A healthy lifestyle journey requires consistency, discipline, and patience. As someone with an auto-immune disease knows, having a healthy lifestyle is necessary if you want to feel good daily. Starting with diet, then exercise, and other healthy habits such as meditation, taking time for yourself to relax, and going on vacation, you can find your own personal health lifestyle groove. 

If you don't have an auto-immune disease, you can start at any of these places. However, many people want to start with dieting or exercise when starting a healthy lifestyle journey. Others may want to start drinking more water. Whatever your starting point is, you need to make sure that you approach your lifestyle modification with the right mindset!

While you may have a big goal of weight loss, having more daily energy, or being more flexible, you'll want to take your big goal and break it down by setting small goals. Next, take these small goals and create manageable first steps that you can achieve every day. By taking small steps to achieve your overall health goals, you can accomplish a holistically healthy lifestyle and reap the benefits of your new habits!

Delectable Gluten Free Desserts Ready to Go!
COVID-19 situation is stressful to say the least. When I’m stressed I know that having a sweet dessert is a good temporary solution to feeling good. Make sure its a small serving, though, as you don’t want to add gaining weight to the list of activities you’re doing during the COVID lockdown!

Share your favorite gluten-free desserts with your family members who aren’t gluten-free, with a friend by dropping off a gluten-free treat on their porch to show that you are thinking about them, or to a co-worker who has celiacs disease that you haven’t seen face to face in a few months. Whatever way you send, drop-off or ship your gift, the celiac or gluten-free friend on the receiving end will sure appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Order These Goodies Online or Grab Gluten-Free Desserts from Your Local Grocery

Raised Gluten Free creates delicious vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free foods including quiche, and cookies including my favorite lavender cookies! Grab an order to be delivered to your doorstep.

Schar Bakery has so many good delicious gluten-free snacks and desserts! I love their saltine crackers, puff pastry, Schnack Cakes and their graham crackers. I’ve been able to find and purchase Schar products on Walmart Grocery online and in the store.

Kinnikinnick Gluten Free with my favorite vanilla wafers, I can now safely eat banana pudding again! They also have great hot dog buns, hamburger buns and cinnamon raisin bagels. They also have great baking products including cookie crumbles for pie crust, angel food cake mix, doughnuts, and sugar cookie mix. When you sign up for their newsletter, they’ll send you a 10% off coupon!

Four years ago, I discovered the Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset magazine. By the way, if you've never read an issue of Sunset - beware - this publication is addicting! More specifically, Sunset magazine embroils the senses with the unique, fantastic getaways and the most inspiring and delicious interior decorating a magazine publication has to offer.

In the beginning, my basic knowledge of Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH as it's commonly known, was how the highway mingled with the west coast of the United States from the northern California coast to  Southern California. I had been searching for a fantastic road trip adventure, and, to my traveler's delight, Pacific Coast Highway was the journey I was looking for! 

After piling through information on Pinterest about PCH, my heart was pounding to go and explore the grains of sand, exquisite views, and glorious mountains, which caress the Pacific Coast Highway shoreline.

#2 Find a Gluten-Free Restaurant

Finding a GF restaurant may not sound hard, until you try to look for one, especially in a rural area. Cities have more food choices, and you can easily find a gluten-free option in a town, but what about less populated areas?

One of my favorite tools to find gf restaurants is Find Me Gluten Free App. Jason Elmore, creator of this app, is celiac. He decided to make the app after being frustrated about the difficulty of finding food that is safe to eat when you are eating out.

To find out more about Jason and how he created the Find Me Gluten Free App,

I really enjoy a great road trip. This means an extended weekend or a planned multi-day trip which involves stopping and eating at places I've never heard of. That can be as easy as brushing a furry knot out of my long-haired cat when I'm not sure what's available in the next town, especially when I'm in the middle of nowhere. I've found a few ways to lessen the hardship of gluten-free on the road.

#1 Carry food with you at all times. Yes, and bring a superhero along with you as well (is Captain America available?). This can be easy if you find out what you like and keep it on hand. My suggestion: gluten-free protein bars and cookies. I really like protein drinks (single-serve powder is most accessible, although it can be costly). I take the protein from my bulk container and double bag the protein. This keeps costs down but gives me a few meals to hold me over until I find a safe restaurant to eat at.

Always bring yummy snack foods with you for the ride. Gas Stations do not have many gluten-free offerings, except for Oregon and California. These are the only two states which I have found more than 2 or 3 safe snacks to eat.

My favorite gluten-free snacks are KaPop Snacks, Deliciousness Foods, and Jai Mix. I've interviewed each of these owners on my podcast, and I would feel safe eating these snacks, even on vacation! They are reliable and do not use any gluten in their products or their process.

Remember to not carry chocolate with you on your road trip, chocolate melts, and makes a mess. Be cautious of coconut oil, as this will quickly melt in your car!

Check back for your next gluten-free on the road trip next blog!​

​For great advice on how to travel gluten-free, grab my Guide to Traveling Gluten-Free on Amazon today!