How to live an awesome gluten free life

I will now share my expertise on how to live an awesome gluten-free life.

I propose the following guidelines:

As depicted, it is usually
overcast.

#1 Pick your location wisely

From my experience, larger metropolitan areas tend to see more people, and as a result, are more aware of accomodating unusual requests, especially of a dietarty nature.  I do not live in a thriving metropolis, I live in a wilting metropolis (Rochester), but I am fortunate that this city is extremely knowledgable on gluten free food and the celiac lifestyle.

If your bread needs this, you're
making it wrong.

In addition to your city of location, being happy in the physical setting of your home environment is also important.  For example, I once lived in a college apartment with a roommate who decided to briefly date one of my best friends halfway into the lease.  When they broke up, I became highly suspect (and not just because she wen't through my phone and saw I texted him to "dump his ho," ...oh wait, yes, that was why she hated me).  I spent the duration of the lease finding open boxes of vital wheat gluten in the living room.  Needless to say, I moved out early one day while she was at work.  It is important to live with people who understand that gluten causes a bad autoimmune reaction when it gets into your body.

#2 Find fabulous food

To reiterate my love of food, I have
included a picture of my freezer.

A gluten-free diet does not equal a boring diet! If it does, you're doing it wrong.  I spice my diet up with restaurant food and frozen meals all the time, mainly because I'm lazy and busy.  One of my on-the-go favorites right now is ordering sandwiches from Panera without the bread.  They neatly assemble the sandwich content onto a plate and hand that to me, and I whip out my Udi's white sandwich bread and assemble my sandwich.  I also enjoy pre-cooked food and salt, so a staple of my diet is TV dinners.  My favorite right now is Pasta Primavera from Gluten Free Cafe.


#3 Work a baller job

Gluten-free food doesn't come cheap.  With this appetite, working is a necessity.  I've still got a couple months to graduation, so I'm still a full-time student, thus a part-time worker.  Maximizing work benefits becomes crucial to an awesome life.  Ideally, employment should is on par with your career goals, pay well for the work, and be for a company you like.  Employment example: I work for Barnes & Noble college as a brand ambassador, so I execute marketing tactics on my campus for the brand. 

Paper bag clothes and .49 cent
meals offset the expenses of my
education (not that I eat Ramen)

I love the work, like today I had a meeting with the store manager at RIT (I don't work for the store, I work for the brand) and learned that if course instructors don't submit the textbook titles they're using next quarter, students who go to sell the books back get like $15 for the book.  If it's a book that a professor told the book store they're gonna use, students will get 3-4 times more money. It makes me frustrated that some teachers take their time! They're trying to help take the risk out of that by offering textbook rentals though, because you just pay less to begin with instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for favorable economics at the end of the quarter.  I know my Health Awareness book was $80 less for rental.  I kind of laugh when I remember the bookstore at MCC, waiting in line to buy your textbooks usually took an hour.  You weren't allowed to bring your backpack into the store, either, ahahah, they handed out quarters and you had to put it in a locker! WOW in retrospect, that is so bootleg. Glad I transferred!

So, remember: Location, food, and work = an awesome life by Maddy's standards. Now, I'm going to go eat some nuggs.