About

Hi. I’m Jenn. I’m a fifty-something year-old woman with food intolerances who wonders why she needs to be tied down to one location. My kids are off to college and my job is portable. I love to travel and hike and bake and eat things that don’t hurt my belly. I like being in the water. I like to be warm. I require a lot of sleep.

I was diagnosed as being allergic to cow dairy when I was a newborn and still can’t tolerate it. After recurring sinus infections for more years than I wish to say, with the help of my acupuncturist, I found that I have an intolerance to wheat. I test things to see how my body reacts to them so I’ve found in the past few years that I can tolerate real butter and the wheat in soy sauce doesn’t seem to affect me. I tried gluten-free beer but didn’t notice any difference in my health so I drink beer, just not wheat beer.

My experience may be different than yours. I don’t have celiac so cross contamination isn’t a big concern for me. And while I can’t tolerate cow dairy, I can eat dairy from goats and sheep without any belly aches.

Some places I visit I trust the signage/waitstaff. Some I don’t. Plus my traveling companion can eat anything so he’ll often be my tester, especially when I’m worried something has cow dairy in it. He doesn’t mind.

When I plan a trip, the first thing I do after deciding on a destination is to start researching restaurants and markets with safe foods for me to eat. It eases my anxiety to have a list of safe places, even if I never get to any of them. The more I get to know myself I see that until I find safe food, I have a scarcity mentality that seems to make me feel endlessly hungry and exhausted.

Come with me on my journey to find safe foods in fun places. Let’s explore the world, hike in the mountains, swim in the sea, read a book in a hammock and just exist in new surroundings.