When I was a kid, my dad used to sing, "Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around," by the Willis Brothers every time my brother or I would take on a task by going about it the long, drawn out, and (unnecessarily) complicated way. As I came to the decision that I would try on the gluten free idea, I imagined it as one of those complicated, awkward tasks that would take me a lot more effort than needed and that would not give me the satisfaction I desired. I was very, very wrong.
First, eliminating gluten has not been complicated at all. True, I am a bagel fanatic, so I have had to eliminate one of my favorite carbs from the safe list of foods. But there's more to life than bagels (or so I tell myself). And I had stopped eating most prepared foods because they made me ill (gee, I wonder why), so that side of the gluten purge was easy.
Second, the difference in how I feel pre- and post-gluten is dramatic. No. Dramatic is an understatement. I feel energized. I feel positive. I feel light. I feel hopeful. I do *not* feel sick. I do *not* feel depressed. I do *not* want to go back to eating gluten. If someone had told me that I would feel this much better, I would never have believed them because this type of reversal is a thing of fairy tales. Or so I thought. I mean, seriously, the amount of energy running through my body almost makes me feel as if I'm tingling...in a good way.
I'm still making minor tweaks in what I'm eating so I can have my (gluten-free) cake and eat it, too. For instance, I found some lovely GF crackers that taste just like the whole-grain ones I eat anyway. But, it appears that the chock-full-o-flax-seed contents are not agreeing with me after all. And I've always had a problem with flax seeds, so I need to stay aware since they tend to creep into GF foods. I'm actually testing my diet to be sure it's them, but I'm pretty sure. Today I was able to eliminate that the issues were not a result of the GF pizza crust I made the other day. Excellent news since that crust was pretty darn yummy. Tomorrow I test the fruit/yogurt smoothie, and then Sunday I test the crackers again. You know the old saying, you can take the scientist out of the lab...
At this point, my husband jokingly refers to my "miracle cure" because I talk about how good I feel. All. The. Time. But it's been such a contrast to how bad I felt earlier, that I walk around each day thinking, "Really? This is how people feel? Because this is AWESOME."
Here's to more awesome with a side of "Oh yeah."
