And yet, you’re reading this blog.  My guess is that you aren’t just window-shopping for something you know you’ll never have.  More than likely, you’re sifting through piles of information on my and other blogs hoping for something you CAN do.

A lot has happened since writing and releasing The Satisfaction Transformation.  There’s now a wheelchair in my home.  I don’t have to use it for day to day stuff, but I’m not supposed to walk for exercise anymore.  Hiking and exploring hidden trails was once second nature, but I can’t do that now.  Hiking isn’t the only thing on what feels like a long list of things I can’t do anymore.

I’m sure there are many of you out there who know what it is to lose something you always took for granted…something that was a part of you even when you didn’t realize that subconsciously you defined part of yourself via that something.

Like most people would, I went through the stages of grief.  I lost muscle and gained fat.  As the results of my hard work trickled away, I became angry about how unfair it is that things are so much harder now.  For a while I did the things on my “can’t do” list anyway, unconsciously punishing my body for not being able to keep up with what the rest of me ached to do.

When I whined to a friend about how hard it is, she said she had a great book I should read—and then she pointed at The Satisfaction Transformation sitting on her coffee table.

I laughed, feeling guilty about how far I’d drifted and frustrated about my limitations, but she reminded me that the author talked about starting where you are and finding your way forward from there.  (That was a nice left hook, Carole, and it was exactly what I needed to hear…thank you!)

My father had just died the week before that conversation, so it’s been a bit of slow process, but I took Carole’s recommendation to follow my own advice.  Thankfully, it turns out that I actually know what I’m talking about.

So from here on out this blog will be dedicated to all of us who need to find a way to succeed at our health goals despite various limitations, to find our list of what we can do, and to use the tools needed to transform our lives.  Exercise and nutrition will still be at the core of almost every article, but you’re likely to find some very non-traditional approaches presented.

Life is short and even if there are things I can’t do and challenges I face, I want to arrive at the end knowing that I really lived.  To do that, I have to optimize my health, my relationships, and my attitude.  Anyone else share that goal?

Until the next post when we start digging in to specifics, check out this guest post I did over on the Shapeshifter blog.  It’s about an herb that can help squash sweet cravings.

Stress, and occasionally lots of it, is just part of life.  So what do we do when it happens to us?  The best we can.

My father died right before Christmas and a couple people I love are sick with things like cancer.  Typically I’m pretty involved because not only do I care about them, but I also have knowledge from my past career that is useful when dealing with doctors, hospitals, disease, and disorders.

That knowledge always sounds good, and most of the time it is.  But it also means that I understand things other family members can be blissfully unaware of.  That adds a component of deciding what to tell them and what to leave for the doctors.

At the same time as all of that, I’m also learning the skills needed for a new career.  Because, you know, having money is nice.

To say that there’s a little stress in my life right now is like saying that the sun is a little bright when it shines.

I know that you’ve all been there.  Tests at school, relationships, kids, parents, jobs, interviews, injuries, and illness…we all go through times when we feel overly stressed.

Here’s what helped me:

1.  Eat clean — Having celiac disease made it easier to pass on all the comfort food that was around because most of it had wheat, but staying off the sugar made it easier to handle the extensive amount of emotional events.

2.  Drink water  —  Staying somewhere else and being off your schedule makes it easy to forget simple things like staying hydrated.  Stress is most often an emotional experience.  The more intensive the emotional experience, the less aware we tend to be of our physical needs.

3.  Do mobility — Moving your body is really important when you’re stressed.  If you’re angry, sad, overwhelmed, or any number of other emotions, your posture tends to show it.  That translates to clenched muscles and restricted movement.  You might be surprised how much better you feel emotionally after a session of joint mobility.  Swing your arms and legs, bend in a bunch of different directions, move every part of you that moves in all of the directions possible.

Those were the things I did daily and without compromise.  However, I was serious earlier when I said that we do the best we can.  Sleep eluded me because of things to do, unusual surroundings, and a lot of things my mind wanted to process.  Exercise might have helped, and I did some bodyweight stuff when I couldn’t sleep, but there wasn’t enough hours in the day sometimes.

So more tips include:

4.  Get enough sleep and at least a little exercise.

5.  Know what you will and won’t compromise so that you can roll with it when the situation is short-term.

During the time before, during, and right after my father’s death I did pretty well.  But once all was said and done, the holidays were over, the thank you cards were written and sent, etc., I took a few days off.  I knew I needed down time, but I also caved to comfort food.  I learned a few things, so although I made some poor food choices, I can do things differently next time.

I’ll add:

6.  Know your weaknesses — I can watch friends or complete strangers eat all sorts of junk food and my appetite will only slightly stir.  If family members are eating junk, it’s a completely different experience.  Turkey wrapped in lettuce just doesn’t cut it when your family is eating nacho cheese with corn chips and washing it all down with brownies and pie for dessert.  But a nice Bolognese with some spaghetti squash would have given me enough strong flavors that I’d have been okay.  I didn’t eat any of the junk that day (largely because all of it had gluten or corn), but my lack of planning for a known weakness too strongly influenced my choice to go off my low carb diet the following day.

7.  Get back on track as soon as you can.  We all sometimes make choices that carry us away from our goals.  The best solution is to start making choices that carry us closer to our goals.  Remind yourself why you’re taking care of yourself and the rewards that can bring into your life.

What do you do when stress starts building?

Kathryn

My absence here is because I was spending time with my father at the hospital, with my mom at her home, and then taking care of some of the many tasks that need done when someone passes.

There should be some posts coming your way in the next few weeks.  Look for an article on eating and exercising during times of high stress.  And there will be a link to a guest post I wrote for a friend’s site too.

Until then, may the choices you make and the actions you take today, create a healthier you tomorrow!

Kathryn

"From video in the New York Times article linked below: The Once and Future Way to Run."

Everywhere across the US, people are gearing up for yearly Thanksgiving day runs. Some will run for the pure joy of running while others will run in an attempt to burn some calories that they’ll more than adequately make up for later in the day.

(Personally I’ll be practicing intermittent fasting and some progressive resistance exercise the day before and the day after…but there are many approaches to dealing with the planned carbohydrate feast that is called Thanksgiving.)

If you’re going to run, then knowing how to run in a manner that protects your joints and prevents injury is something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving (and anytime you go for a run).  A recent article in the New York Times talks about the 100-Up running method.  As an anatomy and bio-mechanical geek, I love the info presented and think that there’s a lot of value in it…especially in the video and the graphic.

So without further adieu, here’s a link to the article: The Once and Future Way to Run.  Make sure you check out the instructional video on the first page and the graphic to the right of the article that will pop-out if you click on it.

Take care!

Kathryn

Sometimes, regardless of how much we wish celiac disease was a loner, there’s more than one sidekick to accompany it.  And while a sidekick can be thought of as a good thing, some people who experience celiac disease and its sidekick(s) think of them more like The Joker and Poison Ivy.  (Celiac disease is associated with greater risk of Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, diabetes, and other forms of autoimmune diseases—autoimmune means that your body attacks some part of itself as though it were a bacteria or parasite that shouldn’t be there.)

Heidi over at Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom has some great posts, but this one profoundly impacted me.  Heidi’s article talks about the ‘why’ of cheating on a gluten-free diet, but the reasons she lists apply to a lot more than just gluten.

I don’t cheat on my gluten free diet.  Given the choice of eating gluten or not eating at all, I’ll pick not eating at all…even if that means no food all day.  Gluten causes massive hunger for me, so being hungry for a day is nothing compared to feeling like I’m starving for as long as a few months.  However, I have a huge family history of diabetes, and there have been times when I haven’t been as mindful of that as I should.

I’ve been reading Dr. Richard Bernstein’s book The Diabetes Solution and can’t recommend the book enough if diabetes might be a concern for you.  I don’t have diabetes, but the majority of my immediate family members have been diagnosed with it.  I recently learned that one of them is having readings outside of a normal range, despite a healthy body fat percentage, and that made me pause.  For the first time it seemed possible that maybe there is an autoimmune component to the diabetes that “runs in my family” instead of it being entirely diet related.  That’s when I realized that despite eating lower carb most of the time, I might not be able to avoid autoimmune-induced diabetes.  But currently I don’t have it.

Eating gluten-free can be challenging, but my biggest regret is that I wasn’t diagnosed sooner so that the damage it did could have been stopped.  With my fasting glucose readings running around a healthy 80, I have the opportunity to prevent any damage that could be caused by a disease that I might or might not develop.

Maybe by catching the celiac disease and treating it, I prevented the progression of diabetes other family members have experienced.  I’m the youngest by several years, so maybe the progression is happening but hasn’t hit a noticeable level yet because of the diet I eat or just pure time.  Maybe the diabetes in my family is all diet related and there isn’t an autoimmune component.  Regardless, I’ve been trying to decide how I feel about adopting a diet that limits any potential damage future high sugars could bring without knowing if I “need” to eat that way.

Dr. Bernstein, who is currently in his 80’s but was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes at age 12, outlines a way to keep even insulin dependent diabetics in a healthy glucose range.

One of the guidelines of Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution is to have no more than 6 carbs with any meals before noon, and to have 12 carbs or less with any meals after noon—6 carbs is about 2/3 c. of broccoli.  He explains how he arrived at those quantities and why in his book.

When I’m alarmed at my family’s glucose readings, they tell me I don’t understand how hard it is.  They might even feel like I’m being mean to suggest they shouldn’t let their sugars run so far out of the normal range.  I do get it, and it isn’t mean to want them to avoid the long-term damage their short-term food desires will cause.

I understand the power of food, the emotions we associate with it, the social aspect of it, and what it is to know that if I want to be healthy I will never again sink my teeth into certain foods, never share them with friends or family, and never make new memories or continue old traditions with them.  I know what it is to have a disease/illness feel like some undeserved punishment for a crime not committed.  I also know what it is to successfully manage that disease and feel significantly better (and not like a victim) as a result.

The thing is, at the end of the day the fair or unfair of it doesn’t matter.  The simple truth is that we can’t control our family history or the autoimmune diseases we do or don’t have.  But once we know we have a disease that is strongly affected by diet, we’re the only ones who can limit the damage the disease does.

So even though things out of your control are happening, you’re not powerless.  And while I know that it may not feel like it now, eventually you might even be grateful for the lessons learned as you journey towards better health.

Oh, and by the way, I decided that unless (hopefully not until!) I’m diagnosed with diabetes, I’m going to eat according to Dr. Bernstein’s recommendations for 98% of my meals.  It’s not really all that far from the gluten-free diet I’ve been eating, and it stacks the odds in my favor that I’ll avoid ever being diagnosed.  Unlike the damage eating gluten would do if I included it in my diet, there’s a good shot that there will be no ill consequences for eating more than 12 carbs at a meal if kept to just 2% of the meals I eat each month.

Kathryn

THE CHALLENGE*

Some of you reading this may be thinking that you’re super glad you don’t have to deal with celiac disease, diabetes, or any other autoimmune disease.  I’m sincerely happy for you.  There’s probably even a few of you who felt some contempt toward those who don’t manage their diets. 

But instead of casting this article aside, I challenge you to start tomorrow and eat gluten free and low carb for forty days.  Tomorrow?  Yes.  Pretend you just got diagnosed.  Start gluten-free tomorrow and be following Dr. Bernstein’s diet recommendations within a week (that gives you some time to read about the basics on his website.)  In this world of booming rates of diabetes and increasing numbers of celiac disease, if it isn’t you, one of your friends, family members, or coworkers will be diagnosed (and has probably already been misdiagnosed) in your lifetime. 

But what are you going to do for food at your business meeting?  What if the airplane/hotel/restaurant etc., doesn’t have food that’s on your new safe list?  What are you going to do when your friend invites you over for dinner/a party?  How are you going to handle the weekly gathering of friends/family at the bar/restaurant/church, etc.?  There’s gluten in chewing gum and some meats?  Is there gluten in the tea or coffee you drink every day?  Do I realize how much time it takes to read all the labels and that many restaurants have no clue about how to prevent cross-contamination of food…do you really have to read the label each time and ask the server to make sure your food has no gluten?  Yes, you do.  How do you make meat, veggies, nuts/seeds, and dairy into meals you won’t be bored out of your mind with after a few days?  What about Thanksgiving with stuffing and pumpkin pie…is there anything there you can eat, will you have to bring your own food just to be safe, and what will your family say when you can’t have the food your family eats every year at Thanksgiving and have since you were born or before??? 

40 days…most of you reading the above paragraph told yourself there was no way you could do it.  You might have said maybe you could do gluten-free or low carb, but not both.  But for those who are really diagnosed, we have to find a way to succeed and thrive for the rest of our lives at what you just thought seemed an undoable task for even just 40 days.  We also have to deal with people who think it’s impossible (and therefore think we should just eat their way) because the idea of that much social and emotional change scares the crap out of them.  And then there’s the scariest question that I didn’t include above, ‘what if decide to do the challenge and I feel better at the end of it…what if the skin rash, headaches, mood swings, brain fog, canker sores, stomach problems, constipation, diarrhea, aches, and pains, or other symptoms I’ve had for years go away?’

*You should always check with your doctor before making any diet or exercise changes.  If you are already diabetic and lower your carbs significantly, your insulin is likely to need to be adjusted to prevent you from having a dangerous low.  Therefore, it may not be possible for you to start the challenge tomorrow, should you choose to do it at all.  The point of making the challenge was to get you to think about the issues facing those with diabetes, celiac disease, or both—to get you to understand that changes in diet go way beyond the food itself, and to get you to question why you let your sugars run high if you have diabetes.  Given that currently nearly 27% of people over 65 and 11% of people over 20 have diabetes (and those numbers are expected to rise to an even higher rate in the next 20 years…so 1-3 out of every 10 adults currently with more than that in 20 years!), you or someone you know will be affected by it.  Celiac disease is less prevalent, but as diagnostic tools and awareness improve, the number of people accurately diagnosed with celiac disease is likely to increase significantly.  Awareness now might prevent more disease and damage in the future.  Wouldn’t it be cool if those numbers went down instead of up in the next 20 years?

Useful Links

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/

http://www.celiac.com/articles/1135/1/Connection-Found-between-Celiac-Disease-and-Hashimotos-Thyroiditis/Page1.html

http://www.celiac.com/categories/Celiac-Disease-Research%3A-Associated-Diseases-and-Disorders/Diabetes-and-Celiac-Disease/

http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2011/10/ask-heidi-cheating-on-the-gluten-free-diet/

http://www.diabetes-book.com/ You can read part of Dr. Bernstein’s book online for free there.

http://amzn.to/uzhzwV is Dr. Bernstein’s book on Amazon

When I was extremely ill, my husband took over our finances.  Recently, I took the reins again.  My hubby was using an online budgeting program called Mvelopes — it lets us create a budget and monitor actual spending.  I like Mvelopes; I didn’t like some of what I saw as far as our spending habits.  Not only was our grocery budget larger than we wanted it to be, since being diagnosed with celiac and food allergies, we’ve been going over almost every month!!

The good news is that our grocery spending has now been cut by about 40%, and it happened with just a few changes.

1.  Meat… I now buy all of our meat when it is on sale and store it in our freezer until we’re ready for it.  This even includes buying extra turkeys when they are on sale around the holidays (typically one or more stores have them on sale for 1 day at just 99 cents/pound…and I watch like a hawk for those sales).  I’ve also been creative with eggs.  They’re a pretty cheap source of protein that can be cooked a large variety of ways and easily paired with veggies to be filling and nutritious.

2.  Veggies… if a frozen veggie is on sale, I’ll buy more of it and store it.  But in general, by shopping for food when it is in season, I can save money and give us variety in our diets.  At my local farmers’ market, I can buy 5 large organic tomatoes for 5 dollars instead of paying nearly that much per tomato at the store.

Summer is great for fast veggies that basically need nothing but a quick wash.  Salads are easy because of that and make for a super quick meal.  But I also buy veggies that require my time to clean and cook.  Cabbage and onions have been great when shredded and sautéed.  (I’ve even used steamed cabbage in place of pasta!)  With Fall approaching, things like squash and yams will also be added to that list.

3.  Fruit…  This is an area where I made some significant cuts.  My hubby can eat a lot of fruit, and I find blueberries to be a great treat a couple times each week.  But fruit can be really expensive, so we agreed that when possible, we should reach for veggies instead of fruit.  I make sure he has enough for one serving each day, and I still treat myself to blueberries a couple times a week.  Carrots and cucumbers were nice substitutes…and he eats less of them than he did of the fruit.

4.  Grains, convenience food, and sweets…  Per ounce, grains are a lot more expensive than veggies and not as nutrient dense…quinoa being a possible exception.  I set a limit to 1 convenience food/week.  If that food gets eaten, it’s a reminder that I need to cook something that can be rewarmed quickly if needed.  Sometimes a more expensive food was being eaten in the past just because there would be a wait for a home cooked meal.  I set similar limits to grains and sweets.

I’ve found Chebe to be useful.  You can buy it through Amazon with their “subscribe and save” program.  It takes time to mix it and roll or shape it, but each box makes multiple servings of whatever food I cook using it.  Plus, it can be seasoned in a variety of ways.

Amazon has multiple gluten-free items that can be purchased in bulk such as:

Udi’s gluten-free granola

Tinkyada pasta

Dessert Essence shampoo and conditioner (for those with a contact allergy to wheat)

Ener-G products

If you have friends or family members who also use those items, you can go together to buy something in bulk that you might not be able to use all by yourself.

Those are just a few ideas of ways to save money while eating gluten-free.  To a large degree, it came down to being mindful of what we were eating and how much each food costs.  Simple substitutions cut literally hundreds of dollars from our food bills.

I’m also excited to learn that a new site has formed that will be offering coupons for gluten-free items starting this Fall.  I’m not associated with them in any way, but I’m all for saving a bit more on my grocery bill.  http://www.glutenfreesaver.com/  Hopefully they’ll have coupons for things like SoDelicious Coconut milk and Daiya Cheeze too!

Beyond that, I signed up with Whole Foods to be notified of their 1-day sales.  Most of the time those sales are nothing I’m interested in…but occasionally they are well worth the weekly emails.  I go online and look at Hy-Vee’s natural health sales.  They only show them online and they tend to run for a month at a time.

Do you have any tips for saving money on a gluten-free diet?

Kathryn

BBQ Pork

I picked up a lean pork roast that will be boiled, shredded, and then put in the slow-cooker with Daddy Sam’s BBQ Sauce to let the flavors blend.  (Daddy Sam’s is gluten, dairy, soy, and corn-free!)  I’ve not decided if we’ll eat it on Ener-g Tapioca Buns (they definitely require toasting), Rudi’s original GF-bread (which doesn’t need toasting), or just on our plates.

If there’s any left after the party, I’ll roast peppers and caramelize onions to go with left-overs later next week.

Veggies

A tray of baby carrots, sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes are simple and tasty.  I might even put some of the cucumbers in balsamic vinegar for a little twang.

Dessert

The forecast says it’s going to be 100 degrees (is it Fall yet??) so while I could bake something that’s gluten-free, having the oven on doesn’t seem like a good idea.

It’s summer and we’ve not yet had a cold, juicy slice of watermelon.  So if the store has a melon that is just perfectly ripe, I’ll be throwing it in a cooler of ice to ensure that every bite is cold and crisp.

If the watermelon doesn’t look good, I’ll probably go for strawberries and blueberries with a can of Rice Whip (dairy-free whipped “cream”).  Frozen grapes will be a last resort.

On a separate note…

I recently published my first novel, Chasing.  It’s available in print and Kindle editions at Amazon.com and in eBook at several other locations.

The life of a Chaser seemed to fit Ottum like well-made armor. She hunted and killed evil without questioning the path her life had taken – until the day evil started hunting her. In that dark moment, Ottum’s past and present collided to shatter what she once believed to be unquestionable truth.

Ottum’s dead mentor begins talking to her in dreams, asking her to come to him. Another Chaser is poisoned and used as bait to lure her into an evil trap. And as she struggles to save her brother from the Avil’s tortuous acts and the other Chaser from the poison, Ottum wonders if she is losing her mind or seeing life as it really is for the first time.

For more information, visit my writing site at www.acomfortablesoul.com.

Happy 4th of July!

Kathryn

It wasn’t just the gluten I grieved, and having talked with other people, I know I’m not alone in this.  I felt better and finding replacements for certain things I liked to eat seemed more like an adventure at times.  Sometimes family and friends didn’t (and don’t!) really get it.  Of course there are times I miss the ease of being able to socialize without having to do extra stuff to make sure our food is safe, but what I grieved for the most is what gluten took from me.  And that has very little to do with food.

As a kid, I was extremely active.  The youngest of six (an “oops” 8 years after my youngest brother), I had five older brothers to keep up with.  I was 4 the first time one of my brothers let me go running with him.  It was only 1/4 mile or so, but I loved every second of each run.  I still have a scar on my ankle from diving a bit too far for the gravel-laden “finish line” once.  We shot hoops, played baseball, set up the volleyball net every family get-together and many a Sunday, played croquet, and went for long walks in the timber after holiday feasts.  By junior high, I ran 2 miles every day, played baseball 2 nights each week of the summer and basketball 2 days followed by basketball and track during school.  While they weren’t my favorite activities, we hauled hay in the summer and chopped wood in the winter.

And yet, I was seriously fat.  I’m not sure anyone knew that such a thing as atypical celiac disease even existed during my childhood.  But I had atypical celiac disease.  The auto-immune reaction was falsely called juvenile arthritis when they couldn’t find a cause for the joint pain.  Doctors said that if I’d lose some weight my joints wouldn’t hurt as bad… that if I didn’t stop eating I’d be diabetic and they’d have to cut off my legs like had happened to my grandmother.  But twenty-four hours a day I was starving, and no quantity of food ever took that away because my damaged gut couldn’t absorb enough nutrients to shut off the hunger signal.

Looking back, the amount of will power I had even as a small child was phenomenal.  When I accidentally get glutened now and that hunger comes back, the intensity of it is beyond words.  The well-meaning teachers who tried to get me eat less, the rude strangers that commented on my weight, my mom getting on to me for sneaking food, the doctors and nurses scaring the crap out of me, my friends giving me diet tips—if any of those folks had spent a day in my body…

I now have a lot of compassion for the fat, athletic kid I was, but for years and years I wondered what was wrong with me and why I didn’t have enough will power.

I had friends and played sports, but when my friends went shopping for prom dresses I didn’t go because I knew that none of the dresses would fit me.  My coaches always had to special order my uniforms, and even then they were a bit tight sometimes.  And I got injured over and over and over and over—sprained ankles, injured knees, back spasms, a shoulder that repeatedly dislocated, wrist sprains, etc.

But once I stopped eating gluten, the hunger decreased greatly, I lost fat, and most of the auto-immune reactions stopped.  For the first time in my life I thought that I was going to get to enjoy all the sports I love so much without all of the injuries and pain.  All the guys who thought I was a great friend but was far too fat to date were going to be amazed.  (I know it’s petty, but I’m also pretty sure I’m not the first fat person to feel that way.)  I can’t do justice to how excited and happy I was.

And then last fall I had some imaging done on my hips.  And with a single doctor appointment, I came to hate gluten like I never had before.  I was told that if I want to run distance again or play any of the sports I love, it would mean pain and ultimately joint replacements.  All the past activities while starving and “auto-immuning” from celiac plus a wicked parasite infection was just too much, and my joints paid the price. That news was poorly timed with some other things going on and frankly, I’d had enough.  The doctor said swimming would be good for me, so I dove in and started swimming deeply in denial.  Anger followed.  Pity parties are sad, lonely things, but I threw a huge one.

At first I stopped the regular exercise I’d been doing even though all of it was good for me and didn’t cause further harm to my joints…I couldn’t have told you before then, but all of my exercise was aimed at being able to play sports and go for long hikes again.  If I didn’t get to do any of the stuff I wanted, what was the point?  (I know the value of exercise and realize it was faulty logic, but I was angry.)  Then I got some accidental gluten on Christmas, and I was suddenly starving again.  But this time I didn’t fight it.  I stopped getting on the scale after I’d gained 28 pounds.

Next came the, “I’m doing it anyway!” phase.  I played tennis and two hours later couldn’t walk up or down the stairs (who am I kidding?  Just standing up hurt!), but I did it again the next week.  And then I bargained.  Maybe I could just play every few weeks.  Maybe it’s only the sudden stops and starts of tennis.  I might be able to run distance.  Maybe, maybe, maybe.

There were moments during all of that when I asked myself what in the world I was doing, but the grief of what gluten and a few parasites had taken from me was intense…and I felt like I had a right to be upset about it.  But at some point with grief, you either let it go or it will continue to rob enjoyment from the life you get to live.  You start seeing more of the things you have and get to enjoy instead of being angry at the things you’ve lost.

Exercise is a regular part of life again.  Diet is getting back to stable.  The fat is coming off.  I’m trying to find activities I like that don’t cause more problems.  And I’m trying to be patient with myself for having let things get so far off track.  I’ve helped other people through grief, I blog about fitness and exercise as well as healing, and I’m not supposed to have stuff knock me off track—Ha!  There are still those moments when I hate that I’ll never again play tennis, basketball, soccer, or run distance.  But life beyond that is still pretty darn good, and there are still lots of other activities to try.

So when it comes to gluten, what do or did you grieve beyond food?

According to a US Health article, during the summer, 10 minutes in the midday sun in shorts and a tank top with NO sunscreen will give you 10,000 international units of vitamin D.  Those who have darker skin will need longer.  The rays of ultraviolet you need can’t penetrate glass, so you need to be outside for vitamin D to form…sitting in your car or by a window just won’t work.

Vitamin D helps you use any calcium your body is getting—so does having enough HCl in your stomach.

For those of you who think that you’ll just drink vitamin D fortified milk and get plenty of both, think again.  It would take 10 glasses—not cups—of milk to get anywhere near the vitamin D levels of 10 minutes of sun.  And the reality is that there is more calcium in green leafy foods (along with a lot less calories and carbohydrates!) than there is in milk.  There are also other needed minerals in green leafy veggies.

Minerals are involved in the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates.  That sounds very technical, but what it means is that it’s hard for your body to give you energy and make hormones if you don’t have enough minerals.

So make yourself a nice salad of greens for lunch and eat it outside in the bright sunshine!  (Just don’t eat it with a soda or you’ll destroy all the calcium and other minerals before you have a chance to absorb them.)

“If it’s hard for me to absorb vitamins and minerals, shouldn’t I take supplements?”

Unfortunately, there isn’t a solid right answer.  Sometimes supplements can help, especially if your diet isn’t rich in veggies with some berries, protein, and fat thrown in for good measure.  But at other times, you can only absorb a limited amount because of the damage, so supplying more with any one meal isn’t going to help.  However, taking something between meals or eating nutrient dense snacks will give more opportunity for the intestines to absorb what they can.

“What do you do?”

Well, I try to get sunshine in the summer, but I have to admit that there are days when I don’t.  I also have American Indian heritage so I tan quickly and need progressively more sun as summer passes.  My hubby and I both got several hours of sun this weekend.  Despite him sailing most weekends and already having more of a base tan, he’s peeling and I’m just darker.  So I need more than 10 minutes, and by the end of an active summer, I need more than an hour or two.  So during the winter and when I’m not outside as much as I’d like, I’ll sometimes supplement with either Standard Process or Pure Encapsulations vitamin D.

For the calcium and other minerals, I eat a diet rich in veggies, take HCl to help digest them, and use Real Salt (brand of sea salt) to get a good supply of calcium and other minerals.  My DEXA (bone density) scan looked great last year which shows that you really don’t need dairy to have healthy bones.  My diet of veggies and my workouts with resistance are getting the job done just fine.

Occasionally I do supplement with calcium lactate (not dairy derived) from Standard Process, but that’s maybe for a week 3-4 times each year—typically when colds and flu are more likely…or several tablets a day for 2-3 days after I drink a Virgil’s Root Beer (gluten-free and really tasty, but not a “health drink” by a long shot) to help counter the effects of the carbonation.  Again, that’s 2-4 times a year.

Someone may have a fit about this, but I’m very picky when it comes to the calcium supplements I swallow—limestone and dead coral don’t cut it for me.  Calcium Lactate from Standard Process is easy for the body to digest and use.  I like it so much that it’s possible that if they stopped making it, I’d stop supplementing with calcium.  Most other things aren’t that way, and there are probably other good quality sources of calcium available, but I’ve not experienced a better source yet.

The next post will dive into other aspects of healing.  Until then, may the choices you make and the actions you take today create a healthier ‘you’ tomorrow!

After a few years off of gluten, things seem pretty easy, and I’ve gone through the trial and error aspect of buying things that look good but taste awful, look awful but taste good, are horrible without being toasted but almost taste the same as you remember if you toast it, and all the combinations in between.  I’ve played with baking and cooking and it’s all okay.  But for someone on that first day of diagnosis, none of it seems easy.

So here’s a list of things for those newly diagnosed.  You’ll see plenty of sugary and higher carbohydrate foods on this list, because sometimes people want those foods.  I’ll always encourage meat, veggies, fruits, and nuts…but there are birthday parties, family gatherings, and well, just days when a sandwich or a cookie or a cake are going to be eaten.  If it’s going to be eaten, then it needs to be gluten-free.

ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS CAN CHANGE INGREDIENTS WITHOUT ME KNOWING OR UPDATING THIS SITE, SO PLEASE ALWAYS READ LABLES.

BAKING (including cookies, cakes, pancakes, etc):

www.betterbatter.org This flour and the pancake and biscuit mix are some of the best I’ve tried.  They’re also corn, soy, egg and dairy-free (there was an issue with dairy contamination via one of their suppliers that is being resolved, but no problems with gluten)  The hamburger bun recipe on their site is great.

www.NamasteFoods.com This company is perhaps may favorite across the board.  They are gluten, dairy, corn, egg, soy, potato, tree nuts, peanuts, and casein-free.  I use their bread mix, their pizza crust mix, and use the pasta mixes when making something to take to a party.  You can find some of their products at Whole Foods and Hy-Vee locally in Kansas City, and you can order in bulk at Amazon.  I’ve not yet tried their cookie or cake mixes.

www.enjoylifefoods.com These guys are very allergen-friendly as well as gluten-free.  Their chocolate chips are some of the only ones that are both gluten and dairy-free.  We’ve had their premade bars and think they are better than average.  Their granola didn’t suit us well.  We’ve not tried the newer crunchy cookies.  Hy-Vee and Whole Foods carry some of their stuff here in KC.

http://www.nutsonline.com Who would have thought…but it is really hard to find some types of nuts that are processed in places that don’t also process wheat.  One day while getting ready to buy some nuts from the bulk section, a store employee was refilling the barley flour and it was flying everywhere.  Suddenly I realized why I sometimes got sick with the nuts I was eating.  NutsOnline has fantastic customer service, and they also have a gluten-free section.

Tropical Source These are regular-sized chocolate chips that are gluten and dairy-free…but they are hard to find.  When Amazon.com sells them, you can get 3 bags for about 12.00.  But when Amazon is out and it’s someone else selling on Amazon, the price is a crazy 40.00+ for 3 bags.  I’ve never seen them locally.

www.ener-g.com If you want something close to a white hamburger bun, the tapioca hamburger buns from these guys (once toasted!) will remind you of the buns you get at a restaurant…same is true of the hotdog buns.  I’ve also used their egg-replacer and it works really well if you have egg allergies.  Hy-Vee carries these and sometimes Whole Foods does too.

www.kinnikinnick.com Their S’moreables really do taste like graham crackers, and their graham-style crumbs work great to make graham cracker crusts.  If corn is an issue for you, these will be off limits, but otherwise, they’re a great replacement.  My hubby loves their K-Toos chocolate sandwich cookies, and I’ve used them to make a cookie crust for deserts for him.  Hy-Vee and Whole Foods sometimes carry these.

http://www.pamelasproducts.com Their bread mix works pretty well, but I don’t use it because there is a chance of dairy contamination that my hubby can’t have.  Pamela’s also has cookie mixes, cake mixes, and pancake mixes as well as pre-made cookies, cheesecakes, and biscotti’s.  They use almond meal that provides a bit more protein and nutrition which is nice.  HyVee and Whole Foods carry lots of Pamela’s

Domata Flour This is a great 1:1 flour.  I use Better Batter instead of this because Domata has corn in it, and I can’t have corn.  But it worked great when I tried it, and my niece uses it.  It’s available in Kansas City at Hy-Vee and Whole Foods.

Bob’s Red Mill  They have almond flour/meal (and other nut versions) as well as a line of gluten-free mixes and gluten-free oats.  I’ve used some of their products, but mostly when I was mixing things together myself before finding Better Batter and Namaste.  These are more “see if you like it” things in my opinion.

Betty Crocker Gluten-Free mixes The chocolate cake was made, frosted, and shared with friends without anyone knowing it was gluten-free…and everyone loved it.  The cookies taste good (although made-from-scratch with Better Batter flour taste more like homemade), and the white cake mix is the best I’ve found albeit not as good as the chocolate.   ** UPDATE The chocolate mix has had soy added to it since the last time I used it, and the yellow cake says it “may” contain soy.  As a result, we’ll no longer be using or recommending them.

BREADS and CEREALS

Rudi’s This is a pre-made bread.  It’s okay, but I never found it to be really tasty the way the Namaste bread is when I made it.  I’ve not tried some of the newer versions.  This is available locally at Whole Foods and possibly other stores.  **UPDATE I’ve since tried the newer Rudi’s Original Gluten-Free Bread and really love it.  It’s the only non-homemade gf bread I’ve ever had that could be pulled out and eaten without toasting it.  They make a multi-grain version that we’ve not tried because it has corn.  Whole Foods carries it locally.

Udi’s This is also pre-made, and again, I think it’s okay but nothing fantastic.  However, their granola is amazing!  I think my hubby had the chocolate muffins and liked them too.  These are available at Whole Foods and Hy-Vee.

Perky’s/Enjoy Life Perky’s was bought out by Enjoy life, but the crunchy rice and crunchy flax cereals are good…not quite rice crispies, but safe and still tasty.  The granola was just not that good.  It was okay, but the texture is off.  Hy-Vee and Whole Foods carry these sometimes.

French Meadows Their rice breads were okay’ish.  I would buy them if nothing else I liked was available, but otherwise, they just weren’t that great.  My hubby loved the chocolate chip cookie dough when it was raw, but didn’t like the cookies when they were cookied.  Whole Foods carries them and HyVee does too, I think.

Food For Life Their brown rice tortilla wraps worked great and tasted really good too.  Hy-Vee carried them for a while, but now they seem to be gone.  www.glutenfreemall.com still seems to have them.  The brown rice English Muffins taste great too when toasted.  Hy-Vee carries them and I think the Whole Foods on Metcalf started carrying them too.

Dad’s Gluten Free Pizza http://www.glutenfreepizza.com These are highly allergy friendly, and they taste great for a pre-made crust.  If you have corn issues, let them know and they’ll make some for you that don’t have corn.  For a pre-made crust, these are my favorites.

PASTA

Tinkyada is probably the best brand I’ve tried (Namaste is equally good, if not better, but they only sell pasta in “kits”).  I’ve seen it at Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, Hen House, and Price Chopper in KC.

Namaste (see above for links) has great pasta kits.  The “cheese” version doesn’t taste like mac’n’cheese, but it does taste like a pasta salad.

Amy’s Kitchen They make some gluten-free as well as gluten and dairy-free frozen foods.  My hubby loves the mac’n’cheese.  I love the mild salsa and the family marinara.  I hear they’re coming out with gf burritos, but not until June of this year.

PASTA SAUCE

Prego You can find it just about in any store (although not Whole Foods), and it is gluten-free.

Amy’s Kitchen Their marinara is not certified gf, but I’ve never had a reaction to it (and I’ve eaten it a lot).  Whole Foods has the best price locally, but Hy-Vee carries it too.

CHIPS

KettleBrand chips are gluten-free.  They have one of the only BBQ flavored chips I’ve seen that are gluten, dairy, egg, corn, and soy-free.  I’ve seen them at lots of stores….for sure, HyVee, Whole Foods, and Hen House locally.

Garden of Eatin and Bearittos both make blue corn chips that are gluten-free as long as you don’t have problems with corn.

I’m sure there are other brands out there, but we don’t eat much of this sort of thing and avoid the more commercial brands because of the trans-fats and added ingredients.

RESTAURANTS

This is a difficult one for me because Matt and I have so many food allergies and such significant reactions when something we can’t have accidentally gets eaten.  In general, we don’t eat out.  However, we found two places that have remained safe.

Local Burger  http://www.localburger.com This restaurant is in Lawrence, KS, so it isn’t super close, but we’ve eaten there 3 times without any problems at all.  They understand food allergies and the owner has celiac.  It’s a bit pricey, but it is also very high quality.

Wendy’s They list their chili and baked potato as gluten-free and dairy free.  I’ve not eaten there, but Matt sometimes goes with his work crowd or when he is out and about…and so far he hasn’t had a problem.

There are other places around town listed as gluten-free, but needing them to also be dairy, corn, soy, and egg-free pretty much limits us to the above two choices.  If other people have had great experiences somewhere here locally, please feel free to post.

OTHER

I’m sure I missed foods that people like to eat on a regular basis.  Our household is a lot more meat and veggies than anything else, but I’ve tried lots of other foods.  So if something is missing you want to know about, please leave a comment and I’ll get it added.