Elikqitie
Show Host and Producer Travel Gluten Free Podcast
Elikqitie found her calling for health and wellness after having her first daughter 23 years ago. She entered the health and wellness field as a Breastfeeding Counselor with La Leche League, working with other moms to give them support to breastfeeding their newborn babies successfully.
With her own health issues from candida and fibromyalgia not being recognized or completely treated, along with frustrating experiences with doctors telling her "there's nothing wrong" when she was ill, she decided to explore the holistic route. From this beginning, she started using supplements, researching alternative health practices, and using massage. This proved extremely beneficial after her car was totaled in a car accident. With extreme whiplash, the doctors just prescribed pain and anti-inflammatory medications, which made her tired. Definitely too tired to take care of two small children under the age of 5! A friend introduced her to her acupuncturist. Within two weeks, she went from not being able to get off the couch to walking again!
Elikqitie was so inspired by these results that she opened up a health food store - Emerald Forest Health Foods in 1998. She enjoyed assisting others who had a similar experience with doctors' misdiagnoses. Many doctors telling her and others nothing is wrong, or even worse, saying, "it's all in your head!". Elikqitie walked with others down their holistic path to health, including people recovering from surgery, health-conscious individuals, and cancer survivors. She wanted her clients to have a richer experience at her store, so she added a juice and smoothie bar – well before smoothies were popular. 20 years later, she is still making a mean smoothie!
After her experience with her health food store, she decided to be at home with her two girls for a few years, still researching and practicing alternative health. She continued using natural remedies to resolve her health imbalances and common childhood illnesses, which, from time to time, her children would catch. She found holistic medicine to be much gentler and more natural than many of the options doctors had given her to resolve health issues.
Fast forward to 2015...Elikqitie decided to try the Adrenal Fatigue diet. While practicing this diet, she discovered she was gluten intolerant. She hadn't realized how much this intolerance had affected her until she noticed her stomach wasn't hurting or feeling bloated. She overall felt better.
While looking into the gluten-free diet and lifestyle, she came across symptoms for celiacs. When she did, she found out that a person who has untreated celiacs can acquire cancer called adenocarcinoma (cancer of the small intestine). This is the type of cancer her dad passed away from over 10 years prior. The list of celiac symptoms read like a memory from her childhood. These were the same symptoms her father had while she was growing up. He had been misdiagnosed with IBS. Still, realistically, Elikqitie believes her dad had celiacs and did not know he was ill with this disease. Her family was Italian, the staples of bread and pasta were almost a daily event for dinners. Had her dad known he had celiacs, he would have modified his diet, and she would still be with him today.
The culmination of many different backgrounds and her experience with celiacs disease led her to publish her podcast Travel Gluten Free. Elikqitie noticed the difficulties of living a gluten-free lifestyle and how isolating this can be. She understands that eating out can be scary and anxious and that travel can be hard. It's understandable why so many people with celiacs are afraid to travel! Who wants to be in nerve-wracking situations when you should be relaxed and enjoying yourself? Elikqitie wanted to give others the information she had learned after years of trial and error and finding out what works and what doesn't. Her goal is to provide support to all who lead a gluten-free lifestyle and to support our community.
Being gluten-free can be a challenging way of life – even on good days! Let Elikqitie be your guide on your journey to lead a healthy, happy, and enjoyable gluten-free life!
Enjoy Food, Enjoy Travel, Enjoy Life!
Elikqitie
With her own health issues from candida and fibromyalgia not being recognized or completely treated, along with frustrating experiences with doctors telling her "there's nothing wrong" when she was ill, she decided to explore the holistic route. From this beginning, she started using supplements, researching alternative health practices, and using massage. This proved extremely beneficial after her car was totaled in a car accident. With extreme whiplash, the doctors just prescribed pain and anti-inflammatory medications, which made her tired. Definitely too tired to take care of two small children under the age of 5! A friend introduced her to her acupuncturist. Within two weeks, she went from not being able to get off the couch to walking again!
Elikqitie was so inspired by these results that she opened up a health food store - Emerald Forest Health Foods in 1998. She enjoyed assisting others who had a similar experience with doctors' misdiagnoses. Many doctors telling her and others nothing is wrong, or even worse, saying, "it's all in your head!". Elikqitie walked with others down their holistic path to health, including people recovering from surgery, health-conscious individuals, and cancer survivors. She wanted her clients to have a richer experience at her store, so she added a juice and smoothie bar – well before smoothies were popular. 20 years later, she is still making a mean smoothie!
After her experience with her health food store, she decided to be at home with her two girls for a few years, still researching and practicing alternative health. She continued using natural remedies to resolve her health imbalances and common childhood illnesses, which, from time to time, her children would catch. She found holistic medicine to be much gentler and more natural than many of the options doctors had given her to resolve health issues.
Fast forward to 2015...Elikqitie decided to try the Adrenal Fatigue diet. While practicing this diet, she discovered she was gluten intolerant. She hadn't realized how much this intolerance had affected her until she noticed her stomach wasn't hurting or feeling bloated. She overall felt better.
While looking into the gluten-free diet and lifestyle, she came across symptoms for celiacs. When she did, she found out that a person who has untreated celiacs can acquire cancer called adenocarcinoma (cancer of the small intestine). This is the type of cancer her dad passed away from over 10 years prior. The list of celiac symptoms read like a memory from her childhood. These were the same symptoms her father had while she was growing up. He had been misdiagnosed with IBS. Still, realistically, Elikqitie believes her dad had celiacs and did not know he was ill with this disease. Her family was Italian, the staples of bread and pasta were almost a daily event for dinners. Had her dad known he had celiacs, he would have modified his diet, and she would still be with him today.
The culmination of many different backgrounds and her experience with celiacs disease led her to publish her podcast Travel Gluten Free. Elikqitie noticed the difficulties of living a gluten-free lifestyle and how isolating this can be. She understands that eating out can be scary and anxious and that travel can be hard. It's understandable why so many people with celiacs are afraid to travel! Who wants to be in nerve-wracking situations when you should be relaxed and enjoying yourself? Elikqitie wanted to give others the information she had learned after years of trial and error and finding out what works and what doesn't. Her goal is to provide support to all who lead a gluten-free lifestyle and to support our community.
Being gluten-free can be a challenging way of life – even on good days! Let Elikqitie be your guide on your journey to lead a healthy, happy, and enjoyable gluten-free life!
Enjoy Food, Enjoy Travel, Enjoy Life!
Elikqitie
