The answer is: YES! I have been living gluten free for the past 2 months. Though not always easy, it
has been much easier than I once thought. You might be wondering how I came to make this crazy, life altering decision (believe me, my husband thought I was off my rocker when I brought it up to him). Quite simply, it was made for me.
Over the past 5 years or so, I have acquired an array of strange bodily situations. Ranging from skin rashes ("eczema"), to mouth sores, increased hair loss, to unpleasant GI symptoms (need I say more??). A lot of these have worsened over the past year. There was always something to explain these strange things, and each was passed off by my doctors as "benign and untreatable". Being told I just had to live with them. A couple years ago, my grandpa was diagnosed with celiac disease and he advised us all that it is highly genetic and those of us related to him by blood probably have some degree of it. I researched it briefly about a year ago, but decided it would just be "too much trouble". A couple of months ago, after discussing this with my running partner while running, I decided to revisit the research. I was amazed that nearly every "strange" thing that had been happening to me was a symptom of celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Wow! Even infertility! That right there sealed the deal and I decided to give it a try.
Today I am feeling great; mouth and skin rashes are improving daily and breakouts becoming less frequent. It even seems I am losing less hair. Even my easy bruising and thin blood seem to be improving. As for those pesky GI symptoms, I would say they're about 80% better. I'm trying a few other things to get that 100% under control! I am now a firm believer of what undesired gluten can do to your body. I even feel better able to concentrate that I have for years! As for the infertility part, sorry folks... we're not gonna test that one!
So, you might be wondering if living gluten free is really that hard, or worth it. For me, it hasn't been that hard, once I learned what does and doesn't contain it (and still learning, might I add). Eating out is the hardest part, and eating at other people's homes (just because I don't want them to feel bad if I don't eat their food). We don't eat out that much anyways (remember... we have a 3 year old!), and I take my lunch to work everyday. To my surprise, I haven't even missed bread or pasta, and I don't really eat the replacements that much since they're not all that tasty. We did have quinoa and corn pasta the other night and it was pretty good. Probably the thing I miss most is graham crackers and my daily ritual of dunking it in my morning coffee and the occasional bedtime snack of enjoying one with peanut butter on top. Luckily, carmel corn rice cakes are pretty tasty smothered in PB as well (haven't tried them in coffee... think I'll pass on that one!). Is it worth it?? For me, YES! I am feeling great and not even feeling like I'm "missing out" on that much.
My husband has been very supportive of my efforts, and is even starting to try some of my "special food". At first his response was, "Keep it on your side of the table", but this week he's tried GF pasta AND GF pizza crust (the pasta was definitely better than the pizza crust). Both he said were "chokable" (as in... he could choke it down), but hey, at least he tried them! Kai even loved the GF pasta and GF pizza!
Since I see my blog as a way to try to help others as well as share my life experiences, I will probably be posting some gluten free info, and perhaps tasty things I find to eat or bake.
