Ever have one of those days when you just need a laugh? For me,that day was today. Today, my entire team at work were either on vacation, in another office, or in a meeting. Typically that isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but we work in a “bull pen” type cubicle, so when there is only one person out of eight sitting in the cube, it is noticeable. Also, I was nursing a slightly sprained ankle – last night I landed wrong while playing Ultimate Frisbee. Not a big deal, but it definitely slowed me down today. Needless to say, it was just an OK day. The one thing the really brightened my day, to the point of tears of laughter, was courtesy of Katie of GlutenFreeBlonde and her wonderfully creative, clever, and hilarious posts about moments in a Celiac’s life over at WhenIWentGlutenFree.
Another item that made my day – a friend mentioning Celiac Awareness month on her podcast Combo Attack (iTunes link here). Latest episode should be up as some of you are reading this. If not, keep checking back. It’s video games/nerdy and stuff, aka a side of me y’all don’t necessarily see.
Sorry to say folks, but don’t really have that big of a topic to discuss today. No companies announced food that they try to market as gluten-free when it really wasn’t, or some other controversial thing didn’t happen.
However, I would like to mention that time is running out for Simone’s Kickstarter project to raise money for a dedicated & shared gluten-free kitchen in San Francisco. Simone is the chef behind Zenbelly Catering, and she noticed that the great, diverse, and innovative city of San Francisco doesn’t have a shared gluten-free kitchen.
Granted, I live a good 30 miles from San Francisco, but even I can tell how badly this project is needed in the city. As with a lot of problems with the “fad” of gluten-free eating, many of the places in the San Francisco Bay Area that serve gluten-free foods are catering to the “fad.” A shared, dedicated gluten-free kitchen in San Francisco would do wonders to helping raising the right awareness for a gluten-free lifestyle, as well as educating the broader San Francisco Bay Area on what “gluten-free” really means. I’ve pledged my support for this project – will you?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/869127333/lets-open-a-shared-gluten-free-kitchen-in-san-fran
Here’s my day:
7:02 alarms off. ankle killing me – sprained it last night at Ultimate Frisbee
9:07 Breakfast
(Busy doing work things. Yes, I do more things during the day than track my food intake and BMs)
12:30 Lunch – baked potato, chopped broccoli, green & red onions, smoked turkey, Swiss cheese.
13:15 Normal-ish BM. Apparently not fully healed from this weekend yet.
14:35 Called conference hotel re: menu options starting Monday. Haven’t heard back from email sent yesterday. Wanting to confirm whom on site I’ll need to talk to get my gluten-free meals, and if the meals are Celiac Friendly.
16:45 Team came back from their day-long meeting reviewing food. They noticed that one product had:
- a “gluten-free” call-out on the front of the package
- gluten-free ingredients
- an allergen statement that the food was produced on equipment that shared wheat ingredients
- stated that it was tested to contain less than 20ppm of gluten
- and the company supported a major celiac disease research company.
The part that they were interested in – the 20ppm of gluten, and how the Celiac Disease community views that as an acceptable level. Explained different levels of sensitivity, and my views on that number.
20:00 Late dinner of leftovers. It’s always great sitting in parking lot traffic on a major freeway because of a gravel spill. Yay.
20:30 Tried an almond cake and strawberry rhubarb pie that Zest Bakery gave all of us at Tuesday’s gluten-free dinner. OMG, so delicious. I’m seriously contemplating when I can make it to their store soon.
Cheers!
