Argh!

Well, we're almost to week 5 now, and today has been the first AWFUL day so far. I mean, I've had stomach aches and pains, but today I know for sure I ate something bad this weekend-- I just wish I had any way of telling what.

See, I was naughty this weekend. There was a hash, and at the hash they had cookies! BUT the household who hosted the hash is gluten-light and have gone through elimination diets before, so they were supposedly gluten and sugar free. I didn't ask for a list of ingredients, of course, but ate 2 cookies, and they were delicious. Then the next day, R convinced me that Nature Valley granola bars are ok on the diet. They do have sugar and oats, so I probably should have known better, but we were out & about, and I was starving, so I ate one (as in half a package, a single bar). Then later he convinced me that a latte with almond milk was permissible. I made brownies (gluten free & with fake sugar) too, so it could have been any number of things. But today is terrible, and I don't know if this has knocked me off track for an extended period and I have to go back to the start, or if it's just going to be a day or 2 of misery.

How long does it take for a bad food to manifest itself in, uh, unpleasantness? Is this simply the effect of too much xylitol, or something else? Could this be caused by traces of gluten in chocolate chips or the oats? Is it something else entirely? I hate all the unanswered questions!!

It's definitely throwing off my training, I was supposed to go run today, but that's sure not happening.

disheartening

This diet is frustrating me lately. It's been over 3 weeks since I had anything with wheat or dairy in it, and I don't really feel any differently. I know that it can take longer for the lingering effects to finally wear off, but it's still disheartening for now that 25 days have gone by with no noticeable difference except massive cravings.

Thanks for the comment too, Emilie, I know I should get tested, but that's frustrating me lately too. Why didn't my doctor test for this in the first place 6 years ago? I went all the way to Portland to see a gastroenterologist, you'd think she would have checked me for celiac if I had the symptoms. She didn't even attempt to help me figure out how to eat so I wouldn't hurt, just ran a battery of expensive, invasive tests and ended up diagnosing me with IBS, which in medical language means, "We have no idea why you can't digest foods like a normal person."

I'm currently doing several days without any grains, to see if that's the reason my stomach has been unhappy lately. Maybe I'm just unable to easily digest anything grain-like. It's not like my stomach is usually debilitating, it's just not normal. Then there are rare mornings like this where it feels like someone tied a knot in my intestines.

And it sucks to be so left out of everything. I'm starting to realize what people with severe allergies or celiac go through. Everything social involves food or alcohol, and not being able to consume either makes you somewhat of an outsider. It's really hard to sit in a coffee shop to knit while they are baking cookies, or hang out with friends while they drink beer & eat food I want but can't have. Going to Italy and not having pasta? Unthinkable.

Just chalk it up to hormones or low blood sugar, I'm just depressed today.

Week 4- adding foods back in!

This week we got to add in grapefruit and kiwi, and I've got to say, it's amazing to be able to have fruit again!

I think we're mostly through with the detox-part of the diet, and the rest of the time will be concentrated on slowly adding in foods and seeing how well my stomach tolerates them. I've got 2 or 3 new foods planned for each week to slowly reintroduce. I keep hearing more and more about celiac, everyone tells me I need to go get tested for it, but I really don't want to be told I can never have normal bread or beer again, my stomach isn't THAT unbearable. Most of the time, at least. Plus I went to an expensive specialist a few years back, and she didn't deem it worthy to get me checked for it, so I don't know.

I tried pumpkin cookies today, grinding up coconut in the coffee grinder and using that as part of the flour (they came out really, really dry, which I now know is problematic with coconut flour), and made pumpkin muffins with quinoa flour and using "flax gel" which I made by soaking flax seeds overnight in hot water and then drinking the water. They were just ok, so far the carrot/zucchini/apple/nut/coconut muffins are by far the best!

I've realized that this restrictive diet has made me obsessed with sweets, I have a huge stockpile of crazy recipes I fully intend to make in the far-off distant future (assuming I can eat flour & sugar & cream and things again), and when I do make sweets like the lime bars or cookies, I want to inhale them ALL just to have sweet things to munch. That was never a problem before....