Gluten Free is the way to be!

So I'm not sure I've mentioned this before, but I have been having some trouble with my stomach lately. I've actually had trouble with it since I was in graduate school, so really for about 5 years now. After meeting a great couple on our cruise this summer and talking to the wife about some of her stomach symptoms I realized that I might have a slight intolerance for gluten.

Thankfully, one of my good friends in Ruston is a nutritionist and often gives me helpful tips. She recommended that I try going gluten free for a week to see if it made any impact. It did!!! I did it for about 1 week and then stopped. The very first meal I went back to that had gluten in it majorly affected my stomach! That's all it took for me to realize the importance of feeding my body the right things.

If you were like me, you don't even know what gluten is, let alone all that it is in! I had no idea how often I was eating gluten. I literally was eating it at every single meal! I would have oatmeal, cereal or toast for breakfast, then I would have a sandwich of some sort at lunch and then for dinner always a pasta, pizza, or some sort of starch that had gluten in it. No wonder my stomach was always in pain!!!

The transition to being gluten free hasn't been as hard as I anticipated though. The only difficulty I have run into is when we have parties here at work. Most everything that people bring has gluten in it, which is fine. It just means I can start being creative with what I bring so that I can have something to eat and share with others. I have actually enjoyed the alternatives to gluten: rice cereal, rice noodles, quinoa, gluten-free oats, potatos etc ... I'm not going to be so hard core that I never have a piece of cake or won't eat something b/c it was made in the same factory as gluten, but I will change my habits enough to cut the majority of gluten filled foods out of my diet. I don't think I'm highly allergic as in celiac's disease, but more have an intolerance for it.

It actually feels really good to put fresh, whole produce into my system rather than processed foods. I hope this change has a positive impact on my overall health, which I'm sure it will. Wish me luck with this endeavor though as we enter the "holiday season". I can only imagine how tempting it may be to indulge in many gluten-filled treats!