Bryn Lutes Contributor

But, aren't people with celiac disease skinny and malnourished? Well, yes. Unless you're FAT and malnourished. I thought I was just a fat kid. I assumed I had no allergies and was destined to a life of plus-size clothing. When I met my girlfriend, I had my eyes opened to the world of food allergies. She has anaphylaxis-level allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish, and a few non-ana allergies. I adjusted to this very easily.



Then I got hit with a dairy whammo: migraines, then hives, then asthma attacks. Boo, but whatever, add it to the list. Kicking dairy drastically improved my weight loss, and then I started reacting to gluten. For some reason, I FREAKED OUT about this, but it got better. My celiac diagnosis was pretty anti-climactic. I paid $40 and waited 2 months to get in to see a GI doc who said, "nice job diagnosing yourself. I'll confirm with bloodwork." When I FINALLY got in to see a naturopath, I got the rest of the news: leaky gut, adrenal issues, and candida overgrowth. duh! I probably could have figured that out, too, if I hadn't been so overwhelmed (and tired from trashing my adrenals #graduateschool). And now? Now I feel amazing. I'm still healing, but health has never been this delicious.



Throughout this journey, I've spent my time in graduate school (what should I actually do with this PhD in Chemistry?), the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (yay, Health Coaching!), and working a full time office job while building my health coaching business.

