Lately I've been hearing a lot more about the Gluten-free diet. I have some friends, real life and blogger, who have gone g-free. Honestly, before Friday I knew nothing really about it. All I knew (or thought I knew) was that you can't eat a bunch of stuff and you instead eat weird stuff.
I'm all for educating yourself on topics regardless of interest in them directly. So when I browsed the book section in Walmart on Friday and came across a book called "The G-free Diet - A Gluten Free Survival Guide",
I stopped and picked it up. I'm not a huge fan of Elisabeth Hasselbeck; but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have some knowledge about being gluten-free. I came across the section on Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance, and wouldn't you know it I had a lot of them! I've had some health "issues" for several years now and people always think it's one thing or another. Stress has been blamed for the majority of it, even when I feel perfectly calm and de-stressed! I had noticed that some meals cause me to feel really sick and have horrible stomach cramps, but I couldn't attribute it to anything.
I still wasn't sold on the diet. So I put the book down and finished my browsing. I returned home from the city and started doing some research on the internet. I started kicking myself for not purchasing the book right away, or looking for other books there! My sister was coming into town from the city so I text her asking to pick the book up for me. I "enjoyed" my last gluten day by eating different breads, not.worth.it. And then that was it. I started the gluten-free diet the next day!
I'm only 3 days in so I know I haven't completely detoxed from the gluten I've previously consumed, but already I'm feeling pretty good! The first and biggest change I've noticed is my sleeping! I am (and have for a long time) a horrible sleeper! I can't fall asleep, I wake up every couple hours, I toss and turn all night, I sleep really light, I have bad dreams, I wake up early and more exhausted then I went to bed. The past two nights... my sleep has been amazing! I fall asleep right away, I sleep SO deeply, and my dreams are relaxing and happy making me wake up rested! I've been mentioning the past couple weeks how much I'd love to be able to wake up and work-out but I'm so tired when I wake up I hardly have energy to do anything! Today I woke up thinking I should go for a run! So my energy level has started going up!
So I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to see if it "fixes" anything else in me and makes me feel even healthier! I'm not into weird diets but this one isn't about not eating a bunch of stuff. It's about replacing gluten items with healthier ones. Going back to natural and pure foods and getting rid of additives and fillers. It's about eating foods your body was made to digest easily.
Do you normally stay away from "diets"? Are you gluten-free? Do you know any good websites or cookbooks for eating gluten-free?
I don't do any special diets although for a long time I tried to avoid dairy -- milk seemed to irritate my sinuses during my teen years. Now I eat just about anything.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with going gluten free. That's great that you're already noticing wonderful results! I admire you for being willing to give up bread. I don't think I could survive without my carbs!
Good luck!! I did it for six weeks and fell off the band wagon... I've had a hard time starting back up. It's definitely worth it, though! In fact, you're inspiring me to do so again. Ok, let's band together and go gluten free :)
ReplyDeleteMy family has a history of late onset Coeliac's disease - my great-aunt developed it in her 70s and my grandmother in her 80s. And my mum has been diagnosed as gluten intolerant.
ReplyDeleteBut I've read that it's actually quite bad for you to go gluten free without being diagnosed as needing to. Something to do with it compromising your immune system and killing off gut bacteria, I think? Anyway, the articles I read (which were through one of Australia's major newspapers, but which I now can't find - of COURSE!) basically advised that you get checked for coeliac's disease before making any dietary changes, because going gluten free can mask the symptoms of the disease and make it more dangerous for you if you end up falling off the wagon.
Wow. This was a total downer of a comment... Sorry!!
Thanks Ada! Other than the summer fruits and veggies diet my mom made us go on every year growing up, I've never tried anything like this before so it should be interesting! We'll see how I do without carbs! I might allow myself to have a bite here or there. But we'll see.
ReplyDeleteWow that's interesting. I haven't read that in my research yet. Thanks for the info I'll have to keep my eye out for that article or a similar one on that.
ReplyDeleteYou noticed it changed a lot? haha totally! let's do it!
ReplyDeleteI have celiac disease so I am definitely gluten free! I also was a nutrition major in college and did a lot of research on gluten. An elimination diet is good if you've been feeling terrible, going two weeks without gluten and then reintroducing it to see how it makes you feel will help you figure out if you are intolerant. But it's also best to consult your doctor on this journey.
ReplyDeleteGluten is not unhealthy, which makes this "fad" diet ridiculous and actually makes it more difficult for people who actually have an immune response to it because people have stopped believing it's a real thing. But if it is a real thing, and you do have a response to it, I would love to help you out!