Going Gluten Free Day 7

You know, I thought I'd have a meltdown by now with so many things I can't eat.  Most of the food in my house has some form of wheat, but when I stood back and really thought about healthy food vs. junk food, I had a lot more food in my house I CAN eat.  Just like Shauna said over at Gluten Free Girl, after a while, it gets easier and then you'll get to the point where you WON'T want those old foods you used to crave.  You won't have to think so hard.  I think that's the best advice I could've gotten from the very start and encouraging.

So it's been 7 whole days since I've gone gluten free.  I have yet to have a meltdown and I have yet to be disappointed that my family is eating something I want but can't have.  Now, I'm sure that day will come and it's going to be hard.  I'm not kidding myself here, but I love to cook and bake so I'm confident that I will find some kind of recipe of the like to satisfy me.

I had made beef vegetable soup the other day.  When I went to grab my (organic) beef broth, I noticed it had wheat in it.  Yeah!  Beef broth has wheat.  I was not happy as I had extra kids in my house and my husband just got home from work and was tired, and I wanted to run to the store to buy gluten free beef broth.  Needless to say, I didn't get my soup for lunch that day but it was worth the wait for the next day's lunch.  While I was at the store, I found quinoa which is like rice but has no wheat or barley in it.  Oh I found my new-found food love!  That stuff is so good and it goes great by itself with a little bit of butter, and it also was great added in my soup.  It's a very versatile item but oh-so-expensive!!!

Ok, so they look more like cookies.  But I will say,
they are HORRIBLE the next day, even
warmed up in the microwave.  

Last night as I was eating the last of the soup, I made gluten free biscuits.  I was surprised how good they tasted.  They weren't fluffy and flaky but the taste was there and Marcella ate half of the batch.  You can get the recipe here if you're interested.  Baking gluten free, dairy free, soy free, etc is very difficult to do, I think because I don't have a clue of what I'm doing!  I know how to knead yeast dough to make a light and fluffy texture but working with wheat-free flour is a bit different.  I'm staying positive about all this because I'm taking it like a learning project.  A challenge.

How am I feeling?  Still down 3 pounds, but it's only been a week.  My jeans fit me better and I stopped craving sweets in the afternoons.  I'm not crashing on the couch as soon as I sit down and I've had a lot more patience for my kids in the evenings.  Is it a wheat thing? Probably more of a sugar thing.  My skin is healing, which is a wheat thing and I seem to be sleeping better, too.  I've had one craving so far:  chicken nuggets.  My kids eat those almost everyday and the brand that we have are my favorite.  I know they're good so it's hard for me to not take that last nugget off their plate when they're done eating.  Drinking lots of water helps and getting as much sleep as possible...which most times is almost impossible in this house!

Is there anyone out there with a diet challenge?  It's always nice to have a partner on a journey to help support each other.  Please leave a comment or contact me through email Jillzy @ columbus . rr . com 

I'd love to hear your story!

Going Gluten Free. What?!

Four days ago, my life changed.  I officially found out that I have a wheat gluten sensitivity/allergy.  I've had a suspicion for quite some time and by process of elimination, I was able to figure it out on my own, but now I know for sure.  I visited the Advanced Wellness Center and got a muscle test done by a holistic doctor.

So here's what I figured out:

Whenever I ate wheat bread, the next day my face would be broken out in acne.  I changed from wheat bread to Ezekiel bread, which is a sprout-type bread.  It helped, but I was still breaking out, especially around "that time of the month".  I got tired of feeling tired, especially in the afternoons and by dinner time, I was so unmotivated, I could care less what my family ate for dinner.

I can't lose weight.  I've been trying for four years now.  Nothing has worked and I mean nothing, to the point where I've given up and refused to try anymore.  Why bother?

Sugar - I've always had a problem with sugar but for the past year, I couldn't function without it.  I am hypoglycemic, which means my body has severe highs and lows when I eat anything with sugar.  I know that, but I continued to choose to eat sugary foods in the afternoons.  It was the only way I felt I could get through the afternoon and evenings.  By 10:30, I was falling asleep on the couch with my husband wondering if he had become boring to me.

This is no life at all!

So I hit rock bottom hard enough that I decided I was sick of myself.  I know what I need to do to gain energy and focus, lose weight and be healthy.  I just didn't want to do it anymore.  That's when I went to go get help.  If I have to pay someone to help me, even if it's to tell me what I already know, then that was good enough to kick my rear end back in gear.

So I have a gluten allergy.  What does that mean?  It means that I have a lot to learn.  I have to read the labels on everything.  I have to learn to cook more meals and shop differently.  Then only after two days, I had my first meltdown when I realized everything in my house contains wheat.  EVERYTHING!  Ok, I'm exaggerating just a little, but as hungry as I was that morning, I didn't want to eat eggs for a fifth day in a row.    I realized that I have to give up a lot of my favorite foods, even my Ezekiel bread and yes, junk food.  Not only do I have to avoid wheat, I also have to avoid soy and sugar.  Soy is in everything.  Even in my olive oil cooking spray and my coffee creamer.  Oh, my beloved coffee creamer, which by the way is one of THE worst things you can consume!  I have basically ruined myself by eating what's mostly provided for us in the grocery stores:  processed, pre-packaged and artificially man-made foods.  Foods that contain so much crap, that I've developed a hormonal imbalance, lack of weight loss and now allergies.

But I'm not to despair!

I'm not mourning over this consequence I've been presented.  I'm seeing it as a challenge.  No wonder eliminating wheat bread out of my diet wasn't enough to help heal my acne issue.  I was consuming way more wheat everyday than I realized.  Did you know that there's wheat in enriched white flour?  Soy sauce?  Creamed soups?  ALL kinds of pastas?  Because of my super lack of energy in the afternoons kept me from making a decent meal for my family, we ended up having pasta a lot more often than I ever allowed us to.  There's wheat in anything that's breaded, most creamy sauces, sprouts (yes, my beloved bread) and beer (barley).  The list goes on.

Four days have passed since I've eliminated wheat from my diet.  A friend pointed out tonight at 8:00 that I looked so awake and energetic.  It's 1:00 am and I'm not bobbing my head at the keyboard.  My stomach isn't bloated anymore and I've already lost three pounds.  My face is already clearing up and healing and I've got more focus.

So I'm not mourning over this challenge.  It's going to be difficult but I'm eager to learn because I've already seen results.  I'm so excited that I can now begin to heal.