Going Gluten Free - Yup, I'm Gluten Intolerant

I don't even know where to start this topic.

I have so many things going through my head and at this point in time and I'm still navigating eating without wheat. I'll be honest. It's stinkin hard. It is NOT easy. I had built my life around easy food habits of which many of my selections included wheat. Having to rethink my food habits was...not overwhelming exactly, but rather really challenging.

Truth is, the majority of people actually have a senstivity/intolerance to the gluten (a protien in wheat) and they don't know it. They are living with symptoms every day, just like I was. Symtpoms like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, tiredness and fatigue particularily after eating foods with wheat in them, migraines and even mood issues. Fact of the matter is so many health issues we deal with are mostly food related. There are some who will read this and disagree saying I'm "fear mongering" you away from your beloved treats, sandwiches and cookies by saying just because you have a little constipation you may want to avoid gluten. Whatever, I'm not appealing or in the mood to argue with those readers. Nor is that wheat I'm telling you. Gluten is mostly present in processed foods. And following a processed free diet is, well...really good for everyone! I digress...

I'm sharing my experience and my opinion so maybe, if you are dealing with the same issues or related ones, you can consider more seriously your diet. Because believe me, I have a really good, "clean" whole diet with minimally processed foods. But each night, every night, I would deal with OMG bloating, and then soon came some...not so lovely aftereffects ;) OK FINE, I'll say it...gas. I won't go into details but if you ask my hubs, you'd think we had fed like 10 men chili that night and they left their presence in our house. #sorry It was horrible! I felt like I had sludge in my stomach and at some point it felt like I had a 3rd trimester baby throwing elbows in my stomach! Just horrible! In attempts to fix my gut, I ordered the most expensive probiotics online thinking I needed more good bacteria in my gut. I even regularly bought souerkrout and had kefir every day. But STILL, each night shortly after I started eating, a few hours later I would get the symptoms! What's really crazy is this like, just developed within the last 9 months. I've never had this issue before. EVER. I figured one day when we had the extra money I would make an appointment with a food allergist and this person would help me find out what was what. #FingersCrossed

It ended up I figured this out through a Low Carb Diet I put myself on. I wanted to realte to my clients and others who are going after weight loss and who usually need to follow a low carb diet to do so. I knew going through what they go through I could relate and offer my personal experience in going low carb. I drew up my macros and had a plan. 80-90% of my carbs each day would come from veggies and the other 20 percent would come from fruit. On most days. On the occasional ghigh carb day I would have the option to squeeze in a treat and each some breads or a wrap or something "grain-y". Lots of protein! And a lot more fat than previously eaten! YUM!

So for the first few days of my new diet things were going actually pretty well. I bought a few big bags of frozen stir fry veggies, precooked all my meat, was filling up on nut butters, egg yolks, whole milk for my coffee and smoothies, avocados, yadda yadda. Workouts seemed to almost immeadiately suffer however (that's another blog), and energy was lagging as expected. But diet wise I was on it. Then came my high carb day. And sure enough, my horrible symptoms came, too. At this point I hadn't put 2 and 2 together, I was just like "DANG. I've got to see a food allergist about this!". And went to bed, woke up, had a somewhat better workout from a higher carb day previously and followed my LCD again for another few days. Energy gone, sucky workouts, you know, livin it low carb. (BTW, for someone who works out regulary and is generally pretty active and at a healthy weight, carbohydrates, for most of those people, are so very necessary...that's another blog)

I did this routine for another week or so before it started to click. I'd be bloat/gas/sludge stomach free on the days I had my carbs from veggies (btw, my starchy carbs post workout would be banana's, sweet potato, rice, things like that) and then notice, as usual on my high carb days (you know, the ones with the added wheat)... I wasn't.

I remember thinking to myself "OH no. OMG. I think it's wheat that's causing this!" Standing there in my kitchen telling my VERY skeptical husband that I think I may be intolerant of gluten (which I'm pretty sure he is, too, but he "powers through" his issues lol). He give me sideways looks every time I would eat and say that I missed bread and donuts and whole grains. He really didn't believe me! So I thought I'd show him. I had him bring me home a few donuts and when he came home, I ate those and a PBJ sandwhich. Let's say he's less of a skeptic after that evening. lol #ProvedMyPoint

This all went down about 8 weeks ago. Ever since I've been spending so much time online searching for recipes that are not only gluten free but EASY to make. Let me tell you. I am NOT a baker. Like no. I don't like whipping out measure cups and bowls and an electric beater and adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a pinch of this blah blah and going to town. I wish I was, but I'm not. And then the mess that's left over! All for something you can get at the grocery store or from a box and with a few tweaks, it's actually not so unhealthy! But lets get real. I bake like three times a year when the kids beg me to buy brownie mix and I'm like FINE. Switch out the oil for applesauce and voila. Kinda sort of healthy lol #ImaGenius. In my hours and hours of scouring the interweb for gluten free options I've stumbled upon a few that I will do and will eat on a regular basis. One is a Quinoa Pizza, and the other is a high protein gluten free bread. So, there is some light in this (but OMG, the workout energy and recovery blog, have you read it yet??) and I'm trying. I'll admit, many times I've eaten very few calories because I'm not in the habit of having gluten free options available, I'm tired of bananas and sweet potato and I hate prepackaged gluten free breads. If you have any recommendations on a yummy gluten free bread that doesn't taste like it was for the birds, please leave a comment!!

I'm so so very new to this, and "they say" it takes about 6 months to a year to get this eating-style down. Which makes sense as this was my experience when I first started IIFYM, Flexible Dieting and Intermittent Fasting. These things take time. Quest bars and protein pancakes have been my saving grace during this transition lol. It's the closest things to treats and bread...? Their easy to get and make, and delicious!

NOTE: I DO know there are many gluten free foods out there - chips, donuts, bagels, breads, waffles, baking mixes, etc. But one thing I've noticed with these foods are they are very calorically expensive, sky high in carbs and hellerrr ching ching! $$ So I don't eat a lot of "gluten free" options every day cuz money and calorie dense. Yeah.

So there. I'm one of "those people". My stomach is mucho mucho happier these days! I eat lots of fruit, good amount of veggies and back to balancing out on protein. Once in a while I'll spring for those gluten free donuts and pretty much eat the whole box (those things are tiny!) and look forward to the next days energy during my workout ;)

If you have any tips or questions on gluten free or going gluten free, be sure to leave a comment below. And the biggest form of flattery is sharing my blogs! If you do share, I love you forever! Thank you!

Until next time, I wish you health, happiness and heavy lifts!

-Brandi, XOXO