Welcome, my cereal loving husband, Brent, to the gluten free world! A few weeks ago he had his final test and Celiac diagnosis. He’s not a stranger to Celiac because his sister has had it for years. She is a pro at navigating the diet and there are many others that have a gluten intolerance. We are not alone.
Hopefully a new diet will quickly eliminate his symptoms, which by the way, were not some of the typical symptoms you often hear about with Celiac. He was unaware of the digestive problems within his system. He had chronic fatigue as well as low iron and other deficiencies in his blood work.
Because it’s just the two of us, and Brent is the one who eats most of our food, we decided to keep our house as gluten-free as possible, at least while we learn more about his new eating style and he establishes new habits, We both will be strict about not eating gluten. Okay, I have to admit that I might cheat occasionally whenever we go out to eat, but I’m committed to initially walk this road with him. Who knows, maybe gluten-free will help both of us and it will ensure my food doesn’t cross contaminate his when we are eating out, and he will not be tempted at the house with snacks that are off-limits (he LOVES his snacks). It doesn’t seem like a sacrifice for me so far, but there’s no denying that when you can’t have something you might crave it! I just bought some Udi’s gluten free bread to satisfy my craving for bread with butter!
Brent is such a sport! My helper, Diane, and I cleared the pantry of all the gluten-laden foods a few weeks ago. I couldn’t part with a brownie mix we can use to take to friends and a couple other mixes as well as some canned soups…’just in case’..but they are isolated on one pantry shelf.
Brent watched and said goodbye to his Shredded Wheat forever. You see the big cleaning we did to eliminate the gluten in our pantry and our refrigerator. Some of the freezer foods have not gone yet but we have a shelf set aside to give away as we can.
I’m sure there will be times when Brent is frustrated with a severe craving for something that he can’t eat, and I feel for him, but I’m glad that he’s on the road to recovery…and he can always buy some gluten-free DONUTS!
We try to consider new normals as opportunities. This diagnosis just might be a place where we can support others as well as a springboard for improved health. We are looking forward to making cyber friends that share the challenges involved with eating gluten-free. And for me, the most frustrating thing is that I’m constantly having to put on glasses to read the tiny labels for ingredients!
Restricting a diet to exclude gluten is easier than ever with awareness growing and an ever increasing array of specialty ‘gf’ items available. We only wish gluten free prices would come down! We both concede that our diet will be healthier without as much junk food, thus we are taking this opportunity to clean up our diet. I don’t think we will buy a lot of specialty gluten-free junk food, but we will report back in a few months, maybe we are kidding ourselves! There ARE Fritos and potato chips in our pantry!
We will share our favorite restaurants and gluten free ‘finds’ as we progress on this journey. We have already experienced eating at quite of few restaurants while we were recently out of town. As of now, Longhorn’s wins the prize for ease of choice because of their extensive GF menu. Too bad Brent’s not a big Chipotle fan because just about everything they have is gluten free besides the tortillas. Thankfully, we have a Whole Foods within a mile of our house and are grateful for their vast, well marked, although expensive, selection.
Oh, please let us know about your favorite gluten free foods and restaurant ‘finds’!
Just do what I do when I start to crave something containing gluten – I tell myself that it’s POISON. So far, that seems to work. Now if only I could do that with things that contain sugar.
We are doing great so far…going out to eat is a bit more challenging than eating at home and I’m grateful we have you to ask if we have questions and have seen you in action. Thanks for your support.