How this thing got started...
Why I started my gluten free lifestyle. I hate to call it a "diet" because everyone scoffs at little tiny me and says "You are the last person that needs to go on a diet!" They just don't get it...
I had never felt "normal" as a child but it wasn't until I was 29 and I (well, my boyfriend at the time) figured out I had a "gluten problem". I started the whole GF thing as a test because I've always had some "digestive discomfort" - typically bloated and uncomfortable after eating, always feeling "slightly ill", alternating periods of constipation and diarrhea... a lot of classic Celiac symptoms - that I could just never figure out. I mean, I ate fairly balanced and healthy meals - lean meats (and a good steak now and then), fresh veggies and fruit, fresh bread... so why do I feel like this? I had been feeling more worse (? is that proper English?) and feeling worse more often, as well as mysteriously and slowly losing about 10 lbs over a time frame of about 6 months - it didn't matter how much I ate and I even stopped working out altogether because I was afraid to lose anymore, being the tiny person I already was. And I ached all over, especially my joints, and never felt like going out, let alone moving... I started to stay in and just lay there watching TV a lot because I just felt terrible all the time. There was also a lot of "brain fog" now that I can look back and compare it to how I can focus, think, and comprehend better now.
Over the 4th of July weekend in 2009, we were at the Kenny Chesney concert at Milwaukee's famous Summerfest fairgrounds with friends. I started feeling really awful (and I didn't eat or drink anything on the fairgrounds, so I can't blame it on that!) to the point where I thought I might die in a Summerfest bathroom stall. We ended up having to leave toward the end of the concert. (My boyfriend wasn't happy - he loves country music and Kenny doesn't just come to town every weekend!) We were parked in the 6th floor of a parking ramp and it was taking forever to get out with all the traffic ahead of us, so my boyfriend started asking what I had eaten that day... I rattled off a list: muffins, bread galore, orzo, pasta, bruschetta... He suggested "Maybe you should try that gluten-free diet your cousin's on" (see note below) - and I'll admit he'd suggested changing my diet before - but I didn't think it could possibly be that ("I LOVE BREAD and eat it ALL THE TIME!" ... hmmm, hindsight is 20/20...)
*I have a cousin who's had Celiac his entire life (way more intense than what I have - his body can't tolerate a stray breadcrumb in the butter or jelly - he was always the "different" cousin who ate his PB&J on rice cakes at Grandma's house...) and I'd had some friends and other people in my family who were diagnosed with Celiac or gluten intolerance over the last few years (also in their late 20s-early 30s) so this time it just clicked that I should at least consider the possibility. But honestly, up until this point, "Celiac" and "gluten" were never words that had ever entered my vocabulary.
The next morning - the 4th of July - we did a bunch of research, went out and got some GF substitutes for what I normally ate - right down to the croutons on salad. Literally, by the second day of cutting out all gluten from my diet, it was like night-and-day compared to the last 29 years! I was sitting there going "THIS is how you're SUPPOSED to feel after eating????" I'm just really blessed that we live in a metro area that offers a lot of stores and even a dedicated GF bakery that can make my "diet" a whole lot easier to manage and still have a variety of foods available to me. Of course, we attended a few picnics that holiday weekend and I ended up leaving some in tears, thinking I would never be able to eat "normal" again... everything was fried, dipped in beer, slapped on a bun... it was not fun. But going to Molly's Gluten Free Bakery and now-closed The Gluten Free Trading Co (available online only) helped me see that there really are NOT that many things I needed to change in my diet. When I walked into the GF Trading Co's tiny store on the south side, I wondered "Where's the meat? The produce? The dairy?" and then it struck me... THIS stuff is all I have to exchange in my daily eating. (And back then, there weren't nearly as many tasty choices available!)
My boyfriend was super-supportive and even ate 98% gluten-free in full support of my lifestyle (he still occasionally had a beer and ate the bread basket at restaurants... he always told me "it's really not anything special"!) He sent food back for me when I've been too timid or embarrassed (before going gluten-free, I was NEVER someone who would have sent back food!) and he usually asked more questions about how food was prepared than I did when we ate out. He often ordered his meal gluten-free too, just in case I wanted to try a bite. His family, who we ate dinner with most Sunday afternoons, had also always been extremely supportive; my family became more supportive as time went by and my dad even attempted a gluten-free diet for 6 weeks when trying to figure out some digestive issues (my parents both admit that Mom's chicken pot pie crust actually tastes better when they make it with the gluten-free flour!) My close friends, who have seen me experience "getting gluten-ed" at restaurants before, are also very understanding and tend to ask me to plan where to go, so we can all be safe and comfortable eating out together. For those who don't have a support network of family and friends, please note that I - and our local GF community - are here for you!
Cheers to you as we take this gluten-free journey together!
~Kati
I had never felt "normal" as a child but it wasn't until I was 29 and I (well, my boyfriend at the time) figured out I had a "gluten problem". I started the whole GF thing as a test because I've always had some "digestive discomfort" - typically bloated and uncomfortable after eating, always feeling "slightly ill", alternating periods of constipation and diarrhea... a lot of classic Celiac symptoms - that I could just never figure out. I mean, I ate fairly balanced and healthy meals - lean meats (and a good steak now and then), fresh veggies and fruit, fresh bread... so why do I feel like this? I had been feeling more worse (? is that proper English?) and feeling worse more often, as well as mysteriously and slowly losing about 10 lbs over a time frame of about 6 months - it didn't matter how much I ate and I even stopped working out altogether because I was afraid to lose anymore, being the tiny person I already was. And I ached all over, especially my joints, and never felt like going out, let alone moving... I started to stay in and just lay there watching TV a lot because I just felt terrible all the time. There was also a lot of "brain fog" now that I can look back and compare it to how I can focus, think, and comprehend better now.
Over the 4th of July weekend in 2009, we were at the Kenny Chesney concert at Milwaukee's famous Summerfest fairgrounds with friends. I started feeling really awful (and I didn't eat or drink anything on the fairgrounds, so I can't blame it on that!) to the point where I thought I might die in a Summerfest bathroom stall. We ended up having to leave toward the end of the concert. (My boyfriend wasn't happy - he loves country music and Kenny doesn't just come to town every weekend!) We were parked in the 6th floor of a parking ramp and it was taking forever to get out with all the traffic ahead of us, so my boyfriend started asking what I had eaten that day... I rattled off a list: muffins, bread galore, orzo, pasta, bruschetta... He suggested "Maybe you should try that gluten-free diet your cousin's on" (see note below) - and I'll admit he'd suggested changing my diet before - but I didn't think it could possibly be that ("I LOVE BREAD and eat it ALL THE TIME!" ... hmmm, hindsight is 20/20...)
*I have a cousin who's had Celiac his entire life (way more intense than what I have - his body can't tolerate a stray breadcrumb in the butter or jelly - he was always the "different" cousin who ate his PB&J on rice cakes at Grandma's house...) and I'd had some friends and other people in my family who were diagnosed with Celiac or gluten intolerance over the last few years (also in their late 20s-early 30s) so this time it just clicked that I should at least consider the possibility. But honestly, up until this point, "Celiac" and "gluten" were never words that had ever entered my vocabulary.
The next morning - the 4th of July - we did a bunch of research, went out and got some GF substitutes for what I normally ate - right down to the croutons on salad. Literally, by the second day of cutting out all gluten from my diet, it was like night-and-day compared to the last 29 years! I was sitting there going "THIS is how you're SUPPOSED to feel after eating????" I'm just really blessed that we live in a metro area that offers a lot of stores and even a dedicated GF bakery that can make my "diet" a whole lot easier to manage and still have a variety of foods available to me. Of course, we attended a few picnics that holiday weekend and I ended up leaving some in tears, thinking I would never be able to eat "normal" again... everything was fried, dipped in beer, slapped on a bun... it was not fun. But going to Molly's Gluten Free Bakery and now-closed The Gluten Free Trading Co (available online only) helped me see that there really are NOT that many things I needed to change in my diet. When I walked into the GF Trading Co's tiny store on the south side, I wondered "Where's the meat? The produce? The dairy?" and then it struck me... THIS stuff is all I have to exchange in my daily eating. (And back then, there weren't nearly as many tasty choices available!)
My boyfriend was super-supportive and even ate 98% gluten-free in full support of my lifestyle (he still occasionally had a beer and ate the bread basket at restaurants... he always told me "it's really not anything special"!) He sent food back for me when I've been too timid or embarrassed (before going gluten-free, I was NEVER someone who would have sent back food!) and he usually asked more questions about how food was prepared than I did when we ate out. He often ordered his meal gluten-free too, just in case I wanted to try a bite. His family, who we ate dinner with most Sunday afternoons, had also always been extremely supportive; my family became more supportive as time went by and my dad even attempted a gluten-free diet for 6 weeks when trying to figure out some digestive issues (my parents both admit that Mom's chicken pot pie crust actually tastes better when they make it with the gluten-free flour!) My close friends, who have seen me experience "getting gluten-ed" at restaurants before, are also very understanding and tend to ask me to plan where to go, so we can all be safe and comfortable eating out together. For those who don't have a support network of family and friends, please note that I - and our local GF community - are here for you!
Cheers to you as we take this gluten-free journey together!
~Kati
