Gluten-free progress report

I've been eating gluten-free for about two and a half weeks now, with some purposeful slip ups on the weekends. I don't notice a huge difference during the week, but I have noticed that on Mondays I'm feeling more blah and tired than the rest of the week. Since I don't have celiac disease, I don't have a definite reaction telling me I ate something I shouldn't have.

I'm definitely eating wheat-free, and I think for the most part I'm managing gluten-free as well. There have been a couple things I haven't been completely sure about, but I'm learning more about which ingredients are gluten-free and which aren't. It's a process. So far I've been pretty happy with the gluten-free products I've used. The pastas taste basically the same to me, and I found some really good rice bread made by a local bakery. I wasn't too impressed with the rice tortillas we tried, but I've found quite a few gf snacks that taste pretty good. So I don't feel deprived, except on Thursdays, when hubby wants to go to Pizza Hut with his family. We did find a good gf pizza crust mix, but it's not the same as Pizza Hut. Oh well.

I'm considering going yeast free when we get back from our trip. It would mean no bread or pizza dough and no aged cheeses. This wouldn't be too bad. I think I could still eat the really yummy gf frozen waffles I found (I need to make a list of the brands I like), but I need to check on that. Technically I think I'm not supposed to eat very much sugar either. I need to check on that as well. I think I'm closer to a yeast-free diet than I have in the past, so hopefully it'll be a lot more doable this time around. And I'm really hoping it will help me finally lose weight.

Progress going gluten-free

Yesterday we went shopping for gluten-free food items. I still need to figure out some menus, so we just bought some basic stuff, and we'll have to do some more shopping in a day or two once I've got a menu figured out. I did find out that just because something is wheat-free, doesn't mean it's gluten-free, so one more thing to be careful of.

We also shopped for stuff for Little Miss Sunshine's birthday party and Hubby's graduation party. We're holding them both this Saturday. I'm making cakes for both of them, and we won't be gluten-free that day. I'm curious to see if I can tell a difference. Last year I made a pinata for LMS' bday, but I bought one this year. I was going to make it, but am just feeling too stressed and crummy. I'm taking metformin again, and while it has the side effect of regulating insulin and helping with weight loss, it also makes me very nauseous, which in turn makes me really tired. Not great overall, but I really need to lose weight and nothing else has worked, so I'm willing to put up with it.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today and went for a 3 mile run/walk. I haven't gone running since getting my orthotics (just walking), and I felt good. No problems while running, other than being out of shape. Hopefully there won't be any pain tomorrow.

PCOS and a Gluten Free diet

Today I had an appointment for an ultrasound at the OB/GYN office. I've had this done about 5 years ago, but it didn't show much. This time around it showed that my ovaries do indeed have cysts. So that solidifies the PCOS diagnosis from five years ago. I had enough of the other symptoms usually associated with PCOS that my fertility specialist felt comfortable giving the diagnosis. Below is a picture (not mine, I didn't get copies of my ovaries) of an ovary with cysts (the dark spots). Lovely, huh?

Anyway, the tech doing the ultrasound mentioned that a girl with similar issues had been in yesterday: weight gain, inability to lose weight, infertility, irregular periods, etc. She had first come two years ago, and when she came back yesterday, she had lost a lot of weight. Turns out she went gluten free and yeast free, and combined with the meds (which I will also be taking), she was able to lose the weight and keep it off.
In researching PCOS some more, more and more people are seeing a connection between their PCOS and gluten issues. When they eliminated gluten, they were able to alleviate a lot of their other symptoms. I've requested a bunch of books from the library and will be reading up on gluten free eating. Once I've got that down, I may go yeast free also. I don't think it will be too difficult to add that on.

At first glance, a gluten free diet seems rather restrictive (no wheat, rye, or barley. The grains aren't too hard, it's all the packaged foods that have some form of gluten in them- as a thickener, modified food starch, in soy sauce, and so many other things- that you have to watch for), but in checking out other people's blogs, it's not all doom and gloom. The more fresh, unprocessed foods you eat, the lower the chance of accidentally eating gluten. And we're supposed to be eating fresh and unprocessed food anyway...
I've found several sites with yummy-looking recipes (and they don't look too time consuming, either), so I need to work on changing my thought processes and change how I shop and how I cook. It will take effort, but it will be worth it. I'm supposed to be eating yeast free anyway, so hopefully this will make it easier to get there. I am definitely a sugar and carb addict, which has always put a wrench in the works before. Others have said that cravings disappeared once they went gluten and yeast free. Hopefully that proves the same for me. It will be a journey.

Lara bars

A couple months ago I read in a magazine about Lara bars, so I decided to try them out. They're made of all-natural ingredients, no preservatives or anything. The apple pie one has raisins, dates, apples, almonds, and cinnamon. That's it! I'm not a big fan of raisins or dates, but you can't taste them: they're the base for the bar and everything else gets mixed in with them.I found a couple different varieties in the local grocery store and tried them and liked them for the most part, and then told my sister about them. The next time we talked, she started going on about the Lara bars and this flavor and that flavor: all ones I'd never heard of. I asked her about it, and she said 'oh yeah, there's tons of flavors'. So I got online, and sure enough, there is quite a few flavors. I had to go to the health food store to find a wider variety, and I proceeded to try them to see which were best.



The results in order of preference:
Good:
apple pie (tastes like apple pie)
lemon bar (has a nice zing to it)
banana cookie (tastes kind of like banana bread)
key lime (tastes similar to the lemon bar)
cinnamon bun (very similar to apple pie, I thought)
OK: (they're good, but not as good as the good ones)
cherry pie
pecan pie
Yuck:
Jocolat chocolate mint (I love anything chocolate and mint, but this was just too weird: the chocolate and mint with the raisins and dates just didn't do it for me. Not as yuck as the chocolate coconut, though.)
chocolate coconut (even LMS didn't like it, and she likes anything sweet. I like chocolate and coconut, so again, I think it was the combination with the raisins and dates.)

There's way more flavors, but these are the only ones I've gotten around to trying. They're a good alternative to all the bars out there that have all sorts of unpronounceable ingredients in them.