This month’s guest blog is by Jennafer Martin, a gifted  writer, healer,  and Reiki Master who is  committed to a gluten free lifestyle, living and working in Utah.  Check out her blog@ Zoe’s Soul Spa for wellness for Women.

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. -Unknown

Wheat has played a strong supporting role in the memories that make up my life. When I sat down to family dinners with my father’s Sicilian family members, wheat starred as amazing pasta dishes and delicious garlic bread. Wheat became comforting toast my mother made when I was sick and the cakes and brownies that marked special celebrations.   And although I didn’t know it for many years, wheat also played the starring role in my feeling sluggish and sick.

When I discovered that the common denominator to my low energy and digestive disturbances was wheat, I was not a happy camper. Giving up wheat meant giving up delicious foods that had marked many memories in my life, but, more than that, it meant being different than most everyone else. It made me

…the awkward woman who asks for a hamburger with no bun when she goes out to lunch with coworkers

…the odd man out passing on the birthday cake when everyone else at the party is enjoying it

…one of the a only bona fide Italians who can’t eat traditional pasta.

You get the idea.

Giving up wheat has made me different, and being different is difficult, awkward and isolating at times. Life would be easier if I could be like the many other people who don’t have a wheat sensitivity.

But giving up wheat has also opened up opportunities to try different delicious grains, like quinoa. And I’ve discovered at least 3 ways to be true to my Italian heritage with polenta dishes as well.

Most importantly, being different by giving up wheat has made me healthier. It’s meant having less pain and more energy. And even though I sometimes miss certain foods and feeling like a part of the group, I don’t miss being ill at all, so I concentrate on that. We may not be able to choose the limitations placed on us in our lives, but we can always choose how we react to them. Embracing this limitation and how different it makes me has empowered my health and my life­­—to the point that being different has never felt this good.