Gluten Free - Day Five

Today was the hardest day so far.  Not really that I wasn't having gluten, that wasn't a problem, but what seems to be withdrawal.

 I went out for brunch with a friend and had a delicious omelette.  Egg white with one egg yolk, spinach, feta, mushroom and shallots.   It was absolutely delicious, mouth watering delicious.

I wasn't a big change, it's the omelette that I have all the time from this restaurant, what was the change was not having the two giant pieces of sour dough bread with butter and vegemite!

 Aside from doing a bit of laundry, I really did not do much for the rest of the day.  I have been feeling so light headed and goodness, my legs and arms are aching!  I feel like I've been for a 10 mile walk or have been doing squats and weights at the gym.  That kind of muscle sore.  But I didn't do anything the day before to cause it (other than clean the house, which I do all the time and have never felt like this).  So I'm putting it down to gluten withdrawal.

 One thing that I have noticed, is the very irritated patch of psoraisis that I have had for about 4 months and over the week after starting a gluten free lifestyle has not virtually gone!   I know where it was, I find that my psoraisis spots leave a little mark where they were, but if someone saw my stomach, they would not know were it had been.  That is just mind blowing!  This irritated, sore, itchy patch of skin that has been annoying me for months, suddenly gone!  Poof!

Gluten Free - Day Two

Today was a little harder than our first day.  We had two outings.  One to a theme park with friends and a dinner out at a restaurant, and not just any restaurant, an italian restaurant... gluten filled meal central!

I had looked at the theme parks website the night before and I couldn't find any information about gluten-free food being available at all.  I thought this was a little strange as everywhere seems to be so gluten-free friendly these days so I thought I'd better pack some food for my son and I just incase we couldn't find anything for lunch.  The theme park has a "no outside food" policy, but they did not do a bag check so we didn't have any trouble taking in our own lunch.

I am so glad that I did as there really was nothing that I would have eaten.  There was lots of burgers, nuggets and fries, hotdogs, donuts, muffins, sandwiches, if it had gluten in it, they had it.  I had packed some large gluten-free savoury muffins and some fruit for us and that was plenty.   I wasn't bothered not eating the hotdogs and fries, I was really quite happy with my muffin and fruit but I'm not sure about my son.  I think he was feeling a little left out not having his usual meal like all the other kids but he didn't complain.

That night we went out for dinner to a local italian restaurant.  I really didn't know if we would be able to eat much there but to my surprise, they had gluten-free pizza bases, gluten-free pasta and were able to make most of their meals gluten-free on request (there were a few that could not be made gluten free but that was just a few meals, so it was almost the whole menu available).  My son had his usual all meat pizza and I had a ham and mushroom and egg pizza and we all loved them!  In fact, we actually preferred the pizza base to their usual gluten containing pizza base!  So we are happy that we will be able to continue going to one of our favourite restaurants.

We still have not noticed much of a difference in ourselves.  I will say though that I have had this  psoriasis patch on my stomach for about 4 months now.  Usually I break out in winter and under stress and with the weather being so hot, it's unusual that my psoriasis is playing up at this time of year, but it has been.  Even when it does break out, I will have the break out patch stay around for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, where it seems to go away (and sometimes leaves a faint mark of where it was).  But this 4 month one was a little sore and a little itchy but it looked terrible and it was right on my short/jeans line, so it would rub.  I wondered if this is why it had stayed for so long.  Anyway.... to cut the long story short... it's starting to go!  It's probably faded by half (my psoriasis doesn't shrink, it sort of fades away if that makes any sense).  So I'm wondering if this is down to the diet?  I'm hoping so!

Hi Everyone.

I am sorry that I have been neglecting my blog.   Life has been very busy, no excuse I know, I am sorry.

So my life is taking a new direction.  In the health area anyway.

As many of you know, I am the mother.  But many of you may not know that,  I have had a life threatening peanut allergy my whole life.  40+ years (did I just admit I'm in my 40's?).   It has never really been a big thing for me to avoid nuts.  Yes I say nuts as I am allergic to all nuts except Almonds and Macadamia.  My allergist has said that I need to avoid all nuts as those may be contaminated, so it's completely nut free for me.  Being nut free is all I know.  I don't buy a product without reading the label, I don't put any food in my mouth if I can't read the label or speak to the person who made it (or the waiter or chef).  I avoid eating at functions, cocktail parties with lots of nibbles being passed around on trays.  Just too risky for me.   Due to my allergy being so severe, it's a trace and airborne allergy, we don't have anything in the house that contains nuts.  The whole house is nut free, thanks to me!

Again, I have never found it to be a big deal.  It's all I know.  It's the only way I have ever lived.  I've never been able to eat them.  So avoiding nuts has been a lifelong habit and I don't even think about it.  I don't have to remember to read a label, I just do it.   But we, my household, is about to make another change.  We are becoming Gluten Free!  This is a whole new ball game for me, for us.

Why are we becoming Gluten Free you may ask?  Well there are a number of reasons.

 I have been anaemic for over 4 years now.  I take up to 6 times the amount on the bottle (on doctors advise) and it keeps my iron, most of the time, just below the bottom of the normal range (sometimes it drops a long way below normal).  I've had many tests to find out why this may be happening.  Both my son and I were recently tested for Celiac and they came back negative (borderline it actually said, but I really don't know what that means).  I also just found out I'm very low in Vitamin D and seem I to have trouble absorbing Magnesium and Potassium.  So there is clearly some sort of problem with absorption.

 I have just found out I many thyroid nodules.  One quite large.  I have read that thyroid and gluten are not friends, that thyroid problems can be greatly improved with a gluten-free diet.

Both my son and I have a range of digestive issues, sometimes quite bad and rather embarrassing and painful, very painful (trying not to give you too much information here as I'm sure you get the jist).

I have psoriasis, an auto immune skin disease.  I've been doing a lot of reading about how a gluten free diet can also help. 

I think that both my son and I have a gluten intolerance at the least.  So no more gluten it will be for us to see if it helps any of our "issues".

It's a big thing cutting gluten out of your diet completely.  We are going to do it 100%, see if there is any improvement in my thyroid, my iron levels, my energy, my digestive system, my son's iron levels, his aspergers, how he feels in his skin, his digestive issues.

For the last couple of weeks I have been buying gluten-free products, flours, snacks, bread to move over completely.  I'm hoping we will be 100% gluten-free by the end of this week.  

So here on my blog I'm going to share our progress, our success, our recipes, some of our new favourite foods and share our new journey into the world of Gluten Free living.