Julie
I also have celiac. diagnosed aboyt 7 years ago, in my mid 30's. There are several books you can get from the library on the subject. The easiest way to stay healthy is to avoid wheat, oats, barley, rye and any other wheat gluten products. Read labels. Just be careful of your diet. As I'm sure you noticed a significant wieght loss before diagnosis, you can gain very easily if don't watch what you eat. You will now be absorbing the nutrients and calories and fat that you did not before. I try to stick to a low fat, low carbohydrate diet so as not to gain. I gained 30 pounds over the first 2 years after I was diagnosed. Just recently took that off staying healthy. Stay away from packaged food products. Use rice or potatoes withn reason instead of bread. Most supermarkets and health food stores sell corn pasta's, which actually are quite tasty, just make your own sauce. The best thing to do is check with you local health food store, they really are very knowledgeable and can help a great deal with substitutions for wheat products. I akso have hypoglycemia and have to watch sugar too, making it a little more difficult. I just feel if I can have a healthieer life by not eating something my body reacts badly and not have to take medication, I won't eat what I'm not supposed to. There are so many worse diseases out that we could have. I still go out to dinner, parties and a very active social life. If I think there might not be something I can eat at any one place, I bring something in a large quantity (to serve more than just me) and the host or hostess is always more than thankful. People worry about what you will be able to eat. I tell them look at me, I'm not starving, I'll make do. I hope you did'nt lose too much weight before you were diagnosed. I weighed 102 pounds at 5'4". I was scary looking. Now being vey careful about my diet I am a very healthy 119 pounds at 42 years old. You may want to talk to your doctor about supplements too. Because of the dietary restrictions, you may not be getting enough vitamins. I just try to eat more fresh vegetables and fruit myself, and take an all natural mineral supplement. Everybody is different and you can only do what is best for you. I hope this helps you. I wish I had this kind of interaction when I was diagnosed. I tried the American Celiac Society to no availe. I was sort of out there on my own except for my doctor and the owner my health food store. It is very disconcerting, but things could be worse. Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing. Oh, I almost forgot, when looking up Celiac it is also called Non Tropical Sprue in adults, Celiac seems to be considered a juvenile disease. If you don't mind my asking, how old are you. I was considered to be quite young at 34 to be diagnosed. It is a fairly rare disease. If you e-mail me back I will look into some the books I have concerning celiac, there also cookbooks ou if you are into cooking, or you can buy ready made products in the health food store.