Some days managing food sensitivities feels relentless. Other days you find yourself thinking things can get better. What I learned is that both states are real, neither cancels the other out, and only one of them moves things forward.

I love Austrian food. Going skiing, the food is one of the highlights, especially Kaiserschmarrn. After I found out I had multiple food sensitivities, I'd be sitting at the table with a dream background of alpine hut, blue sky, glistening snow, watching everyone in my family eat it. My go to were plain jacket potatoes and fries. For me, it was a mood killer.

The early stage of managing food sensitivities is hard, practically and emotionally. What to do first, what to expect from an elimination diet, and why it does get easier even when it doesn't feel like it.

Many people with food sensitivities have learned to manage without talking about their condition at social events. Not asking, not flagging, not making it awkward. It feels like the considerate thing to do but there's a different side to it.

For years, every test came back normal. This is what happened when food turned out to be the reason, and why the diagnosis was only the beginning.

It took five and a half years to understand what was happening in my body. Before that, it just felt like a series of symptoms that didn’t make sense.

Sometimes it’s not the food that’s hard, it’s everything around it.

The things no one sees, but you’re thinking about all the time.

Healing doesn’t always feel like progress. Sometimes it just feels uncertain.

The constant background thinking that never really switches off.