Allison Herwitt

Topics discussed

Finding food you can eat
Eating in restaurants
Food labeling

Video Text

Finding a support groupComing to grips with the diet was the most difficult part of the diagnosis for me because it was completely and utterly changing my lifestyle. All of a sudden I was having to think about planning my meals and cooking and making dinner for myself and that was a cramp in my social life.

Most of how I was meeting people – both men and new girlfriends was going out to dinner, going to bars, doing after-work events that all involved food. And so it was shocking to think about how much time and energy actually had to go into planning food, where never before in my life had I thought about it probably for more than like 5 or 10 minutes.

So for the first month, maybe two months after being diagnosed, I struggled through trying to figure out what to eat. I think I finally came across like 3 to 4 meals that I knew were safe for me to eat that I made for myself constantly.

Then I started to research what this diet meant and what gluten was and how many foods it was actually in and how foods weren’t labeled properly and how difficult it was to be normal when you’re at a dinner party or when you’re going out to a restaurant with friends or when you’re on a date with a man. And that was the second – you know – kind of bout of depression and feeling sorry for myself that I actually had to live this restrictive lifestyle.

Until – at the time I was engaged – until my fiancé said to me, you know “Why don’t you try to find a support group?” Well hello! Yeah. I should have done that. Right from the beginning. I should have found a group of people that had been living with this disease, knew a lot more about the diet than I could, so I didn’t feel so alone, I could get some advice from people, I could figure out where to shop. So I started to look on the internet and I found a support group in my area and I went and I have to say, it was the support group that really changed my life.

I’m Allison Herwitt and I’m living my life with Celiac Disease.