A blurb about Living Gluten Free

Long ago, I wrote a post about living gluten free.

I often get questions about being GF and refer people to that blog post. I've gone back to read it and there is a lot more to share! Here goes.

-Finding GF food is so much easier! Ask for a Gluten Free menu at any and every restaurant you visit. It's likely that they have something for you.
-Udi's GF bread is AMAZING! They even carry it at Cub. Crazy.
-Bisquick just came out with a gluten free alternative. HolyBuckets. I am SO excited to try it!
-Yummy Noodles! http://www.tinkyada.com/
-Perfect Pizza!!! http://galacticpizza.com/



Since taking gluten out of my diet...
-I've easily maintained my weight 20-30 pounds below what it was while I was eating wheat.
-I am migraine free. (I used to have 1-3 headaches every week.)
-I actually get full! I noticed that when I eat wheat I eat constantly. It's like gluten causes constant hunger and cravings.
-I'm not as confused and foggy feeling.
-My skin is clearer.
-I have more energy.
-I don't feel like a rock.
-I think I'm less achy.


I few more motivators:
My dad was diagnosed and lost over 20 pounds.
My mom knows someone with the same experience who lost 70 pounds.
A friend no longer struggles with migraines.

A tip or two about willpower:
When my willpower is waning I eat wheat. (Gasp!) But there are rules! I chose a favorite food, set a date, look forward to it, get excited, and then I EAT IT! :)
...and then... I feel sick, gain a few pounds, get a few headaches, feel nasty, get constipated, wonder why I put myself through this and then suddenly! I have my willpower back!
I go through this very 3-6 months. If I don't do this I end up cheating occasionally and one time I started cheating daily. Just a little poison here and there. It made everything horrible -blech. It's a hard cycle to get out of. So do what works for you but make it work!


If you're thinking that gluten is doing nasty things to you I really encourage you try take a stab at living gluten free. It is estimated that around 15% of the world population is gluten intolerant! You can always be tested in the future, but think about what you can do for your body now! When you are constantly eating what is toxic to your body... think about the battle for health that you are putting yourself through! That's an incredible obstacle that is completely unnecessary!

Also~ you may not experience symptoms just like mine. There are many!many!many! different symptoms of gluten intolerance. For example -one that I haven't yet mentioned is that when I eat wheat I get some bumps on my knuckles, palms, and elbows. People have many different experiences. Living Gluten Free for Dummies is an excellent reference book!

I know I only have 3 1/2 year of GF experience but I welcome any questions you might have!

So far So good.

Moving from vegetarian to vegan has been an easy move so far. Just cut out the cheese and butter -no problem. :) It's really not that hard. Of course I have my Earth Balance butter-like spread.


I'm going on a Woman's Retreat with my church this weekend where we'll be having 5 meals. I'm a tiny bit nervous about it (food-wise... I'm TOTALLY pumped about it otherwise. We're talking about prayer and I'm really excited about it.). It's just that I'm used to getting questions about vegetarianism and being gluten-free. I've never been asked about being vegan and I know I'll be sitting at a table of 6 women, 5 times... there's bound to be questions , there always is. And people always have opinions about it.

This is actually a really good thing! I really welcome questions. How else are we going to educate/be educated?

Maybe it's just the attention thing. I don't choose my diet to get attention but I'm bound to have all eyes on me at some point during the meal. And I wonder what people think about me.

I'm sure someone will think I'm crazy. Someone will think that I only do it for attention and that I really eat meat at home -when no one is looking (haha!). Someone will be super genuinely interested. Someone will think I have an eating disorder (hahaha!!!). Someone will feel bad for me. Someone will think that I am judging them as they eat. And someone will apologize for eating meat in front of me (I always get a kick out of that).

We'll see how the questions about veganism go... it'll be a new challenge for me. I wish I had Becky there with me to tag team on the questions. She's been vegan for 7 years. She's actually just taken up the gluten free diet as well.

Ha! We'll see how eating goes. That's the real challenge. I'll be bringing a lot of my own food though. I could never expect the camp cooks to be prepared for my diet. Last time I brought some of my own food and they were super accomidating and very nice. :)

It's a done deal.

I have declared veganism. "I am vegan!" As of yesterday evening. :)

I used a couple of weeks to really get used to the idea, stock up on just a few dairy-free products, and had my grand finale this weekend. I had two days of gluten. (Of which I have mixed feelings of excitement and disgust.)

[The reason for gluten and not cheese and eggs is that I really, really, really am not going to have any more wheat days -ever. (I have a wheat day every couple of months so that I have something to look forward to and don't give in on my glutenous cravings.) What would the point be of having a wheat day once I'm vegan? What's a pizza without the cheese?]

I indulged in a few faves -which left me feeling bloated, tired, headache-y, filled with "air," and quite plump:

Macaroni and Cheese
Veggie Corn Dogs
An entire foot long Veggie sub at Subway
Mozz Sticks
Buca (Eggplant and Penne Pasta)
Pizza


On Saturday night, I ate my last bite of pizza and said "I'm done." I felt nasty. And so ready for an exciting change in diet.

So yep, today I was a vegan. Ha! This is crazy.

Going Vegan

I've been a vegetarian for nine years.

It started as a presentation/report in a high-school health class. The topics were assigned randomly. So basically, vegetarianism was not something I sought out or was even interested in.

In my research I found so many benefits of eating a meat-free diet and learned about what eating meat for the rest of my life would do to my health. I couldn't ignore it and making the switch was actually really really easy. I started the very next day and haven't missed it.


I guess I've always been health-minded and pretty "aware" of what I eat. But last year when I found out I was pregnant food become super prominent in my thoughts and I was even more aware of my nutrition. I haven't been able to get becoming vegan out of my head ever since.


I'm so excited to just do it and feel better about it! I know there are things that
I will miss:
Butter
Espresso Coolers at Caribou
Whip and Drizzle! and Caribou
Everything Caribou... I really hope their soy drinks are tasty!
Cheese on my tacos
Sour Cream
Dairy Queen
Provolone on my veggie burgers.

and I know
I won't miss:
Milk -I haven't had a glass in ages. (Besides right after Sully was born -I craved it and it was really weird.)
Eggs -I sometimes can eat them, but if you think about it, dude, they're chicken periods. :-0



It's not like I won't get to eat the things that I want. There are some awesome substitutions out there! They just aren't as readily available and they are a bit pricier.


Ryan is all for it. I'm so lucky that my husband supports me in this! He agrees that it's healthier and all, he just isn't motivated to make any changes in his (already very healthy) diet. That's cool with me. :) (Maybe someday!?)

I'm going about the transition pretty slowly. Making immediate changes has worked well for me with vegetarianism and going gluten free, but I just bought bulk cheese (shredded cheddar and provolone slices) at Sam's Club. :) So I told myself that I'll just make changes until the cheese is gone and that'll be it! Vegan!



For the past week everything but the cheese has been vegan -oh, except for on Easter. I couldn't bare to tell my grandma that I was taking eggs and dairy out of my diet. She makes the best holiday meals... oh man, I don't want to have to tell her.

Can you guess what Sully is eating?

We tested it.




He ate it.






He... liked it?






Well, it was worth a try.



But what a fun mess!

Sully's Diet

Food is something I think about a lot.  I've been a vegetarian for almost 9 years and gluten-free for 2.  (Vegetarian by choice, gluten-free by allergy.)  People ask a lot of questions (which I totally don't mind -ask away) but the latest question hasn't been about my diet, it's been about Sullivan's.  "Is Sullivan going to be a vegetarian?" is the big one.  

I have so many thoughts on this I confuse myself.  I want to be open minded about it and say that maybe he'll have some meat every so often...  but I truly cannot picture myself putting a dead animal into my baby boy's mouth.  Ugh. There just seems to be nothing good about it.  

I am someone who doesn't make decisions about things like this until I've done a lot of research and reading.  Of course I know what there is to know about vegetarianism, it's knowing everything about a baby's health that gets me.  So I'll be doing some reading.  But I think that I've already made my decision to feed him a vegetarian diet, what I need to learn, or really just verify, is the healthiest way to go about it.

One thing that I'm concerned about is that Sullivan  feels good about it.  I don't want him to feel different from his peers.  I really don't want him to feel restricted either.  I think this will lye in our attitude toward the situation.  "We skip the meat because we make healthy choices." rather than "You're not allowed to eat meat."  I'm wondering how to handle it when he visits friends at their homes.  Do I call his friend's parents ahead of time?  Do I send veggie dogs with him?  Will their parent's grill him with questions like "Why doesn't your mommy let you eat hamburgers like us?"  These social situations are what worry me.  

I'm not going to give Sully all kinds of gory details about where meat comes from and freak him out.  Also, if he really wants to try some, or ends up eating meat somewhere, I won't go ballistic.  We'll have a conversation about what he thought about it, answer his questions, and move on from there.  

Does anyone have any thoughts on babies on a vegetarian diet? Or any advise?  I don't know anyone personally who has raised their baby(s) vegetarian but would love to hear from someone who has.  

I have a while to really learn about it.  He's 7 months old and I can't even get bananas past his clenched gums.  He's still nursing and that's all he cares to include in his diet right now apparently.

Living Gluten Free

I became gluten-free (GF) on January 1st, 2007 (a new years resolution I've actually kept). I was diagnosed with an allergy to wheat/gluten when I was 15 but just ignored it. I felt fine (I thought).

Then I met Mary, a new coworker of mine (and the sweetest woman!), she told me about the complications she had had after ignoring her allergy for many years. Complications (including surgery to remove part of her colon) that I would rather avoid! So I began researching and learning about what It meant to take gluten out of my diet.

"Living Gluten Free for Dummies" is an awesome book that I would recommend to anyone making similar decisions about their diet. I spent about 2-3 months reading the labels of everything that I ate... "Okay, Kim, this could very well be your very last bowl of tomato soup (yes, there is wheat in tomato soup) you better enjoy it!" I had many "last" bowls of macaroni and cheese!!! So when the new year came around, I was totally prepared. I had gone to the Wedge and purchased a ton of GF food and claimed two shelves in the kitchen cupboard as Kim's GF edible food. That way I would be less likely to get discouraged. No "theres nothing for me to eat!" and give up. No excuses!

The first changes that I noticed had to do with my digestive system (we'll pass on the details). And I felt awesome every morning. I hadn't realized how gross I had felt when I woke up. Now I felt super light and energized. Aside from that, I didn't notice much bet kept at it.

8 months later I decided to have a wheat week! I was so pumped! State fair food, Valleyfair food, pizza, macaroni and cheese, subway... it was awesome. And totally GROSS. I felt HORRIBLE. Super tired (like laying on the floor because there was no energy left tired), I was often confused and jumbled up my words, tons of bloating, nausea, weight gain, headaches, dizziness, I couldn't even focus my vision at times. And it wasn't even that satisfying. I can live without pizza if it means that I don't have to feel like that again.

And now that I can recognize the symptoms... I can decide if it's really worth it to have some pizza or go to Buca. Do I really want to gain 4+ pounds at one meal? Feel nasty for a week? It's filling my healthy body with toxins and it's notnotnot worth it.

So anyway, the whole reason for this post is that I've been asked for advise on living gluten free and I thought I'd share what I've learned. GF can be expensive and there's a lot of trial and error in finding good stuff. (A lot of GF food tastes like dirt-literally) If you have anything to add let me know!

The best and cheapest pasta is at Trader Joes.

The best and cheapest waffles (regular and banana) are at Trader Joes. *I love Trader Joe's!

Trader Joe's also has weird frozen GF pancakes that are pretty great.

Trader Joe's has a good brownie mix. I haven't tried their pancake mix yet....

Rice Chex is GF! (Rice Krispies are not -they have malt.)

Bittersweet is an awesome bakery located in Eagan. Their bread is awesome and it's also sold and Fresh and Natural Foods stores.

Sunshine Burgers, Smart Dogs, and Soyrizo are awesome if you're a vegetarian as well!

Target has an awesome mix for GF Sugar Cookies. I can't remember the brand name -there's also cake and other goodies.

Pamela's GF Cookies are pretty great. Especially Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

Crumb -Gourmet Deli- in Eden Prairie has GF bread for sandwhiches (it's Bittersweet's).

Noodles & Company has awesome GF pad thai!

Biaggi's and PG Changs both have Gluten Free Menus

Click here for more dining in the Twin Cities.

For baking there are pre-mixed flours or you can mix your own (tough!). You should go to your nearest co-op and ask. They sometimes have it in bulk so you can try just a little to see what you like.

Most chips are made of corn or potatoes. Mission makes good corn tortillas.

Mary's Gone Crackers GF crackers are good!


Not Gluten Free:
Beer -there are very few GF brands. Hard Cider is a good substitute.
Soy Sauce -try Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Better and healthier!
Most vegetarian fake meat - Boca, Morningstar, etc
Mock Duck
McDonald's French Fries (BK fries are ok)

Read the Label!:
Microwave dinners
Rice dishes
Sauces (particularly asian food) and dressings
Soup


Whenever we go out to eat I go online ahead of time to look up their allergy notifications. They often tell you what's gluten-free. Waiting 'till you get there to ask your server can cause a lot of confusion.

Let me know if you have any questions!!! Or if you have any advice for me!