Gluten Free, Dairy Free: What I Miss Eating

Lately I've been mourning all the foods I can no longer eat. For me, it's not necessarily the flavor that I really miss, but the social experience of eating whatever food it is.

I miss:

• Pizza benders from Italian Village (a family tradition)
• Pizza in general (though I had some killer pizza last week in Berkeley here.)
• Sandwiches from Village Baker.
• Sandwiches from Toasters.
• Being able to get french toast, waffles, or pancakes when going out for breakfast/brunch.
• Robb's killer homemade french toast. Hopefully we can find some GF bread so he can make it for me.
• My sister's homemade banana bread. Especially when she brings it over freshly baked.
• Donuts. Especially from Banbury Cross. Especially when my dad makes a random trip and brings some home on the weekend.
• Ice Cream. I had some coconut milk ice cream but it just wasn't the same. 
• In general, being able to eat anything at a restaurant. These days I'm limited to a couple items on the menu, and even then I'm not always 100% sure that the sauces don't contain gluten, or that the preparers did all they could to avoid cross contamination. 

It's surprising the things I don't miss as much as others. I thought I'd really miss regular bread, and sometimes I do, but usually it's because I want a sandwich. I thought I'd miss milk a ton but I've adjusted to my almond milk and like the flavor. One perk of going gluten free is that the food that is made to replace regular items like muffins (unlike bread) is soooo good because recipes are tried and retried to get the flavor just right. So muffins, cake, cookies, and some other sweets taste great to me. There are some really good GF breakfast cereals that I enjoy more than regular ones.

Looking pregnant but nope, I just ate wheat or dairy

Other things I don't miss:

• Never knowing when I'd be stuck sick in a bathroom- at a restaurant, at a store, with my toddler.
• Feeling bloated (and looking pregnant) and sick after every meal.
• The ten pounds I said goodbye to.
• The unhealthy eating habits I was making. (Much easier to avoid fast food now)
• How tired I always was.
• How moody I always was. (still have my moments. ;)

So I try to count my blessings and appreciate the good when I'm crying over not being able to eat something I really want to. It really is a lifestyle change, and I'm still in the learning phase. I'm looking forward to a future that includes me being more prepared, more knowledgable, and more in control of the food I eat.

Teaching Kids To Eat Healthy

  One day Esper wanted to have a picnic with her toy food so she hauled it all out to the living room and threw the food on the blanket. Oh, good, I thought. An opportunity for an object lesson. (Though really how many object lessons stick when you're two years old?) I separated out all the bread products in the group and explained to Esper that these foods make Mommy sick. (Jury's out on if they will some day make her sick, but so far so good.) What's left is a glorious mix of colors. I told her that our food needs to be colorful. Variety is good for our bodies, but of course the color our stomachs love the most is GREEN.

Speaking of green food, I went and bought kale for the first time to make a yummy green smoothie. I put in a handful of kale, cold water, crushed ice, pineapple, a banana, strawberries, and almond milk. Esper had to scoot her chair over to the counter to help me. I think this is key to getting a child to try new foods. Let them see what goes into making it. While the smoothie was still in the blender I got out a straw to taste it and of course she had to mimic me. She was hesitant because of the green color but decided to try it. She loved it! I poured her a cup and she gulped it down. I got my kid to eat kale. That's what I call success!

 

Let Me See Your Tootsie Roll

I was having a fabulous, amazingly awesome weekend. I had ENERGY.

I have started taking some supplements: CQ10 Enzyme, Calcium + Magnesium, Cod Liver Oil, and a full spectrum vitamin. I've been reading The Gluten Connection and wanted to try the approach the author suggests to heal your body. The f.s. vitamins I bought say "gluten-free" on the label but also list brewer's yeast as an ingredient. WTF? So I need to contact the manufacturer before I take those. Also, the magnesium seemed to cause some diarrhea so I stopped taking that one.

I also have tried to change the way I eat each day to see if that would help with the blood sugar problems I was having. I found this doctor's suggested schedule very helpful which she bases on your body's natural spikes during the day.

Breakfast: 8 am or as soon as you wake up. Include protein.
Snack: 9 am
Lunch: 11 am - Noon
Snack: 2 - 3 pm
Dinner: 5 - 6 pm (lightest meal of the day)
Snack: 1 hour before bed (no refined sugar)

I don't know if it was this new schedule, or the supplements, or both, but I felt great. Which was good timing since it was the bf's birthday.

But then I made a big mistake. I forgot to pack a snack to eat at school on Monday. I had my lunch around 2pm and then was feeling hungry when class got out at 4. Our school doesn't have the best selection of gluten-free snacks so I quickly read some labels and bought a tootsie roll. You know, the long ones? I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It was probably the worst time of day to have nothing but sugar. By the time I got home I had a terrible episode and had to crash. After that happens, it takes a while to feel back to my normal self. Tomorrow I have two tests- Algebra and Anthropology. Here's hoping I have a clear brain. You bet your ass I will be packing some snacks with little sugar and lots of protein.

Oh, also I got test results back from the doctor on my iron and thyroid and both are fine. Next step is to see an allergist.

The Diagnosis

I've been wanting to start a blog about all that is going on for a while now. I was trying to setup a domain and a great-looking site but found I just don't have the time or money right now, so I'm going with free and easy. Reading Mikensi's blog tonight was the push I needed.

I can't say when all of my symptoms started because with Celiac Disease, the symptoms are so varied. I have suffered from depression since the age of 14 and been on three different anti-depressants since that time. I had always done really well in school up until that time and then I just couldn't focus or find motivation. Fast forward to 2010 when I was pregnant with Esper. I will admit that I didn't eat that well during my pregnancy. I also started getting some intense pain and tingling in my right thigh and could barely stand to stand up, let alone exercise. I also developed some intense heartburn. It was so bad one day I went into the hospital and they just laughed at me, indicating that as a first-time pregnant woman, I surely could put up with a little heartburn. After I had Esper I continued to have insane heartburn. I would wake up in the middle of the night moaning in pain, grabbing the sheets as tightly as I could, up on all fours (the only position that helped lessen the pain a tiny bit). My doctor did an ultrasound and saw gall stones. My sister and grandma had to have their gall bladders removed for the same thing. After I got my gall bladder out I assumed that I would start feeling better, but in fact things got worse. As a mom and student, the work required of me each day does not leave room for resting or leaving things to do later. So I went to my primary care doctor who told me to try some Prilosec for a while. It didn't help. The main symptoms I was dealing with on a daily basis were diarrhea, headaches multiple times a day, muscle pain, abdominal pain, nausea, and heartburn. Of course other symptoms (insomnia, brain fog) I'd come to find out later were also part of this, but at the time I thought it was all stomach related so I went and saw a gastroenterologist. It was actually my bf who threw out the notion that maybe it was a wheat problem. I really didn't think that was the issue, but my doctor tested me for Celiac Disease and sure enough, my Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase Antibody test was positive. He scheduled an endoscopy to look at my small intestine and the results were somewhat odd. The biopsy showed no damaged villi, which is a marker of Celiac. There can be errors with the biopsies  but he says I'm the first patient of his that hasn't shown signs of Celiac in both the blood test and the endoscopy. So his diagnosis is Latent Celiac Disease which basically means nothing to me except that that wheat shit ain't good for me, yo.

So... now what? I had already gone to the store and bought all of the yummy gluten-free equivalents to my favorite foods. I read the hell out of the internet. I memorized bad ingredients to recognize on a food label. I obsessed. Part of the obsession came from the frustration that I just WASN'T feeling better. At all. In fact, I was feeling worse. And I had more symptoms to add to the list. Every time after I ate a meal, I would have what I will dub "an episode." My body would get extremely fatigued, parts of my body would tingle or go numb, my face would flush and feel on fire, extreme nausea would set in, and I'd have to get up and pee a lot. My doctor doesn't know what the hell that is. (Could it be a gluten withdrawal? Another food allergy?) Let me tell you what, though. Ask the internet, and they will give you 30 different responses. My friends on Facebook have been awesome and very supportive and I'm glad they are all trying to help me. At this point it's like a trial and error sort of thing to figure out what is going on. My therapist does some great body talk with me and found that my triple-burner meridian was out of balance and that my adrenal glands were under extreme stress. Sounds about right to me. She gave me some exercises to do but also gave me a lot of encouragement that my body was in a state of healing. That I needed to trust that what was happening inside of me was working and that if I needed additional information about how to heal, my body would clue me in. I soaked in the healing energy that the therapy session provided and felt a new sense of hope.

Already I have seen little glimmers of sunshine peeking through. The regular diarrhea I was having has stopped. I no longer have intense cravings for bread and sugar. I seem to be able to focus more, for longer periods of time. I get sleepy around 10pm. I am not bloated after every meal. I have a long way to go on this journey but I see a future which doesn't include me being miserable all the time, and that is good enough for me to get up in the morning and try again.