Gluten Free Engineer - Making Gluten Free Easy

Breaking Free: Finding Healing Beyond Gluten with Michelle Kooi

• Carrie Saunders • Episode 28

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If you’ve ever felt like your gluten-free journey was a winding road full of questions, misdiagnoses, or “it’s all in your head” moments—today’s episode is for you. 

I’m chatting with Michelle Kooi, a fellow gluten-free warrior who opens up about her path to healing after years of health struggles and food confusion.

Michelle shares what finally led her to discover the root of her symptoms, how her life has changed since going gluten-free, and why she’s passionate about helping others feel seen and supported in their own journey. Whether you're newly diagnosed or have been living gluten-free for years, her story is both validating and inspiring.


Mentioned Resources

Reclaim your Energy and Focus Free Guide


Connect with Michelle Kooi

Michelle Kooi is a professional coach, writer, and CPA who helps entrepreneurs, financial professionals, and ADHD business owners create sustainable success without burnout.

A former CPA firm owner, she understands the pressures of business and guides clients in managing their time, energy, and money more intentionally, setting healthy boundaries, and cultivating well-being with greater ease and alignment. With expertise in self-care, work-life balance, productivity, and ADHD-friendly strategies, Michelle blends practical tools with intuitive coaching to help professionals and business owners reclaim their focus, confidence, and fulfillment—both in their work and personal lives. She integrates mindset, structure, and self-care into her coaching, helping women feel more grounded, empowered, and capable. A lifelong yogi and adventurer, she believes in the power of mindfulness, movement, and nature to fuel resilience and success.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RadiantLifeWellness

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellekooiwomensbusinesscoach/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michelle.j.kooi

Website - www.confluencecoaching.life


Save money, and no more guessing for dinner!  Use code GFE to get 20% off annual membership at thedinnerdaily.com. Plan meals for less than $4/month and save money at the grocery store!

Come join us in our free Facebook Community, The Gluten Free Engineer. 

It’s a space where you can connect with others living gluten-free, ask questions, swap tips and recipes, and get support from people who truly get it. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or a seasoned gluten-free pro, you’ll feel right at home.

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Carrie Saunders:

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode this podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. If you've ever felt like your gluten-free journey is a winding road full of questions, misdiagnosis or it's all in your head moments, today's episode is for you. I'm chatting with Michelle Kooi, a fellow gluten-free warrior, who opens up about her path to healing after years of health struggles and food confusion. Michelle shares what finally led her to discover the root of her symptoms, how her life has changed since going gluten-free, and why she's passionate about helping others feel seen and supported in their own journey. Whether you're newly diagnosed or have been living gluten-free for years, her story is both validating and inspiring. Let's dive in.

Carrie Saunders:

Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer podcast. I'm your host, Saunders. In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we have a special guest with us and her name is Michelle Kooi. She's a professional coach, writer and CPA who helps entrepreneurs, financial professionals and ADHD business owners create sustainable businesses without burnout, and she has been on a gluten-free journey for a good while now. So, michelle, welcome to the show.

Michelle Kooi:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here, Carrie.

Carrie Saunders:

So, Michelle, tell us a little bit about who Michelle is, from both the business side that I just gave a little summary on, as well as a little bit about when you started this gluten-free journey that you've been on.

Michelle Kooi:

Yes, yes. So I have my business, which is Confluence Coaching and Consulting, which I started in 2022. And I absolutely love working with female entrepreneurs and helping them with time and energy management, with mindset. I work with new business owners, so usually in their first three years and often in the first year, so there's a big switch, especially if they've never been a business owner before. The mindset shift from being an employee to becoming a business owner is a big one and, having struggled with burnout multiple times in my career as a CPA and kind of coming to the brink of that in my own business, I know how we wear so many hats as an entrepreneur that we just can easily overextend ourselves. And so I am super passionate about health and nutrition and my gluten-free journey really was a pivotal point in my life. So that started in 2012,. 12, um, quite by accident, um, in just exploring. I'd been exploring for decades like my issues with, uh, chronic fatigue and um, gluten-free was was the magic, uh solution to that.

Carrie Saunders:

So it sounds like you've been gluten-free for just about as long as myself. I think it was about 2011 when I accidentally myself I accidentally figured it out, too for me. So what helped you figure out that you needed to be gluten-free? Was there something that you read or saw or did, or somebody talked to you about it? How did you figure that out?

Michelle Kooi:

talk to you about it. How did you figure that out? Yes, so I had spent decades seeing doctors, different from traditional doctors to alternative medicine practitioners, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, chiropractic, energy work, all kinds of supplements, diets, all kinds of things. No one ever suggested that gluten might be the culprit. And, um, I was reading one of them, a magazine. Um, I don't know if it was one of my food magazines. I love to cook, Um, but um, there was an article in there, uh, interviewing Chris Carr, who is who is. She wrote the crazy sexy diet and she is a cancer survivor and she was talking about her journey and her 21 day cleanse. And, while I didn't have cancer, I really resonated with some of the things she talked about, resonated with some of the things she talked about and I decided to buy the book and do the 21 day cleanse and it was pretty, pretty intense. So there was. It was gluten free, sugar free, coffee free, alcohol free and vegan. Oh wow. So I cut out a lot of things all at once.

Michelle Kooi:

Oh, wow. So I cut out a lot of things all at once and the first five days I felt like I had the flu. I just felt horrible. But then I started to feel a little better and I was sort of coming out of a tunnel. Almost by the second week, by day 14, my energy was better than it had been in a long time and I was feeling clearer. And by the third week I felt better than I can ever remember feeling and I didn't know what I'd gotten rid of. That did it. So I was actually afraid to go back to what I was eating, and the way she teaches it is you need to reintroduce things slowly to figure out what it is, and so I slowly started introducing different things.

Michelle Kooi:

I remained vegan for 18 months because I just felt so good I kept that. But every time I hit gluten and I added that back, I would just crash for five days and it would take yeah, it would take five days to get it out of my system and start to feel better. But I was in complete denial because I love bread and pizza and crackers, and so I kept thinking oh, it's a coincidence, it's not that. And so, after about four or five tries of adding it back, it became clear to me that that was it, and so I decided well, I guess this is where I'm at. I'm going to be gluten-free.

Michelle Kooi:

And back in 2012, there was hardly any options at restaurants or in the supermarket for gluten-free items, so it was a bit of a challenge. But I had to relearn how to cook because I had not been vegan before, and, of course, you don't have to be vegan to be gluten-free. But I wanted to remain that way because I felt so good. So I suddenly had the energy to do some things that I had not done and I started trail running. But my first thought, when I, at the end of the three weeks my husband and I had been having marital problems for years I, literally, at three weeks, I decided I finally have the energy to get a divorce. So it was a complete life-changing year, for sure.

Carrie Saunders:

Sure, sounds like it. And you know, as you're talking, I know what it's like to be vegan too, because I've got, you know, friends that are vegan and I'm thinking and one of my children's girlfriends was a vegetarian whenever they, you know, started dating and being gluten free and vegan or vegetarian can be really hard because a lot of the you know components that you eat to bring in the proteins and things like that you know are typically, you know, have wheat or barley or rye or, you know maybe, oats that aren't gluten-free. So I can see how that was be even extra restrictive on top of it. And I actually accidentally figured it out via a book too. It's a different book, the Primal Blueprint, and it was kind of similar in that you know you ate primarily. You cut out the sugar, you cut out the dairy, you cut out quite a few things. You, you know you tried to eat, you know more grass fed type of meat products if you're eating meat products.

Carrie Saunders:

And it was pretty obvious after two weeks of eating this way and having a cheat day on Fridays like having a cheat meal on Fridays because he's like got an 80-20 rule I felt like I had the flu all weekend. So I can totally relate to you feeling so terrible. For about five days. I mean, I was completely debilitated with fatigue and migraines and stomach issues and you know I just felt awful. So I'm glad that, like a book, helped open your eyes to not only what was bothering you but to this new world and I like to describe it too is like everything became in high definition. You don't realize when you're eating something that's incompatible with your body what it does to you, because it takes it slowly, over time starts making you feel bad and when I went off gluten it was like the world was in high definition again. I had the energy, I could see the world in a different light and I sounds like it was kind of similar to you when you realized that gluten was your problem.

Michelle Kooi:

I can completely relate to that. So I, after about a year and a half, I decided to start experimenting. I discovered that actually wheat was my issue. So I can actually. I discovered I can actually eat barley and rye with no issues, but it's the wheat that I'm sensitive to.

Carrie Saunders:

That's interesting For me, barley actually. I mean I can't have all three because I'm celiac, but barley affects me worse than wheat or rye, I have found. So it's interesting how our bodies will kind of treat things a little bit differently. And wheat is the most common form of gluten that we have in our food today, unless you're purposely seeking out something with just barley or rye. So that's interesting that wheat affects you more.

Michelle Kooi:

Yes, yes, and I just went and do a deep dive on learning all about it. I read the book Wheat Belly and just learned about the history of some agriculture around wheat and the changes in it in the United States in the last 60 years. Agriculture around wheat and the changes in it in the United States in the last 60 years. And the gluten you know the wheat today has so much more gluten in it than it did because of it being hybridized and things like that that you know. More and more people are recognizing that they need to be gluten free because our bodies just aren't designed to digest that type of product. And so I also.

Michelle Kooi:

About three months later, I decided to go through a program with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York to get a holistic coaching certification. And I really went through that, not to become a coach but to just learn more about nutrition and health. And I went through that program for two years and just learned so much and because people started noticing the changes in my energy and what I was doing and how I looked like. My eyes were brighter and I got in the best shape of my life because I had the energy. I mean I had always worked out my whole life, but my stamina was not good and that completely changed and so people started asking, like what are you doing? Like I want what you have.

Michelle Kooi:

So people started asking me to coach them around their about health and diet. And so I started doing that just and to share, you know, what I had learned and it was just so rewarding to be able to change people's lives. I ended up just, you know, keeping that and moving forward, but I didn't really pursue that as a career. And then, about 2019, the idea of becoming a coach which I had actually had back in 2010, came back and very strongly and I started coaching clients in my CPA world business clients and helping them understand more about their money and their relationship with money and their mindset and emotions around that. And I decided to get another coaching certification and went through the Coactive Training Institute, which was my most most recent program.

Carrie Saunders:

So whenever and I love how you talk about how much you, how much better you felt after being gluten-free, because I find that to be the case for just about everybody that I've run into that either I've helped or or you know, they've come to me for questions because they knew. You know, I've been celiac for, or I've been celiac probably all my life, but haven't known until like 2011. So what other changes did you have after going gluten-free? Were there, were there any other revelations? Like, did you have like less migraines or less skin issues, or was your hair better? Like, did you have any of those type of good benefits from going gluten-free that aren't maybe quite the typical thought of being gluten-free?

Michelle Kooi:

I didn't really have um, skin issues, um or digestive issues, surprisingly, from gluten. So I mean, really my biggest one was my energy, which you know our energy is everything Like. If we don't have the energy to participate in life. I mean it affects our relationships with our family, our kids, our work. I remember I used to have to take naps at work under my desk. I would shut my door and sleep under my desk on the floor like a kindergartner after lunch because I would be so tired back when I was eating gluten and, of course, again, I didn't know that's what it was Um, and so I I got more time back, um, I didn't need that anymore Um, and I was able to, like I said, I was able to exercise more and more and intensely. So my, like, my physical health uh improved um greatly from from greatly from being able to have the energy to do that. I was able to make some changes in how I worked and so it really affected a lot of different areas of my life and at the same time.

Michelle Kooi:

So my daughter was in high school at the time and she saw me go through this transition and she had been having some digestive issues and my and again, my husband and I did end up going through a divorce, and so she would be a week at her, his house, and a week at my house, and she noticed that the week she was at my house she felt better. And so because my house was gluten-free, and so she, you know, I suggested she do it for a while, and of course you know she was like 15 and that's just like totally not. And of course you know she was like 15 and that's just like totally not. After kind of seeing the changes that I made and her stomach problems getting worse, she decided to try it and she had almost immediate relief from her stomach pain and because that was her biggest symptom, and so she has been gluten free to this day since she was 15. And so she's been gluten-free to this day since she was 15. And so she's been gluten-free for 12 years. Yeah.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah, I mean that actually kind of relates a lot to some things that we ran into is like we've had our children have had either friends or girlfriends or current girlfriends that you know they were having symptoms. One of them actually, we actually kind of helped a former girlfriend figure out. She actually had celiac. She got tested.

Carrie Saunders:

My oldest was like I think you might have celiac based upon all the problems that she was having and she was anemic, she was fainting all the time, so her iron levels were really low and she always had stomach issues and you know she actually had celiac disease. And then another girlfriend was always having stomach issues. You know she was always. She couldn't figure out what was wrong. She was always having stomach issues. She was the one that's vegetarian or was vegetarian.

Carrie Saunders:

And you know my middle child was like, you know, maybe you should try to, you know, take out gluten for a little bit, see how you feel. And she felt immediately better. Her stomach issues went away and you know she now eats protein. You know animal proteins now, you know, in a careful manner, because she needs the extra protein, because it's a little harder, like I said, when you're vegetarian or vegan to quite, you know, especially as a college age person, to get what you need and nutritionally. And yeah, I mean, there's just been so many people we've ran into that we've either helped them realize they had celiac a couple other band members we helped them realize they had celiac and marching band in high school or realized that they were intolerant.

Carrie Saunders:

And what I like to talk about a lot on the podcast too is you know we need to make gluten-free easy, and I know you mentioned to me, you know and take questions, you know that it can be easy and you know we've already talked about how it's made your life easier, cause sometimes people will be like how can you stand being gluten-free? Doesn't that make things harder? I'm like, no, I feel so much better and I, you know, I have so much more energy and life is so much fuller, and so I'd love to hear your perspective of why is living gluten-free easy and how do you make it easy.

Michelle Kooi:

Yes, that's great. So, yeah, I love this topic because I hear that all the time People say to me that they couldn't be gluten-free because it's too hard. And how do I do it? How do I like, if they put bread on the table at, you know, at at a restaurant at dinner, how do you not eat it? And I'm like it's completely, I mean, it's a, it's a no brainer, Like I look at that bread and I see it as poison for me, Like, it's like, why would I eat something that's going to make me feel horrible, Like for days, why would I, you know? So it's like I look at that and my instant connection is feeling terrible, Like, so it doesn't even look appealing to me because I know how I'm going to feel after I eat it and so I, yeah, it's just, it's just not just, not even a question. You know, I like to say that you don't know how good you can feel until you feel that good, Because when I, you know, after that three weeks of that cleanse, I don't remember feeling that good, probably since I was a child, like an interesting, and probably, and maybe never so my, I was actually diagnosed when I was six years old with a gluten or not, with a wheat allergy or not wheat allergy.

Michelle Kooi:

But just, my doctor told my mom to take me off of wheat. So I was off of wheat for six months and you know, I don't really remember much about that time other than my mom really struggling and just being just like stressed about what she was going to cook for me and how she was going to do this. Like you know, no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, no crackers, no like, and, and so we did that for six months. And then the doctor said well, I think she's grown out of it. You can put her back on wheat. Well, you don't. You don't grow out of something like that. Like, but because my, my system had cleared, when I started eating it again, I wasn't having the same symptoms and again, I don't even remember what was going on as to what led them to take me off of wheat. But I and I really forgot about it. I mean, it was only six at the time, so it just changed.

Michelle Kooi:

You know, it didn't really manifest as intensely until I was probably 14 or 15 is when I've started really being aware and noticing like that other people had more energy than I did. I was a competitive gymnast from probably age 10 to 14. And so just working out like three, four hours a day, you know, competing, traveling, and at about the time that I left that I guess started noticing, just like that, other people had more energy than I did and I I didn't understand why, and that led me to seeking out some unhealthy alternatives to get more energy. You know drinking more caffeine and some diet pill supplements, Like I remember taking Dexatrem in high school not to lose weight I was thin but for the caffeine in it to give me more energy. So I think it's not common knowledge that it can affect you that way. And again, it affects different people different way. I know some people that have gluten sensitivities or that fatigue is not their main issue and I didn't really struggle with that. But that was definitely my experience.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah, and I actually remember as a kid, as you were talking, like my grandmother taking me to the doctor. I started living with her in fourth grade and you know her telling the doctor that she's tired all the time. She always complains of being tired all the time. I don't really remember being tired, but I remember my grandmother saying why are you tired all the time? Or going to the doctors and saying she's tired all the time. We can't figure out why she's tired all the time.

Carrie Saunders:

So I do know that fatigue can be one of the major things, because your body's fighting. It's fighting for its health, it's trying to fight off this substance that's in it that it sees as foreign and, as you know, as this bad thing. And we don't realize it. You know, generally at the time and you know you're talking about the bread on the table I'm the same way, Like I don't even, like it's not even a consideration, I don't even miss it, like I can make bread better than just about any other place out there. Now, you know, and so I don't even miss it.

Carrie Saunders:

And, ironically, being celiac and I've heard this from other celiacs too I can't even walk down the bread aisle without getting a headache. I have to actually take a breath, hold it as I walk through the bread aisle quickly and then release my air and then start breathing again on the other side of the bread, because my body has even come attuned to the smell of it, giving me a headache. Or if I go into, like a donut shop or a pizza place, like it gives me an instant headache. So once you've removed it from our system, many times our bodies will find other ways, like your association, of just looking at it and, you know, associating it with something that's going to make you feel bad and that it's more like poison. Our bodies will help us along those lines as we are, you know, gluten free for longer and help keep us safer.

Michelle Kooi:

Yes. So back to the. You know the easy. So I love to cook, and so I, you know, I can easily look at a recipe and modify it for gluten. So there are things that you don't even recognize that have wheat in it, like soy sauce. So I switched to tamari, which is gluten-free for many years, but then I am now soy-free as well, and so tamari has soy in it. So now I use coconut aminos. So there's, like you know, there's hidden things. I, you know, I got I'm really good at reading labels on things, but I mean I can look at many, many recipes and modify them for gluten. It's really not that hard. There's substitutes and there's just getting creative. That's where I feel like I am. Sometimes the most creative is in the kitchen, and so I like finding recipes and just making them. Sometimes it's just a few small tweaks to make it gluten-free, and other times it's a little bit bigger one.

Michelle Kooi:

But I think the fear of going gluten-free is that people are going. Most of us like to eat, and I would call myself a foodie, and so you know, don't take away like I believe food can be healthy and delicious. It's not one or the other, and so you know, I want people to know that going gluten-free does not mean that you lose your ability to go out to eat. You don't lose your ability to enjoy eating again and cooking. It is absolutely doable and again, just feeling better makes things easier. When you're tired all the time, everything feels hard, like everything you know decision, fatigue and whatever. So it just I feel like going gluten-free has made my life easier.

Carrie Saunders:

I completely agree with you there too, and whenever and you talking about you know working in the kitchen and converting these recipes, I would love to encourage those listening to us, you know, to hear our stories about this. We both love to have that challenge of you know converting a recipe to gluten-free, and I kind of like to look at it as therapy, like it's therapeutic for me, even if you're not a good cook yet, just try it out. It's therapeutic to accomplish changing that recipe to be something that you can eat. Like that makes you feel good about yourself emotionally as well, as you know you're loving the food that you're eating too. But I find it as therapy, and so I would encourage anybody listening to maybe look at it in that perspective. You know this, this is a good way to heal your mind, as you're healing your body, and you know taking on these small challenges is going to make you a stronger person.

Carrie Saunders:

I know I'm a. I mean, I was a good cook before I realized I had to be a gluten-free. But, like I'm, my friends and my family tell me I'm such an amazing cook and my children have tried to convince me to open a gluten-free restaurant. I'm like I do not want to run a restaurant, but thanks for the compliment guys, but I'm sure you can relate there. Do you find it a bit therapeutic to be able to convert that recipe to gluten-free and make it still be as tasty and texture fun as it was otherwise?

Michelle Kooi:

Oh, definitely, I mean, I love it. I look at it as a little bit of a challenge and again it brings out my creativity. I think you know there are, you know, some skills to learn or just knowledge around what things to substitute, like the soy sauce, tamari, gluten-free, coconut, aminos. That's just one item, but there are a number of things that can be switched out and so kind of learning. So, having some tools in your toolbox, I had to keep a list for a while of things that I needed. Like, if I wanted to use this, then I needed to use that. And now it's just I don't even have to think about it cause I've been doing it for so long, but initially, like it does take um, just learning some of those substitutes. But, um, you know, I I think cooking is fun and um, I know I know some people do not Um um. But you know Um um. But you know I know even some of those um, those companies where you can order, like the food you know, pre-packaged, that that you can assemble the meal. I don't know that, I've never used one of those, but I know some people use that for um, that you know you can request gluten-free for recipes for through those, those organizations you know there's there's so many gluten free cookbooks out there and gluten free magazines with recipes in it. Like it, just I feel like it made me a better cook. Like like you said, like I I also feel like I am a good cook and get compliments on my cooking, but I feel like I actually became a better cook. I broadened my you know my repertoire. Like I started experimenting with different spices and different um, uh, just different um ways to add, you know, maybe add more protein into the meal or add especially when I was vegan as well Um and uh, adding super foods in and um superfoods in, and things like that.

Michelle Kooi:

Like I truly believe that food is medicine and and you know our food system today, there's so much processed food and our, our bodies just aren't meant for that. Like we, you know we are meant to eat real food. You know so it was here. You know we are meant to eat real food. You know so it was here, like the shop on the perimeter of the store you know, to just meet, you know, meat, dairy produce, you know, and you can, you know, create your meal from from that.

Michelle Kooi:

So, just like relying less on processed foods and relying more on you know real, real, actual food like that helps improve our health as well. So, because I know I know some people it's you go gluten free and then substitute with a lot of processed food, gluten free and that's that doesn't necessarily make you healthier. Yes, you might be gluten free, but I don't know how much better you're going to feel just eating a whole bunch of processed foods, because a lot of that also has added sugars and fillers and other things like that. So I think in you know, combination with that is really understanding and learning more about, like you know, nutrients making sure that your food is nutrient dense as well as being delicious.

Carrie Saunders:

Yes, and I think that's one of the blessings of being either celiac or gluten intolerant is we're forced to look at what we're putting in our bodies, forced to look at what we're putting in our bodies, and so that helps us over time, as we learn more, make better decisions on the foods that we put in our bodies. And you know, it's one of the things I encourage on on our podcast is, yes, you might find those processed gluten-free substitutes and they might be a good, okay, for like an occasional treat, you know, if you're not, you know that good of a baker or something. But we definitely need to be putting in the whole foods instead as the majority of what we're eating, so that we're fueling our body properly and feeling much better. Because, like you said, those processed gluten-free foods many times have extra sugar, extra preservatives, extra whatnot, just so that you can make it, you know, from the, you know warehouse to your store, you know safely, and then into your kitchen. So we really got to be careful about those processed gluten-free foods.

Carrie Saunders:

So, in closing, I'd like to ask, before we completely wrap up, what let's? Let's go to the processed foods of gluten-free. Do you have a favorite gluten-free processed snack you would love to tell us about, and I know that you try to minimize that. And then also, is there a favorite gluten-free recipe you like to make?

Michelle Kooi:

Oh, my goodness, I mean, probably the thing I eat the most often is a brown rice English muffin. That is I think it's Food for Life is the brand, and I probably eat that with breakfast like five days a week. So, like this morning, I had smashed avocado with sprouts or microgreens on my English muffin, so that's a very common, uh, common breakfast for me. Um, another one is, um, this almond flour crackers I cannot remember the brand of it at the moment Um, Sam Mills is one of.

Carrie Saunders:

Sam Mills is one of my favorites. That's it. Simple meals, yes, yeah that's it.

Michelle Kooi:

Those are my favorite, absolute favorite crackers Um and um recipes. I mean I I can't even think of one. I mean I have a to go with the crackers, just because that that popped in my head. I have this, this dip that I mean I have a to go with the crackers, just because that popped in my head. I have this, this dip that I make. That is absolutely a huge hit at parties Like I.

Michelle Kooi:

Pretty much that's my go-to thing to bring is the almond flour crackers with some veggies and this dip. So it's a. It's a roasted almond and roasted red pepper almond dip and it is super easy to make in the food processor. So it's just like a jar of or not even a whole jar of, roasted red peppers and then a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some roasted almonds and some salt and pepper and just blend that all up and it's like pretty. It's like this orangey red color and it is so good and it's gluten-free and it's vegan. So you can like pretty much anybody at any party can can eat it, unless they are sent, you know, allergic to almonds.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd love to have you send me that recipe sometime. That sounds delicious, cause we're always looking for, you know, something like that, a go-to thing that you can bring to parties. So I know we talked earlier before we started the podcast. We're praying that you have a book coming out and it's part business, but it also has some of your gluten-free journey in it too, so can you tell me a little bit about the book that's coming out?

Michelle Kooi:

Yes, so this, this has been a labor of love. So I I honestly I started writing this book in 2010. And I got about halfway through and my son started having some health issues and then I got divorced and things just went crazy. So I literally sat it down. I didn't look at it until 2018. Did not even look at it. I picked it up in 2018 and decided I wanted to, that it was not even relevant anymore because so much had changed in my life. So I started over. So I started writing the book again in 2019. So it's been six years of working on this.

Michelle Kooi:

The book is called Burn Struggle to Strength A Woman's Guide to Reclaiming Herself. So it is really about getting in touch with your is about. So we I mean, we talk about boundaries, we talk about changing perspective, we talk about fear, anxiety, but I do talk about my gluten-free story at several points in the book because, again, it was just a life-changing. There's a whole chapter on energy, uh, and having energy, and so, um, it's very. It's sprinkled in there and in different pieces about about my journey and how it really changed, really changed everything for me.

Carrie Saunders:

That sounds like a great inspiring book, especially those you going through maybe a new diagnosis of celiac or you know newly learning they're gluten intolerant or something like that, so that you can really look inward into yourself and just reclaim your energy and focus and really you know claim what you are and not be afraid of it, and you know move forward with life the best you can.

Michelle Kooi:

Yes, and then in 2021, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's, which is a thyroid hypothyroid disorder, and so I've been managing that through nutrition as well. I'm not on any pharmaceuticals for that. I know that's not possible for everyone, but that was very important to me to just be able to manage it with diet. So I've I've definitely added another component to my nutritional journey with with that and again learn that discovered new recipes, just like I did when I became gluten free, and you know new, new favorites and some new ways of doing things. So it's, it's. We're always learning and learning more about our bodies and and you know, we only get one, so helping it be the best it can be is so important.

Carrie Saunders:

I love that and I think that's a great place to wrap up. So, because it's such great advice and I'd love to tell the listeners that they just need to take care of their bodies and listen to it. So thank you so much, Michelle, for being on our podcast today. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and learning more about your gluten-free journey.

Michelle Kooi:

Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you today.

Carrie Saunders:

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode and we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.

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Carrie Saunders

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