I’m here to tell you a secret;  traveling is not all glamor.  Hard to believe, isn’t it?

I remember when my kids were little and my husband had to travel for work conferences.  I’d be exhausted when he came home and he had the nerve to be exhausted too!  How could that be when he’d had a hotel to go to sleep in, meals provided, banquets to attend, no children to wake him up in the middle of the night, no carting the kids back and forth between childcare plus work?  Now, I’ve discovered why as the shoe is on the other foot.

Because it is my company that I travel for, no one is planning my dinners for me at lovely restaurants when I’m away.   And, like many of you with food allergies and intolerances, I cart my own food with me so that I can eat safely and healthfully and try to book hotels with a microwave and fridge wherever I can.  I’ve been traveling so much in the last 3 months that I haven’t spent more than 10 days at home at a time.  At one point, I looked out of my plane at the city beyond and forgot where I was (Vancouver)!

So you might ask, why do I do it?   Here are the things that keep me going:

The eleven year old boy at the Canadian Celiac Association’s National Conference in Winnipeg who mowed through all of our samples once his mom had determined all of our products were safe for his Celiac disease, peanut allergies, egg allergies and dairy allergies.  What a smile on his face and his mom’s too!

The lady at Choices gluten free fair in White Rock who found out we’re free of sulfites and dairy.  She told me that she was in love with our company. 

The store owner who came up to our booth at the Canadian Health Food Association’s Expo West who said she can’t keep our Energy Explosion trail mix on the shelf, people love it so much.

The lady who’s been a customer for years who introduced herself at the Celiac Disease Foundation’s Annual Conference in Los Angeles in May.  It felt like I was meeting an old friend.

But it’s the same in all that we do isn’t it?  We handle all of the education and anxiety necessary to deal with our family’s food allergies and at times it can be really overwhelming.  We plough on, sometimes just putting our heads down and marching ahead because it’s really all we can do.  But then we get those moments of bright light; that small thing that may not mean much to someone not in our shoes but can mean the world to us.  A new safe product, a medical situation handled well, excitement over finding someone else who really “gets it”.

Small things – they’re really what makes the world go round.

If you’re a subscriber to my enewsletter, you know that I like to showcase other special diet websites and products that I feel could be helpful to our Nonuttin’ clients.  One such company that we’ve been getting to know is Nutrition for your Condition.  The ladies who began this company know how difficult it is to go anywhere and eat safely so they put together a travel kit that anyone with a special diet could easily take with them to school or on the road or plane.

I asked Crystal Paulitzki, one of the founders,  to provide our followers with a bit of information about their company which she has done below.  She’s also graciously offered Nonuttin’ clients a discount coupon for use when purchasing any Nutrition for your Condition products.  Here’s what Crystal had to say: Read more »

Oh boy, you’d think that being deprived of peanuts and nuts for approximately 1-14 hours was akin to snatching a bottle out of a baby’s hands.  Add in food allergies being referred to as a disability and you’ve got people frothing at the mouth. Read more »

I am childless!  After sending one child off on a plane on Saturday and delivering another to her grandparents for a trip to auntie’s house in Calgary on Tuesday, our house is really quiet.  And for someone who is now supposed to be eating ice cream until midnight and bouncing on the bed, I find myself somewhat rudderless.

Gone are all of the electronic noises, teenage groans and sibling arguments.  I no longer have to prod children to complete chores, I simply have to do them myself.  No more fighting for time on the family computer, the phone isn’t being used when I want it.  But it’s too quiet.  I got a call from my allergic child last night since I’d requested she phone once she arrived after the 3 day journey.  She had the audacity to want to get off the phone quickly so she could rejoin her uncle’s birthday party.  Hmmph!

As my husband said at dinner last night, “so this is what it will be like in a few years”.  I’m not so sure I’m liking that too much.  Because all of this silence isn’t exactly worry free you know.  Tween and teen children (allergic and otherwise) in the care of other people and perhaps taking on personal responsibility?  That would mean I’ve done my job well and they don’t need me anymore.  Ack!

Maybe it’s time to go get that ice cream out.

It’s the Victoria Day long weekend and so begins the odyssey of lily-white, sun-starved Canadians into the wilds of Canada bearing backpacks, tents, hot dog forks and sunscreen.  Forget that the forecast is only a chilly 15 degrees Celsius here on Vancouver Island this weekend, we’re going if we have to wear toques.  Luckily, we upgraded to a tent trailer last year so no sleeping on the ground will be required.

So what does it take to go camping with a peanut, nut and kiwi allergic child?  Surprisingly, it’s getting a little easier now that we have some favorite brands of items that go with us, not to mention Nonuttin’ granola, granola bars and trail mix.  We take a nut free brand of chocolate covered cookies that we use for S’mores, our own bread and buns, bake our own goodies and after that, it’s all about fruit, veggies and what can be cooked on an open flame.

This time, we’re not going alone so the planning does get a bit more complicated.  Like school events, this is where I find it easiest to simply volunteer to make all of the baked goods required.  Luckily, my 2 girls are like their mom and love to bake and cook so while I worked today, the muffins, banana bread and cake (there’s an anniversary celebration today too) were magically created at home since my girls had the day off school.  I love this teenager stuff (bet you don’t hear that too often).

I have to admit that when we first started camping when the girls were little, I was really concerned about being away from home in case an allergic reaction occurred.  Of course, we always have epi pens both on our daughter and ourselves but being away from civilization was worrisome.  What I discovered, at least on Vancouver Island, is that camping is not what I remember it to be when I was a child.  My dad was one of those guys who eschewed anything paved and took us on back roads into places I’m not sure we were actually allowed to camp.  I remember being rescued from a mud pit once by a logging crew after my dad got my grandparents motorhome stuck on particularly nasty back road.  Not exactly where I’d want to be in case of an emergency.

But every provincial park we’ve been to so far is removed from the main roads enough to feel isolated and away from civilization while still being no more than 10 minutes from a main highway, phones and even a grocery store.  I feel fairly comfortable with that. 

And now that I  have convinced my husband that camp food can be more than just hot dogs and eating out of cans, we’re all set.

Our family  just got back yesterday from Tofino where we took the Manitoba in-laws for their first look at the Pacific Rim National Park, gray whales, sea otters, rain, rain, rain and…snow.  Ah, nothing like spring on the west coast of Canada!

Like many allergy families, we got a kitchenette and dragged all of our own food along so that we wouldn’t have to eat out.  Despite all of the careful attention to detail, I had a bit of anxiety when it came time to bedtime.  While the suite slept 8, 2 of those 8 were on a pullout and we had planned to have our allergic child there so us parents could have a little privacy. 

But, I just couldn’t put her on the pullout when so many people sit and eat on the sofa.  We ate at the sofa while we were there since there wasn’t quite enough room at the table.  While we weren’t eating nuts, how many people had sat there before us?  How many people would come later  that have allergies to wheat from our breadcrumbs?  In the end, I ended up sleeping with said allergic child in a bed while our oldest daughter was alone on the pullout. 

My husband thought I was going a bit overboard but in the end, I managed to sleep (somewhat, given her elbow in my throat), knowing that we were sleeping in the room farthest from the kitchen.