That Horrible Thing Called Gluten

So I've been talking about writing this post for a while, but I'm finally going to actually do it! (Other things on my public to-do list that are unfinished include the Black velvet and gold lace dress, my Spring collection which I swear is in the works! It's just not moving that quickly.) I'm seriously bad at starting things and NEVER finishing them... my excessively large paper planner has been helping, but it's still a slow going process getting organized.

As you may or may not know, my bestie bought me Practical Paleo for Christmas because she cares about my getting healthy.

in to nutrition? I highly recommend this book!

I'd been telling her how crappy I had been feeling for a while, but I never could seem to figure out why. I kept going to doctors who just wanted to shove pills down my throat rather than say, "hey, maybe we should figure out WHY you have this crazy lump in your arm pit that you've had for 12 years!" I'm happy to say that after removing gluten from my diet, that stupid lump that I'm talking about is gone!

The health benefits that I've seen have been ridiculous! I don't feel groggy any more. Okay, that's not ALWAYS true, but so long as I get enough sleep it is! I get my carbs from rice products and vegetables now and my body seems to like those carbs better. Let's be honest here. Veggies were not as big of a part of my daily meals as they should have been, but I've found that I have to make them a bigger part, otherwise I feel lightheaded and woozy from a lack of carbs. Bonus, I'm not getting more varied nutrients which makes me healthier as well.

Another benefit of cutting my gluten? I don't feel the need to eat every 3 hours like I used to. This has everything to do with insulin levels and, if you'd really like, I can go in to the biochemistry more with you, but it's really not important. The vending machine in my office building used to be my best friend. I swear Reese's and Cheetos.... yea, not fabulous for your body! Cheetos, BTW are gluten free!!! So when I have a hankering for junk food, which sadly happens a lot, I can still pop down to the vending machine and pick up some Cheetos!

This last weekend, I actually confirmed that gluten is not so fabulous for me. I was at a wedding in Florida...

Why did I include this picture? Because I don't have enough pictures in this post and I feel the need to make everyone jealous with the magazine view that I had for a weekend. More on my stay here later.

For the bachelorette party, we made homemade pizza. Unfortunately, there was no gluten free option here, so I ate some pizza... Bad plan. Later I also ate Oreos... Worse plan.

By the end of the trip, my intestines were super mad at me. When I pointed to where it was hurting, of course Ryan goes, "isn't that where your ovaries are?" It was... But my ovaries really have nothing to do with this, as the pain was more forward than that. Anyway, lesson learned. Stay away from the gluten!

"But how bad does it suck not having bread products?" you say.... Well let me tell you, I love baking. You're talking to (actually reading about) one of the few 24 year olds who owns a bread maker... Yea, I friggin love bread! So believe me when I say that it was really hard to remove gluten from my diet.

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To make things worse, two days after I cut it from my diet, I was staying with my parents for the weekend and my dad brought home those crazy loft house sugar cookies... you know the ones I'm talking about. The ones with the EXCESSIVE amount of frosting that seem to melt in your mouth.... It was torture! The good news? I can learn to bake with rice flour! Working on this, but I'm going to have to start by making these scrumptious knock offs of the amazingly excessive sugar cookies from Discover.Create.Live.

Are you allergic to any foods? How do you handle your allergies?

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