Don't eat gluten and drive

I am sooooooo stupid. I went out to a great restaurant last night. I knew I had to be really careful because I had to drive around 2 hours home. I got oil and vinegar on my salad to avoid the hidden gluten. I asked if the chicken was breaded. I neglected to skip the sauce that went with the chicken Florentine. I ate half of it before I realized there was gluten in it. I wrapped the other half for hubs. The service dropped off after we finished eating, so we left without coffee and dessert. By the time I got on the road (slight detour to the outlets), I was feeling muscle fatigue in my arms. I made the stupid decision to skip Wawa for coffee so I could just get on the road. The closer I got to home, the harder it was to keep my eyes open.

Before I started paying attention to how my body reacted to certain foods, this was a normal reaction to dinner. Hubs would usually drive home if we went out because I couldn't focus. I haven't felt this level of fatigue since I eliminated gluten. The part of this that bothers me is now I know better. I should have grilled the waiter (politely, of course) and mentioned that I have a problem with gluten. I need to learn how to ask these questions. I also need to stick with grilled meat, no sauce.

This morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck. It took me a while to get moving, but this afternoon, I feel so much better. I am not exhausted. I had eggs and sausage for breakfast with my Ezekial bread. For lunch, hubs and I finished the leftover chili verde. Then I got into cooking and preparing meals for the week. I have my energy back and I'm not even tempted by the apple cider donuts I bought at the apple festival yesterday. Gluten free has become so much easier. I do plan to ask my dr to test me when I see her on 10/18. We'll see how that goes.

Changes

We've been traveling so much and the kids have been to various camps across the county and state that I haven't paused to track what I'm doing. I've become more and more interested in the paleo/primal world. Essentially, you eat like our ancestors did - meat, veggies and some fruit. No grains. Sound hard? If I still ate bread, maybe. But bread and pasta and other grain products are easy for me to forget because of how they make me feel. I've been more or less gluten free since the beginning of June. I had pizza in Galway NY and a few bites of gluten products at dinner later that week. I was ok with the pizza, but the 2nd experience wasn't good. A few weeks later, I had a donut. HOLY CATS! I was so miserable. Stomach cramps, fatigue and joint pain. Nothing like a horrible reminder of how shitty I used to feel. I do my best to avoid eating gluten, but I may end up having to eat it again if I decide to get tested for celiac. The only reason I would want to be tested is so I can definitively tell people I have celiac. If I mention I am avoiding gluten, no one takes me seriously. I hate that you have to add gluten back in to get a true test. I really wouldn't be surprised if I have celiac.

But, going forward, I am planning to string as many grain free days together as possible. I don't plan to be extremely strict, but my breakfasts and lunches are always grain free. Occasionally, I'll have a grain with dinner. Last night I had a wonderful risotto with shrimp and pesto. Do I regret it? Nope. I made the choice. There were plenty of options on the menu and I decided I was ok with having the rice.

Before we went on vacation, I challenged hubs to avoid gluten. Gluten causes so much inflamation in the body. Inflamation causes chronic disease. Hubs has already dealt with the symptoms of chronic disease, but I am not convinced the source was ever dealt with. Since the worst that could happen is he lost a few pounds, he agreed. I now have him addicted to Lara Bars, but only the ones with coconut in them. He is interested in pursuing this eating style since he dropped 3 pounds in 3 days. I may eventually get him to agree to get 1/6 of a grass fed/grass finished cow.

I think the most interesting part of this journey is watching the kids. They are so supportive of me. Trinks has expressed interest in eating fewer sandwiches and exploring more gluten free options. She has stomach pains every once in a while and I do wonder if she inherited my issue. S asked hubs if chocolate cake had gluten in it before he offered me a taste of his dessert. We are just slowly moving over to a healthier life style. Hubs even banned juice from the house! I was so impressed, because I put juice in the same category as milk - unnecessary. Juice, even 100% juice has way more sugar than the kids need. I don't have enough space to write why I hate milk, and if I did, the milk lobby would come after me. But the kids decided to drink half a jug of juice that hubs bought that morning. He told them he wouldn't buy it anymore. I replaced juice boxes with thermoses of unsweetened herbal fruit tea. Thank goodness for Celestial Seasoning's line of fruit teas. So far so good.

Getting the family onboard is a big challenge for me. Although most of our dinners are from scratch and using whole, fresh ingredients, some days we just don't have then energy to cook. We used to run to Dominos every other month because their pizza is really good for the price. Now if we do that, I still have to figure out what I am going to eat. It's not a big deal, but I just need to focus on planning and making sure we have the right stuff in the house. With hubs on board, I need to make sure he has breakfast, lunch and snack options available. I am organizationally challenged, but I hope as we get deeper and deeper into this lifestyle, it will get easier. I like making my own food. I think hubs and I cook things better than moderately priced restaurants do. As with all change, it takes time. And there is no time like the present to make these changes.