet doesn't need to be hard. I'm starting to get involved in public speaking and have some big goals to take my blog to the next level. Inspiring and just being someone to help others is the one thing I want to do in the future and will continue to do as I get older. I hope to share my journey with you along the way and I hope this gave you a better idea about who I am!

Discovering I Have Celiac Disease

Many people my age don't understand that eating on a gluten free diet isn't a choice. Many people my age especially don't understand what gluten actually is. Being on a gluten free diet as a teenager is definitely one of the hardest things to do as some of you may know. The last thing you want to worry about is what you can and can't eat and you probably just want to live life normally no matter where you go. It can be frustrating not having food when going to a friends house, not having anything to eat at a party,  or having to find different food for sports. As a teenager I've had to find alternatives for all of these and have had to explain to people countless times why I have to do so. This is my story on how I discovered I have Celiac Disease and how I deal with it as a teenager through out my daily life.

I was in 7th grade when I started to notice something was wrong with how I felt each day. I was constantly tired/fatigued, had many stomach problems, headaches nearly every day, and constant pain in my stomach and all throughout my body too. This started to become an every day thing for me, after a while I started to think this was normal and forgot what normal was. For months I just brushed it off until until 8th grade came along. That's when things got considerably worse and that's when I knew I had to figure out what was wrong or I felt like I wouldn't be alive long enough to even figure what was wrong in the first place.

Summer 2012

8th grade was one of the years where I felt like the most was going on in my life. I played football and lacrosse, had great friends, a girlfriend, and was busy with school too. I felt like everything was perfect in my life, except for my health. It became everyday where it would be almost impossible for me to wake up in the morning. I would be fatigued during school, after school, and all throughout the day. In 1 month I lost 10 pounds, and in 6 months I lost 21 pounds all for no apparent reason. I knew something was very wrong and started to think it could have to do with how much I was eating or when I was eating. I later learned this wasn't the answer and it had to of been what I'm eating. I did tons of research for months on the internet and through books just trying to find out what it could possibly be. Celiac Disease was my answer.

What led me on to actually discovering I could possibly have Celiac Disease was my mom. She was also diagnosed with Celiac a year before I was and had nearly all the same symptoms I did. I began a gluten free and lactose free diet in April of 2011 and immediately noticed a difference in how I felt. All of my stomach pains and problems were completely gone and I knew this was a main part of the problem that had to be changed forever. Although a lot of my symptoms with Celiac Disease were gone, there were many other serious and life threatening issues I dealt with each day. If you are interested in reading about how I discovered my life threatening Adrenal Disorder in October of 2011, Click Here.