As a Certified Health and Wellness Coach, I recommend following an eighty-twenty rule. Eighty percent of the time, we eat healthy. Twenty percent of the time, we enjoy the splurges. Attending one of these events falls under our twenty percent splurge. We enjoy the treats at these thoroughly and this event was no exception. We were so determined that we made sure to squeeze it in on a weekend my daughter had dance.

I also had to prioritize booths with an eleven-year old ready to get to her competition, which meant we had to rush through in an hour. My nerd brain wanted to speak with all of the wellness vendors. If you haven’t done this, I highly suggest you allocate time to when there is an event near you! As a certified health and wellness coach, one thing I highly encourage others who have celiac or any other autoimmune disorder to be aware of is that having one autoimmune disorder naturally increases the risk of having others due to an autoimmune system that is out of balance. This is why as much as I love all of the yummy products I am going to review, I learned that I have to eat them sparingly so that I don’t trigger my migraines or allergies.
Last year, I spent quite a bit of time speaking with Healthmax Center and was super impressed with their depth of knowledge extending well beyond chiropractic care (and appreciative of the adjustment). Smith Chiropractic & Nutrition has a wonderful assessment to help those who are still having health challenges and even does a mini assessment onsite. They have way more info with appointments in office. If you are looking for some more in-depth answers, she is quite knowledgeable.
Brain Balance is one of those vendors that is so incredibly intriguing to me. I wondered initially why they were at the expo for gluten free, but then I realized it had to do with whom they are looking to connect. Their target customer is the one that has seen the gut-brain connection, whether it’s celiac or not, there are many reasons why people go gluten free and for an achievement center that focuses on a whole child approach, they know they can help many individuals with issues that impair a child’s ability to achieve their maximum potential. Their program as a mom and former special education teacher absolutely intrigues me.
When looking at overall wellness, there are two vendors that fall directly in line with my beliefs, but are tough to categorize. I am a huge advocate of wellness, the immune system, and the use of elderberries. I have been buying from a local Greensboro vendor for quite some time. Norm’s Farms offers a variety of delicious options for elderberry from syrup to jam to syrups. If you are looking for traditional or alternative ways to bring elderberry into your family, Norm’s Farms has the options for you. Norwex is another product that we use in our home regularly. When I became a mom, even before learning of the need to remove gluten, I knew that I wanted to remove toxic chemicals because of the health impact they have from neurocognitive to the drastic risk of cancer among many other issues. Norwex is a company that makes these changes incredibly easy. Some of the products initially seemed costly, but the length of time they last has more than paid off. We use the cleaning cloths, towels, makeup removers, and many other products in our household.
There were some amazing food vendors this year. Some I was familiar with and some were new to me. OH Markets (Organic Harvest) absolutely blew me away with their customer service and offerings. Since I am based out of Greensboro, NC outskirts, I tend to shop at Earth Fare or Whole Foods, which have a good selection of foods and nice customer service. OH Markets reps were beyond helpful and happy to share samples of what they offer in store. They had great samples. I think I might be absolutely hooked on the keto friendly muffins by Smartcake! They focus on taking pride in carrying as many local products as possible. What I genuinely appreciated though is that they were familiar with products from what is usually considered multiple departments within a grocery store. In most cases, if you ask about more than one department, you will need to speak to multiple people. I was blown away that they were knowledgeable in more than just one department. Apparently they turned me quite quickly into a huge fan of Smart Baking Company.
Now to the really fun stuff… I never get excited about salad dressings or marinade, really. As a kid, I wanted everything plain, no dressings, dip, etc and as an adult, I am still rather picky. I don’t care how good the salad dressing is, don’t bother bringing me a salad unless it has substance. (Yes, I can be opinionated.) I was hesitant to stop by the booth for Bare Foods because honestly, can I really get that excited over salad dressing. The surprising answer is yes because I could definitely see these dressings and marinades that happen to align with even the most difficult diets (keto, diabetic, etc) as something that I would easily incorporate into my daily cooking routine and I am interested to try more after sampling just a couple of options. The Swerve table is one that I thought my daughter just might try to plow me over trying to get to. They had some cupcake samples and let’s just say that my daughter is more than familiar with how yummy Swerve is in baking. When I decided to get healthy in 2012, Swerve became a staple in our house. She might have also seen the excitement in me last spring after the Charlotte expo when I told her they would be coming out with a brown sugar alternative. There is no after taste, it’s widely available, and it is allowed also in restrictive glycemic index eating programs.
Two of our standard treats are represented every year and it always makes us smile. Thank you so much Dolci di Maria and Enjoy Life for your amazing splurge worthy treats. Enjoy Life is an amazing option not just for the gluten free, but also for those with other food restrictions, such as soy and dairy. My daughter might have been trying to see how many samples she could talk them into. Mary’s treats from Dolci are some of our favorites! If you haven’t tried her pear fudge cupcake or her out of this world carrot cake, you are absolutely missing out. She has so many options, but I can’t possibly write this up and not tell you to run to the store and try these! Then there was what I know is going to become a new staple in our house, Carolina Kettle. I am a sweet over salty fan every day of the week, but OMG, these potato chips are the bomb. We had to buy two bags each after sampling of the Coastal Crab Boil potato chips and the Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips. This might make the awesome man in my life super happy.
I almost moved on without mentioning JP’s and that would have been a tragedy. Dear new gluten free peeps, you know all those special things you have been missing, JP’s Pastry has you covered. What was a favorite? Um, that’s a hard call to make between the Hawaiian rolls, red velvet cake, and the pepperoni bread my daughter devoured in less than 24 hours, with help of a few non gluten free dance friends. My regret was only buying one package. I won’t make that mistake at the Raleigh expo!
Finally, there’s the dining out category. This can be one of the hardest parts of eating gluten free. Burton’s crab cakes and beet salad, along with City Barbeque’s trademark barbeque make this a non-issue. Did I mention that I don’t even like most barbeque? Yes, really. When a restaurant truly gets the gluten free concept, it makes my heart swoon. Thank you so much!
I can’t possibly summarize every single vendor that helped make this event possible, but I am incredibly grateful for all who make this happen, so they must be mentioned. Sponsors for Living Free Expo in Charlotte 2019 include: Allergic Traveler, Arbonne, Bare Foods, Beverly's Gourmet Foods, Brain Balance Centers, Brasstown Chocolate, Bruce Julian Heritage Foods, Burton's Grill & Bar, Carolina Kettle Chips, Charlotte Gastroenterology & Hepatology, City BBQ, Dolci di Maria, doTERRA, Elite Water Systems, Enjoy Life Foods, Flax 4 Life, Gigi's Cupcakes, Gluten Free Spirited, Grabbagreen, Healthmax Center, HempWorx, Inspire Family Health, Isagenix, Juice Plus, King Arthur Flour, Kitchencraft Cookware, Lake Norman Health & Wellness, Norm's Farms, Northeast Digestive, Norwex, Organic Harvest Community Grocery & Cafe, Passante's Home Foods, Prime My Body, Providence Chiropractic, Pure Heaven, Queen City Health Care, Reason to Bake, Simply Gluten Free Magazine, Smith Chiropractic, Spoon's BBQ Food Truck, Swerve Sweetener, The Gluten & Grain Free Gourmet, The Southern Olive, Tikka Buzz Food Truck, Tito's Vodka, Young Living Oils, Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse, and WOW Butter.
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