Emma, Claire & Myself (right) Bridesmaids

I had the pleasure of being in the bridal party at a friends wedding this weekend

As with other weddings I have been to I always find myself worrying about being “glutened”- it is bad enough when you are a guest, but when you have to fit into a pretty dress the last thing you want to be is bloated from gluten or food allergies.

I managed to survive the weekend without a hint of gluten. The barbeque buffet filled with smoked salmon, steak, potatoes, salads and chocolate fish for dessert was amazing. And there was plentiful bubbles for me while my fellow bridesmaids and the wedding party stuck to beer.

What a great weekend catching up with olds friends

I arrived in twizel to help with a friends wedding last wednesday night. The bridal party all showed up early to turn a paddock on a lifestyle block into a beautiful wedding venue for 300 people.

I find travelling gluten free means I need to be prepared when it comes to food. I found myself having major food envy when my friends could go to the bakery and grab a pie or filled roll.

When your not sure of your time table and you do not have refrigeration gluten free food on the go can be hard to organise.

By the time we finished our “maid” duties for the day I was ready to eat a horse!

I am not sure how my calorie counting went before the wedding – I am sure the heavy lifting (102 chairs and 18 tables), putting up tents, moving wagon wheels and hay bailes made up for the chips, chocolate, wine I enjoyed while I was catching up with friends.

Running glutenfreekiwi.com has been a real adventure and now with over 17,000 people coming to the site every month I have decided it is time to start a directory of gluten free businesses

This way gluten free readers can find out about:

- Who they are – Business Name
- Where they are – Map and Address Details
- Whats on there gluten free menu. – Links to the website or an advertorial about what they serve
- What they can do for you – What makes them different

By letting businesses advertise to you – you get a great resource for eating out and shopping and businesses get a chance to sponsor glutenfreekiwi.com to keep it running as a free resource for people learning to be gluten free.

What happens next:

I am just working on a template to get iron out the kinks – then I will open up directory listings to New Zealand Businesses.

As New Years resolutions go, Seldom do I have the resolve to stick to them. Three months down the track I often find my resolutions to “stop swearing, “start tramping”, “read more”, “learn more songs on my guitar” were short lived.

2011 is all about being a new and improved gluten free kiwi!

This years resolution was to travel to Europe, UK and possibly Japan.

One thing I often struggle with being gluten free and only being able to tolerate a small amount of dairy is travelling. So that is why I have started this blog to compliment my glutenfreekiwi.com website and let you get to know the real Gluten Free Kiwi and get some international travel tips.

Hi Everyone,

I have decided to start my own personal blog to supplement the Gluten Free Kiwi website.

Basically this is a place for me to talk about dealing with weight issues when going gluten free, my travel experiences and trying to find things to eat overseas and anything else I can think of really.

Feel free to bookmark my blog so you can see what I am up to.

Don’t be alarmed – You may notice I am keeping a food diary and blogging my measurements and weightloss success – this is to keep me accountable.

I might even put some progress photos up!