Diagnosed Celiac During the Pandemic: Gabby Hemond on the Importance of Community

In this episode of Don’t Feed the Fear, Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) joins us to talk about being a young celiac influencer diagnosed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We talk about the unique challenges of navigating a new diagnosis in young adulthood during the global shutdown, the insecurities and uncertainties that came with it, and coping through connecting with others. Gabby shares how she began posting online, the ups and downs of sharing her life so publicly, and continuing to build community for people living with celiac. 

Follow Gabby @noglutengabby
Hear Gabby speak at the FAACT Summit 10/3-5/25:
FAACT Allergy Summit

Celiac and kissing study: Smooching Safely: New Study Finds Kissing After Gluten is (Mostly) OK for People with Celiac Disease | Celiac Disease Foundation

Special thanks to Kyle Dine for permission to use his song The Doghouse for the podcast theme!
www.kyledine.com

Find Dr. Whitehouse:
-thefoodallergypsychologist.com
-Instagram: @thefoodallergypsychologist
-Facebook: Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, Food Allergy Anxiety Psychologist
-welcome@dramandawhitehouse.com

Transcript

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 0:00

,I just wanted to talk to somebody who either has it, understands the disease, anything, and I feel like even five years ago. wasn't as known as it is now. So at that time, like I remember any information I found it said 10 years ago was this post, I was so desperate for. Any community or communication or anything at that point. And so I just started writing.

Speaker: 0:23

Welcome to the Don't Feed the Fear podcast, where we dive into the complex world of food allergy anxiety. I'm your host, Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, food allergy anxiety psychologist and food allergy mom. Whether you're dealing with allergies yourself or supporting someone who is, join us for an empathetic and informative journey toward food allergy calm and confidence..

0:44

Welcome back to Don't Feed The Fear. Today I am joined by such a fun guest, Gabby Hemond, A young celiac influencer who you know as gluten-free Gabby, she was diagnosed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her journey has included the steep learning curve of adjusting to gluten-free living as a young adult who had just begun living independently facing the insecurities and the unknowns of what that means for her and her health, and discovering joy in making choices about what her life looks like moving forward, Gabby began sharing her experiences online and quickly realized how important it's to connect with others who truly understand what you're going through. So she's been creating great content and is looking forward in the future to creating more resources and even events that bring people together in community. I'm so excited to have her here to chat with us today.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 1:32

Gabby, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me here on Don't Feed The Fear. I'm excited to meet you.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 1:38

I am super excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me on.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 1:41

Of course. I've been following you on social media and I love, everything that you're sharing. I was hoping that we could just let the audience know your story. I think some of it they'll relate to and some of it's really unique about the way it all unfolded for you. But we know you, for being gluten-free. So tell us how, how that came to be.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 1:59

Yeah, I had more than an identity than that prior to my celiac diagnosis. Of course, as everyone does.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 2:04

It does tend to do that.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 2:05

Yeah, but I was diagnosed about five years ago. It was right at the beginning of COVID in 2020. I had symptoms growing up and background. My sister also has celiac disease and she's seven years older. Was diagnosed about three or four years prior to me. That plays obviously a huge role into the story and my entire life. Growing up, like I never knew about celiac disease. My sister didn't know about celiac disease. We have autoimmune on my family's side, but nothing about celiac. So very unknown growing up, but had a lot of weird symptoms that I. Didn't even realize until getting diagnosed with celiac disease. But I was 22 years old. It was right during my finals of college. COVID, everything shut down. I was I worked at a pro, I was a leasing agent at that time too, so I was working for a property management company. Obviously in person that all got shut down. So it was juggling so many things. You know, 40 hours of work, school, all of that, that, you know, you can already tell like a lot of stress hit my body.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 2:58

Right, and we know that that's part of it, right?

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 3:00

Exactly. That's usually what it does. And I remember it was mid-March, it was like literally two weeks after the shutdown is when I just really started noticing daily symptoms of waking up, throwing up, sorry if this is TMI, but waking up, throwing up, like to a point where I remember the last two weeks before I finally got tested, I was setting my alarm prior, like 30 minutes prior to actually waking up.'cause I was like, okay, I know I'm gonna be sick because I'm sick every single morning. It was just starting to become my routine. Again, wasn't thinking I should go to the doctors.'cause also everything just shut down. The hospitals are packed. But leading up to my diagnosis, like I had those two weeks of feeling awful and then. Randomly. I remember eating this is always like the funniest story to me'cause I was eating an apple, like I was having like a little fruit salad. I cut up, you know, whatever. And I remember eating this apple and within. 30 minutes, 45 minutes. I got food poisoning like symptoms. So like something I've never experienced before from knowing like all I ate today was fruit. How am I getting deathly sick off of fruit? So I immediately text my sister. I tell her everything that's going on with me that I keep getting sick. You know, I've always had migraines. Struggled with those all my life too. She's like, you gotta get tested.'cause that's, she got tested when her, her stressful moment was, you know, the bar studying for being a lawyer and everything. So she got shut down. Quickly. She's like, I'm guessing with your finals, with work, with everything going on in the world, your body's like, I can't do this anymore. So I listened to her immediately, got on my, like, MyChart, got an appointment. Thankfully, the next day, it was pure luck that And I went in, got my blood work done, and it immediately came back positive. And when that happened, they told me, they're like, oh, it could be a false positive, like let's get you to a gi, get an endoscopy. And I said, okay. But again, it's COVID where everything's. out nine to 10 months. I was, that was blood work was diagnosed beginning of April and I didn't have my actual endoscopy until January, 2021. So it was about nine or 10 months of not having anything, any knowledge, not being able to go to a gi, not even being able to get a dietician, because in Michigan it's not covered under insurance and I didn't have technically the official diagnosis to go to a dietician. And even when I did get to my dietician at that point, it was not helpful. But during those nine months, or nine or 10 months, that's when I kind of just plugged in myself and I was like, okay, I'm gonna be my own doctor right now slash dietician and use the internet as my guide, which is a double-edged sword. It could be helpful and it could be really detrimental, as you

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 5:23

Well, internet and sisters with a sister to guide you through it, I'm sure. Yeah.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 5:27

Exactly. And so, and it was interesting'cause my sister and I, we both have celiac and those are the only, the only disease or anything that we have. And the way she shoots showed symptoms is her immune system was just so shot that like, she would get sick very easily. Shingles, chickenpox, anything you could think of. Like she would get that where I was on the other side of just. Stomach issues, migraines joint issues, things like that. So with it being even just a little bit different like that, I thought, oh my gosh, I can't even relate to my sister who has the same exact disease. And so again, I was doing a lot of research asking her questions and we would even be back and forth of like, is that true? I don't know. Like, we don't know for sure. And so it was just getting very frustrating'cause she was the only other person at the time that I knew had celiac disease that I was close with. And so I started just like. Journaling. That was always my outlet. I loved writing and so I was like, oh, I'm gonna start journaling, which kind of turned into, maybe I'll start a blog, like I gotta reach other people.'cause my biggest thing was I just wanted to talk to somebody who either has it, understands the disease, anything, and I feel like even five years ago. wasn't as known as it is now. So at that time, like I remember any information I found it said 10 years ago was this post, and I'm thinking, okay, I'm sure studies have changed. I'm sure science has changed, but I don't know. And I just went like, I was so desperate for. Any community or communication or anything at that point. And so I just started writing. I didn't post anything yet. Also because I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm not even gonna find anybody, I'm sure.'Cause I only saw like a couple, I remember one was a celiac space. She's a dietician, has a dia that's a dietician group. Erin, she was like one of the first people I saw and I was like, oh, it's a dietician who has celiac. And she's like, A whole practice. I'm learning so much. And that kind of started to inspire me'cause I saw other people comment on there and I was like, oh. There's other people who are gluten free in this world. Kinda was like a brain shock to me. This is like November, 2020 at this point. So I'm like, okay, well maybe like I will start my own like platform or do something, but I wanted to do like a 2008 blog style, like just have a website, go on Pinterest here and there. And all my friends were like, you're. years old, Gabby, do you think like anybody else is gonna be finding you through that you have to get on TikTok or social media or do something? And I thought, okay, that's probably the smartest move. That was like the smartest like decision I made and tip that I got from my friends was to go on social media because once I was finally diagnosed in 2021 and January, 2021, that's when I started my account. And it started with just more so like fun just trying to get into TikTok because I just more so was watching it like. The dancing funny app. At first I was like, there's nothing serious. I'm not gonna come and come on this app and start being very depressing about my disease. That's just not who I am in anyway. But obviously it was hard. I needed to get away to vent it out, so I just started posting. In the beginning of 2021, just saying random things of like, oh, I didn't know this wasn't gluten-free, or this is like a meal that I randomly made. And looking back at those videos, I'm like, that's so disgusting. I've grown a lot. It's, it's a great like platform to now look back at and be like, okay, I've grown a lot in my food and my knowledge, everything.'cause I got, I've even looked back, I'm like, I just said so many things where I was like that. That definitely was not like, not it of the sense of like. Just not knowing what's gluten-free or not and be like, oh, I thought like digestive enzymes were safe for me to take. I mean, they're safe to take, but they're not actually healing my celiac disease. Like that's what I genuinely thought. So there's a lot of things that I've learned, but what was really cool is once I started posting on TikTok, so many people started commenting and asking questions of like, what is Celiac or. What's gluten free or what? Just the questions that really got me rolling. And so that's kind of, I feel like what took my platform off a lot is once I saw those comments, I thought, oh my gosh, it's just people, somebody who wants to talk to me. So open up my phone and I'm so used to, like I grew up on Snap or grew up, but use Snapchat a lot. And that's how like my friends and I communicate, especially during COVID as we would sta like Snapchat, video each other. So I was so comfortable with talking in front of the camera that it felt like, oh, I'm just like snapping one of my friends again. So I was just answering all those questions. For now, four years that I've been doing this. But that's how it started. And then I just got onto Instagram from there and it just started growing from there. And as I started posting more and more questions came in and more community and my followers grew and I was just like, more so thinking, oh my gosh, this many people are gluten-free or like, even like, care enough about the gluten-free diet, they're affected by somebody who's gluten-free something. So that was always very interesting. And what like, kept me going with my platform and. was on the side. This was like my side gig for the longest time. I started doing it full time. Last, yeah, last year. Last year. It was in spring 2024. So after three years I was like, okay, maybe I'll start doing this full-time so I can take on more. I really wanna like do more events and ex I, my new goal right now for next year is to do an expo. So I'm like, I really just wanna find more ways to now make. My online community and in-person community now that COVID is shut down or COVID is not shut down anymore and we can have, you know, in-person events and stuff, but starting it was very much all around, I just wanna find community online and that's the only way you can find it at that time. It's very

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 10:28

especially at that time, and there's so much to be said for that validation and people finding your content that now you look back on, but you were in the learning process and other people were in the midst of that learning process too. So we just wanna know other people think and feel and do what we're doing right.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 10:44

Right, right. And that's why I always thought, I always say COVID was the best and worst time to get diagnosed because when I got diagnosed, I mean, I was home. So my whole hobby, my whole identity was let's learn the gluten-free diet, let's learn the food, let's figure out what alternatives we can do. I was always into cooking, thanks to my grandma and everything, but. Gluten-free. Cooking's a whole different beast. And so that was a lot to learn. But at the same time, I felt so safe.'cause I was like, oh, I'm home all the time, cooking all my food. Everything felt pretty good. And at that time too, I was living with people living with two of my girlfriends who were just interested in learning too. So it kind of felt like we have an activity. It was like my lifelong disease is now this activity that we get to like learn about. So it became very fun, I didn't eat out at all during 2020. I think maybe I ordered Chipotle once. But other than that, I ate at home all those months leading up to getting my endoscopy. Soon as I got my blood work because I thought, no, it's, my numbers were way too high for that to be a false positive. I'm gonna go gluten free. And then I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to do that when I had my endoscopy.'cause I had to eat gluten again for two weeks right before my endoscopy. I only lasted five or six days. So that was very interesting. And that put in perspective, I'm like, that definitely was not a false positive because I was so sick. And I think that. Honestly made me more sensitive or brought me back or put me in a different realm because that's when I feel like I really got hit with, oh, I have celiac disease. Even though I didn't know no for sure at that point. But those five days where I was just in so much pain, I was like, there's no way. This is about to be the rest of my life. And at that time too, with my endoscopy, I also had a colonoscopy because of all the stomach issues and everything that was going wrong. They wanted a test for colon cancer and stomach cancer. sure that there was nothing going on there. And I remember they found like h pylori. So during that one week, I wasn't sure. I'm like, is it benign? Is it safe? So I was stressed out and then once I got my diagnosis of like, oh, it's just celiac, I was so pumped. I was like, okay, I've already got this down. This is fine. And then we went out to eat and I got extremely sick. Immediately I thought I asked all the right questions, it was cross-contamination'cause I didn't really understand cross-contamination at that time. And that's when I think. whole life kind of like shut down for a second. It wasn't even those nine months, that was when it was exciting.'cause it's like something new, something to do during COVID where now this is like beginning of 2021, I finally got sick off of something and I'm like, okay, I can push the concern that I don't have cancer anymore, but. I have celiac, I still have this lifelong disease. I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, I. Was, I thought I was playing a fun game the last nine months and now this is real life and I'm getting sick and I have to ask so many questions. And even though I was already posting online at that point, like. I was only a couple weeks in, but I was feeling like super excited more so, and I used a lot of it as like a venting session. I, I don't, I never think I like to, was negative when I was posting about it, but there's a lot of times where you could see the frustration and I'm like trying to smile through it. Like you could see my anger, smile as I'm like, how do people not understand this? And then. Thankfully, thankfully over these last four years on social media, I have not been bullied or like had to deal with too many like negative. I mean, there's negative comments, but any like negative gluten-free comments, somebody making fun of the diet, I'm just like, okay, you just don't know it. That's totally fine. But thankfully I've never had that issue. But there was like a lot of times where I was so hard on myself and I was just like, I don't know if I should post anymore or if I should do this, if I'm even like giving right information. You like. through all these different phases through Celiac diagnosis, and I think with the added, I'm on social media. I'm putting it all out there at the same time. If you, my, if you talk to my boyfriend at half my friends, I've had mental breakdown after mental breakdown, after mental breakdown because I'm just like. My whole life's on here. I feel the pressure of it, but also I'm like, I just feel the pressure of just having celiac disease and living my life like this is so not normal. It's hard to, when you have real life situations while having your whole life on social media too. Well, most of my life, anything with celiac, because people come to me and they think I'm a hundred percent an expert. I'm like, no, this platform's all about a journey.. I remember my username, but first before was no gluten. Gabby was no gluten guru. Just'cause I didn't wanna use my name yet. I was like, why did I choose that? I'm not a guru. I'm like the opposite of that completely. So it was a good thing that my, my account was hacked like two years after I started my platform and that's why I went to no gluten Gabby. So it was like, you know, honestly this was like a message should have just gone to this to begin with and keep my name and just make it about more so like the journey and not trying to like. Pretend to be, you know, a doctor or a dietician.'cause I was nowhere near that. My approach was always to just show like, I am a patient of celiac disease. This is how much it can suck, but this is how we are making it better, versa. But there were so many times, especially like 2021, the adjustment of all of that, and I was going through a breakup and just moving and trying to go through so much too. I feel like I never have had a. A moment where I'm like, you know what, just one problem I'm dealing with right now. There's always like 30 at once. side note too, when I was officially diagnosed with my disease and I came to my boyfriend at the time, ex immediately after this conversation, but I was like, I'm actually like really depressed. Like, I've never admitted that, never admitted in my past like about depression.'cause I never knew really what it felt like. But at, you know, at that moment I was like. I think I'm depressed. I was like, I don't know what to do. Like maybe I should start therapy. What should I get into? And he just told me that I've known it for a week and I've been doing it for nine months, so I shouldn't be sad anymore. And that like, it shot my heart. I broke up with him the next day because that shot my heart because I was like, oh. But it also, in a weird way, has stayed, stayed in my mind for so long because I remember just a year ago I was getting super upset about having celiac disease again, and I don't know why. And I just had that voice in my head where I was like, you can't be sad anymore. Like it's been years now. Why are you even sad? Like I'll say that to myself so much and I'm like, oh, I gotta stop doing that especially when I post about things, when I'm just either complaining or trying to share just like a story, so many people are like, oh my gosh, I deal with the same thing. It's so annoying. Or when people like reply, that's so annoying. Oh, I hate when that happens. It's honestly like, I know it's negative words, but it reassures me so much to know like, yes. This is life and like it can be annoying. Like it's not like it's every day that you're complaining about it, but. was something that became really tough because I always wanna portray, obviously, you know, on social media, this positive light, in reality I'm like, that's not what celiac disease is. So this whole community, I think is amazing. The whole gluten-free community on how they balance everything. I mean, it's, there's a wide range of like. All the emotions when you like look on gluten-free community or hashtag gluten-free. So it's very cool to see that because I feel like a lot of other communities in social media, you know, you have to be a certain way, have to do a certain thing, but that's the one thing. It's not just gluten-free either. It's like, I, food allergies anybody with, you know, autoimmune diseases, it's really nice to see and like have that openness.'cause I didn't feel that in the beginning where I felt like so much pressure. But then. You know, that's what like the cool thing about this community growing so much too, and like gluten-free in general, growing so much I feel like at this point now, You are gluten-free or there's somebody in your life that you know, everyone's starting to understand a little bit more, which makes it nice, but it's still, it's still can be a struggle sometimes.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 18:01

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and like you said there, there's so many layers of it. When I think about you, you mentioned it starting during COVID and there just was so much uncertainty and fear about that. And then, another layer of it that I think for you is so tough to be diagnosed as an adult is so different than if you're a child diagnosed with Celiac or other food allergies. Both hard in different ways. But can you talk about that piece of it and what you think that's like for adults now you have to change the entire way that you live, that you're used to living life.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 18:28

Yeah. Honestly, that is the toughest thing.'cause again, 22 years of doing whatever, it's like aside from just the diet change, it's from doing whatever I want. Whenever I wanted, I think back all the time to my college years right before I got diagnosed, and I remember I was always working 40 hours a week. I went to school, I did full-time school for those four years, and I remember. Eating so much fast food during that time, or just eating frozen food. And obviously it's not healthy. I always say it's a good thing I got diagnosed with celiac disease with how bad I was eating, so I can't complain about that too much, but I do miss how convenient it was where now I'm either not eating, which is not good, or I'll just like pack a little granola bar and not eating enough, which is not good. Or you know, just having that stress of like. Where's my next safe meal? Asking that question, I never thought I would ask that. Which is funny too, because like I said, my sister was diagnosed three or four years before I was. When she was first diagnosed, I was like, I should try the gluten-free diet. Let's see what that's like. And all I did was buy gluten-free bread and it for one lunch and I thought, oh my gosh, I can never do this. This is awful. I was the people that like, make those mean comments. I'm like, I was that person. I think that's the biggest thing. It's not even the food itself. I mean, there's a lot of food that I miss too, but I also am very happy to be diagnosed as an adult to like love and explore the gluten foods. That's like the one thing that I have positive to say about it, I would Is, oh, at least I got to try everything. And I knew what it tastes like so it's easy for me to recreate it or some of that nature compared to somebody who's diagnosed, you know, at two years old and never knew anything about it.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 20:09

great.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 20:10

but I guess another part that really gets me is being 22 years old, getting diagnosed, and then like I said, over the last few years, I've just been looking back at my childhood growing up. Maybe that was celiac. Maybe that was celiac, because I, I played lacrosse growing up and I was literally known as the ace wrap girl because my bones would break so easily. Fractures, I would go to the er, so many things with concussions, broken noses, broken arms, legs. There was always something like every season, it was one or two times I'd be in the hospital. Looking back, I was like, oh my gosh. Like Women's of Celiac was more known back then. Maybe I would've been fine. And like not dealing with all these weird symptoms as an adult too, because I know a lot of times like it can untreated celiac disease. The longer you do that, the longer or the more susceptible you are to other diseases or other just issues that you could have and or other food allergies. And so that's always my underlying fear because I'm wondering when did it trigger for me? Because you, I also, you never know that,'cause you can't get that answer either. I just wish there was more on celiac disease that we could figure out more. But it's still so new, like even with all the studies that are going on. I still feel so unknown with celiac disease and I think as being an adult, that's even more frustrating. I mean, I was, as a kid, you're just kind of like, I do what my parents say, like they're feeding me. It's so whatever. I just know this is what I have to do. But as an adult, I'm like, oh, I have one health issue. And I'm like, okay, so is that celiac? Did I get gluten? Is it this? You know, you go down the whole list. And then I'm like, is this because I was eating gluten for 22 years when I shouldn't have been or whatever the case may be. So that's always my biggest thing. And obviously I went through waves and I love my parents, but we're still learning about celiac disease to this day, and so there's no way back in 2001 my parents would ever have understood. Why I feel like this or look like this. But I even look back at three years old and above and every picture I had huge bellies. Like I always had like this huge belly. It just looked bloated. And I remember in like middle school and high school being very insecure about it. No matter what I did. I remember like especially going through puberty and going to these pool parties, I remember like looking at other girls and being like, wow. They have flat stomachs. I was like, why am I not like I'm small, like I'm only, you know, five one. I only weigh like at that point too, I was like only a hundred pounds less than that, and I was like, I shouldn't have a belly when I'm this small. Like, it just doesn't make sense. It never did to me. Getting diagnosed such an at an older age, I just look back at like, oh my gosh. Is that why? And then I get insecure you go through all of the emotions every single time. But you know, that's the one thing where I'm like, well, at least I got eat everything I wanted for a little bit.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 22:49

Yeah. All that you're describing is so normal to go through. You talked about like kind of the stages of it, and I'm sure you're familiar with this, but like anything. Any loss, any diagnosis, any big change like that, it's common for people to go through. The stages of grief? Which people have the misconception that they're in order, but they're not. You can bounce all around between those and, and that like thought to your parents that like, you know, there's a little bit of bargaining of like, oh, if my parents would've known, it's not'cause you think their, your parents are awful. It's just that like, almost like, can I think my way out of this? You know what I mean? If I go back and find the solution, our brain plays those tricks. So it's all very normal, but That doesn't make it easier, but that's the kind of stuff that, it sounds like it's nice to connect with people online about Right.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 23:29

Yeah. Yeah. And that's where I love this community.'cause there's been again, so many times of course, where I'm like, do I just stop posting? And then I've realized when I do take my breaks, I'm like, I love, you know, obviously having the social media break, but then I get. A weird feeling of like, I feel like I'm losing like my people, like I'm losing my community by not being active. And it's not for like me to get post out. I'm like, I just wanna look to see what everybody else is talking about or what's going on in the world, or things like that. And that's it. It shows how powerful even an online community can be and. Again, what inspired me once COVID lifted the shutdown and everything to start doing like more in-person events, like I've done a couple brunches so far. And I do like an online support group for teens right now at the Celiac Foundation, I'm glad that they're figuring out so young, but when I hear what they are struggling with, I'm like, I'm also very happy I got diagnosed as an adult because it's aside from even. The easiness of being like eating whatever you want, but it's the bullying that I get. I could not handle that as a child. I know I was bullied for other things. I'm like, on top of that, like kids said that they have gotten bread thrown at them that they'll, like kids will go up and just rub food over their, like stuff like gluten over their food and. Things like that. And it just makes me so sad to realize how much negativity goes in the world just because you're gluten free or because you have a food allergy or what it is. And that's always like so sad. But I, it's interesting to hear those things too. And in a selfishly reassuring way, I am like, okay. not the only one dealing with this. I have it a lot better than a lot of people too. At the same time, like it could be a lot worse. At least I have a family that's supportive versus somebody who think, or like a family that thinks I'm faking it. Vice versa. so it's very interesting just to hear all the different demographics of dealing with celiac disease.'cause celiac disease, I mean, that's multi-generational, but it's very interesting to see how like a teenager deals with it versus somebody. I was just on the celiac cruise a month ago, and there's a woman on there who was. In her late seventies with celiac disease, and she's known about it for like 30 years. And it was very interesting just hearing how the last 30 years for her were, you know, having celiac disease going from probably no gluten-free brands when she first was diagnosed to on a, being able to go on a cruise now with that, with a hundred percent gluten-free food. But yeah, it's very interesting to have such like a wide variety of people. this, in this community too, is just hearing all these stories and whether or not you can relate to that specific story, you can kind of relate to like the overall, like I'm dealing with somebody who doesn't believe me. And it's hard because you, you really, especially when you have somebody so close to you telling you like they don't believe you, basically it's, it's, I mean, it's gaslighting you into thinking like, maybe this isn't real or whatever. And I've had that happen to me too, like I said. I shouldn't have been as sad as I was. Or maybe it's not that serious or cross contamination's not that serious or whatever somebody else in your mind or somebody else on the outside wants to put into your mind. It's, that's always the toughest part. And that's like another thing I always like to do with how I'm posting too, is try to all of those feelings on top of com. Like complaining, validating, but like, here's how I look at it on the brighter side type of thing.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 26:38

Can you give us a couple of those? Do you have favorite ways that you kind of reframe that or give a different perspective?

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 26:43

Yeah, like one, well, one, I just like, I've had this a couple times just at like parties, buffets, not buffet, but like parties that have the buffets and things like that. And people will be like, oh no, you can eat that. That's totally fine. Or just, you know, very

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 26:57

Right.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 26:57

with me and. We've had conversation, it's fine, but like I'll go to the internet then'cause I'm like, oh, you know what? This is like something I know everybody struggles with and I always like to go about it. Like a lot of times, like my ranting videos that I post are just from me sitting there going. I could complain about this online probably, and I'll prop my phone out. And I posted this, this is like last over Christmas time, I think it was, where I was like, I love when people just like tell me like what I can and can't eat and, you know, make it very dramatic. I try, you know, add the humor to where I'm like, oh, I didn't know, like everybody else knew what they were doing besides me. And you know, just try to make it lighthearted. I can definitely have like a little bit of that anger in My dad even text me. He is like, you're a little angry in that video. And he's like, and he's like, alright, I'm never gonna mess with you. But I always try to laugh it off and saying like, oh, okay. Well, like whenever people tell me that, I'm just like. Okay. And then I'll just not just put it right over my head and that's what I, yeah, I always try to say that like, oh, just I don't listen.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 27:54

Yeah.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 27:54

it's okay to not listen to these people and what they're saying or just, servers and dealing with like stuff in restaurants there was one time I did get glued in and I shared that entire experience'cause I recorded the entire thing. I was so excited to eat at this place. And I noted that I had celiac, I did everything I possibly could and I shared about it. But then I also realized. Okay. One thing I could have done differently, which I shared in the video itself, was I noticed another person had a food allergy, you know, a couple tables down, and they had flags in their meals where I didn't, and I was like, oh, I should have asked or said, because it was just a runner that brought our food out too. I'm like, here's what I could have done differently. Like, yes, this sucks. And yes, even though I did my complete due diligence or what I thought was my complete due diligence of explaining that I have celiac doing all of this, I had, once I saw the runner like a. Random runner come out to my food. That should have been my indicator of, okay, well I should have asked like, is this gluten-free? Instead of just assuming and going in and eating it where I was like, tried to share like like yes, it was not a hundred percent my fault, but it was 99.9% could have not been my fault. You know,

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 28:56

Yeah.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 28:57

figure out the balance of is what I can do to be the better and

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 29:01

Right. What can I take away from this for the future? Yeah.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 29:05

Because my platform's about my journey, and sometimes I'm gonna have videos on there where I made a complete mistake, but I'm not promoting that mistake. I'm just saying I made that mistake. Mm-hmm.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 29:14

It's just something unfortunately that you have to learn along the way. You have to learn it as you go. You can't start out with all that information already in your head, even if there's all these great resources out there, which there are more of now. You can't take it all in all at once. It's unfortunate

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 29:28

much. And

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 29:29

too.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 29:29

That reminds me of another video that I posted about miss Vicky's chips a while ago. I was just randomly on the internet searching. I'm like, what potato chips are gluten-free, whatnot, you know, just having fun on the internet. And I saw that Miss Vicky's. Said has a statement on their website. Larry said they can't confirm or deny like it's gluten-free or not. And I thought, oh, I get those a lot, so I'm gonna make a video real quick. And so I made a video just explaining like I had no clue that Ms. Vicks weren't gluten-free or that they had this statement on their website, showed it. And I had a lot of comments saying like, how could you not know how, like you have celiac disease, you should be knowing this stuff. And was like, first of all, I was like, okay, well I'm not supposed to know everything all the time. This is very

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 30:09

I Guru anymore.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 30:11

Exactly, and so then after I saw a lot of those comments, I was like, this is a perfect opportunity to make another video just about. How you are not gonna know everything. And that's again, a learning experience. But that's also like, that's life. That's celiac disease or that's life with celiac disease, it's, you're gonna have mess ups. And I think that's what's so hard because you know, as I love the community, there's also extremists on both ends where some are like, I still eat gluten and though even though I have celiac disease, I'm like, I don't relate to that. And then there's people who are like, I can't even step inside of a restaurant or I'll get sick. Also cannot relate to that. Like I love to travel and go out and do all of that. I also know that comes with the risk of like getting sick and I never wanna promote, know, getting sick. But I wanna promote being able to live your life with celiac disease because prior to me having celiac disease, I was like, I love traveling. I love going out, I love trying new restaurants, I love going all of that. And that took a complete stop. For two and a half years, COVID played a role, but also my fear of going out played a huge role where I was like, I can't do this. And then finally had a moment. This was the beginning of 2023. I finally moved into my first apartment by myself, like my living by myself for the first time, feeling so confident, and I was like. Now I have to like live, I have to go back. In 2022 that's where I was having like a lot of mental breakdowns and not understanding what to do because I was like, I don't feel like I'm Gabby anymore. Like I'm no gluten Gabby. Like I'm always on this gluten-free mindset. I'm always posting about it. I was like a huge reason. I didn't wanna make this my full-time gig at first because I was like, I can't. Make my entire career already, like my entire disease. Like this is so, like, this is so overwhelming. And this is like my entire personality because those were, that was some of the comments I got too. Like, is this your entire personality? I'm like, no, but it is my, almost my entire life. So that's 90% of my personality is this. And it became really like hard because I was like, who am I anymore? Like. I miss who I was. And I remember saying that, I was like, I just miss who I was in 2019. I was like, okay, well I'm not that girl anymore'cause I'm have Celiac. But then that made me actually sit down with myself and go. Okay, you still wanna travel, you still wanna do all this stuff. How do you do that with celiac disease now? Like here's your huge obstacle. Like I'm not, it's not like a tiny little obstacle. It's, this is like a big brick wall in front of your face. How are you gonna like tear it down or at least get around it or sit on top of it and take it on? So that's when I was like, you know what, I booked a trip to the Philippines with my friends. I highly recommend not doing that as your first trip out of the country with celiac disease.'cause I got very sick. I went to the hospital, it was also from, I got gluten and then on top of like bad fish, brushing my teeth with the water, you know, a pile of things that got me to the point where I had to go to the hospital. But I thought. my gosh, it can't get worse than this. It honestly gave me more confidence to travel because then I went to Italy for a month, only a few, months after that. And so I started getting back into my travels.'cause I was like, I just wanna get out there. Like maybe that's where I'm supposed to be.'cause I'm unhappy. Like I'm very unhappy right now. Like, I love posting, I love being able to have my community and everything, but I don't feel like I have anything else. And so that's when I was like, okay. go on some trips, let's start doing this. And after that it started to finally like, I feel like my ball started rolling again where I was like, okay. And then I finally, I got a new job at that point too, where I was a marketing director for a property management company. So it was in my realm and I felt really good'cause I was like, okay. That was kind of my outlet at that time. And then it was a startup company. I was there for about two years and it was. they shut down. And that's when I was like, okay, like I'll just do this full time. And I honestly started to fall in love with it all over again because I was like, okay, now I get to get really in, in like involved in recipes or working with companies that I can do travel and stuff with and now like working with the celiac crew. So it kind of all worked out. Just took like two or three years to get there. I accepted it first and then I went back back on everything of the other stages.'cause I was just feeling so down. Bargaining, trying to do all of this. And then finally I was like, I gotta live my life, make my mistakes. And now like when I do get sick and make my mistakes, trust me, it still is the worst thing that could possibly happen. And it makes me reevaluate my life every time. But each time I'm like, okay, it's not the end of the world. It could be, but you know, it's not like right now I'm still here. Like everything's fine. I'm still wanna like try to keep going out because I've noticed I'm like so much happier trying to live my life with celiac disease and just trying to live the life of celiac disease, if that makes sense.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 34:39

It does. And I think that's a really good distinction that hopefully people will catch because yeah, that, that loss of self, that loss of identity, it just kind of can consume people.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 34:48

yeah.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 34:49

I'm curious what else has helped you, you know, once you started traveling again, that was a big shift, but what else do you find helps you to keep that balance, especially now that it's your full time? Work as well.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 34:58

Yeah, now it's a lot of finding external hobbies. I love camping, hiking, doing like the things that I love to do I try to find a balance between all my food related activities. Like when I go see my friends, a lot of times we will grab a coffee and go for a walk or we'll do something like, there's a lot of cool things that go on in Grand Rapids, like art based stuff, like building your own candles or there's thrift like markets that go around. So we always try to find these like non-food activities to go see each other and go do things that's not just like, oh, let's go eat at a restaurant, because as fun as that can be, like, catch up and have that. I'm like, okay. Every time we go out to a restaurant, though, I'm explaining my disease and I'm doing this. So it's kind of an extra step and a little bit stressful do that every single time. So finding other ways that has helped me so much and just finding like, again, I know this is my full-time career now, but even when I do a lot of stuff with my. Job, like a lot of it's content creation, video recording, even though it's all based around food in a sense, like I try not to think of it that way anymore.'cause at first I was always like, okay, here's a gluten free food. Gluten free, gluten free. And I'm like, no, this is just like a recipe. Because my favorite thing now is to make a food or make a meal and have my friends. Eat it and go, oh, I can't even tell this is gluten-free. Like that quote is my favorite thing to hear. So I'm like, oh, it's kinda like a little game now and just like working on building a recipe out or like trying to build something out. Like I know it's gluten-free in the back of my mind, but kind of keeping that mentality out of it when I'm in the kitchen of like I'm just making a meal. Like I'm doing something so normal. At least alone in my own mental state, like making it feel like it's not stressful as it needs to be. And that comes with time too, for like anybody who's dealing with this, it's not like you're gonna wake up and go, oh, it's no big deal. I'm five years and now I'm like, the last year is when I'm finally like, okay, like. think it's not like as stressful as it needs to be and with more studies coming out. I'm becoming a lot less stressed, like the kissing study of just showing like how much gluten can get like cross-contaminated and things like that I feel so much less stressed, knowing it's a lot harder to get gluten than it is, if that makes sense in the sense of like those little things.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 37:07

Right. Especially in your own home where, you know, people are informed and, and understanding. Yeah. Let's talk about, I did a series earlier in the spring. For IgE mediated food allergies about kissing. But I haven't talked a lot about that kissing study that came out about Celiac. And so I think that would be a helpful distinction to make.'cause I haven't really addressed it on the show yet.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 37:25

Yeah. Yeah, so the Celiac Disease Foundation came out with a study, basically what they did is they had couples eat, 10, saltine crackers, like the really powdery, creamy, like, you know, no water in between any of those either. So we just have to eat all those. Then they had to heavily make out, however you wanna picture that heavily make out with their partner. And then 18 came back less than 20 ppms. So the amount that is actually going in and out with saltine crack.'cause I think of this study too,'cause I'm like, no one is ever gonna kiss their partner after eating that

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 37:58

Right.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 37:58

Even a burger like you drink water and you are fine. So after hearing about that, I was like, okay. So basically what they say is. Wash your mouth out with some water and a mint for good measure. So beforehand too, I thought, oh, I can't kiss somebody I remember I'm making a post about that when I first started my platform of, oh my gosh, I can't kiss anybody who's ate gluten. Like I'll get sick. But I'm like, you have to actually have the crumb. to a summit last year, the FAACT summit, and it was really interesting had the greatest analogy and I don't know why. It never really clicked in my mind until that is like you have to have like a physical crumb going in your mouth, like a physical thing going in your mouth, ingesting it to actually feel it. So when people get nervous about topical products, which I was at the time, or just like little things actually visualizing like, oh, I would have to put it in my mouth for me to feel anything. That for some reason made me feel so much better. Going to like summits or going to these talks, or even just being a part of support groups. Hearing what people have to say. Every single time I go to one I'd feel a little bit lighter because I'm like, oh, I've never thought about it that way. Or, oh, I could have done that one extra step when I'm ordering at a restaurant and I feel like a lot safer, whatever. It could be as simple as like the way you were to question or anything that, you know, it's very interesting to see after everyone. I'm like, oh, I feel a lot better about my disease. And I think that's just a good way of saying, this is how important community is.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 39:23

Exactly. I think even just at at summits and gatherings, it's kind of cool to look around the room and Even if you're not talking to all of them, like, all these people know how we feel. All these people are doing okay. Like, okay, enough to be at this summit and or at this conference, right. And, and managing what's going on. And so you reminded me before we wrap up you, are you gonna be speaking at the Fact conference this year? I believe. Okay. Tell us what you're talking about at FAACT this year, or.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 39:46

Mine I'm gonna be speaking with a few other content creators just about content creation, how to stay authentic in the social media world. You know, talking about a disease, but also not trying to make it seem like it's the end of the world. Like how do you show your life without feeling like you're telling people what to do?

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 40:02

Doom and gloom. Right. It sounds like you've got a lot of things that you, you wanna get rolling. So tell people how they can make sure that they don't miss out on that.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 40:09

Yeah, I'm always posting on TikTok and Instagram. TikTok is where I feel like a lot of my own personality goes down there.'cause that's where I just like open up my camera and I'll just talk sometimes. But TikTok and Instagram, slowly getting into YouTube. I have some videos up that I've had for a while, but rolling out a lot more of gluten-free Michigan Eats too. So, over this next year, or? End of this year, I should say only, only have like five months left. But those are the three platforms that I'm always gonna be on.. Just no gluten, Gabby.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 40:36

Awesome.

Gabby Hemond (@nolutengabby): 40:38

Awesome.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 40:38

well thank you so much for taking the time to talk. What else didn't we touch on? What do you wanna leave people with as a final wrap up thought?

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 40:46

I guess to anybody who's has celiac or just gluten-free or food allergy in general, just know that it's a roller coaster, but it's a fun roller coaster if you make it one. Always give yourself patience or like allow yourself that patience that you need, especially when you're sick and when you do get sick. Rest and recharge because that's the one thing I need to do better about. One, I do get sick, but always be patient with yourselves because you are, as much as we'd like to think we're not, we're different from the normal everyday person. So we have a couple extra things that we always have to look out for, but that should give you some more grace.

Amanda Whitehouse, PhD: 41:19

Aw, thank you. Yeah, I think it's very encouraging. As much as you worry that you're coming across, you know that you've come across angry or discouraging, I think I really enjoy everything that I see, and obviously a lot of other people do too. You. So thank you for sharing it with everyone.

Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby): 41:31

Yeah. Thank you so much again for having me on. I loved this.

41:34

Gabby's been so much fun to talk to and I really appreciate her coming here on the show to talk about Celiac connection and community. So before we wrap up, here are three action steps that you can take. Number one, follow Gabby on social media@noglutengabby, to continue learning from her journey and to be part of the supportive community that she's creating. Number two, we've talked about this already this month. Seek out other connections in your own life, whether online or in person. Sharing experiences with other people who understand you can be very validating for your emotional experience, as well as just give you so many tips and information that other people have learned through their experiences and are happy to share with you. Number three, join us. Gabby will be speaking at the FAACT Allergy Summit in Oakbrook, Illinois, October 3rd through fifth, 2025, You can find all the details about the FAACT summit@foodallergyawareness.org. As always, thank you so much for listening and if you enjoyed the episode, I would appreciate it so much. If you can give me a rating or a review and share it with anybody else who might enjoy it too. the content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any questions about your own medical experience or mental health needs, please consult a professional. I'm Dr. Amanda Whitehouse. Thanks for joining me. And until we chat again, remember don't feed the fear.