Day 92 ~ A slow finale after 1/2 of a burger bun...

Yesterday, David wanted to celebrate selling our house by going to Whataburger for dinner. I have been ordering salads at every fast food place there is for the past 3 months. I know who has the good ones, and who has the moderately good ones. Surprisingly, I have not had any bad salads. But I was tired of salad, and wanted to celebrate too. Not being comfortable jumping into a burger with 2 gluten-laden buns though, I decided to just go for one gluten-laden bun. In my purse I had stashed a slice of g-free brown rice bread I made a while back. Unfortunately  the bread was still frozen when I swapped out one of the burger buns with it. But even being cold, that burger really did taste good to me! And I felt fine last evening and night. I will say my system feels a bit sluggish and slow today though--I am wondering if it was the celebratory bun.

Day 90 ~ Three-month check up

I have been g-free for 3 months now. The result has not been as dramatic as I had hoped, but it has been good enough to keep going. I never feel weighed down by food, and that part I really love. My insides and digestion feel clean and free. I used to feel like bread turned to glue in my body, choking me, and making everything function in slow motion for a time. But no more of that feeling now.

I do still have my arthritis aches and stiffness--but it is no worse, and possibly not as bad. What makes it hard to say for sure is that arthritis and stiffness kind of goes in cycles--a flare up for weeks or months, followed by a calming period. So I can't say if this is just a calming period or not--which is why I am giving this 6 months, maybe a year before I really judge.

This weekend I was given a gift by a house guest: a bag of various gluten-free flours, and some non-caffeinated tea. I love it!

Day 83 ~ More cookie trials

My new, naturally g-free favorite dessert to bake these days is caramel custard, or also called, flan. It is just milk, eggs, a little sugar, and vanilla. But the other day I just wanted a little more substance to my dessert, so I came across a sugar cookie recipe made with rice flour that I thought might go nicely with the custard. They baked up sort of ok--caky and dense, but still pretty good.

After the first pan full and a taste test, I decided that these sugar cookies are so hearty and sturdy, that they might make good strawberry shortcake bread: split one and add berries and cream. So I made several giant cookies to give this a try. If you eat two of these cookies, you don't even need to bother with a meal--these dudes are SO filling! As with all g-free baking, these had to go directly into the freezer, or they will dry out very fast. Oh, another odd thing about them--you cannot under-cook GF cookies, like you would wheat flour cookies. Under-cooking will make them even more dense and gummy--not pleasantly moist and chewy like you would think. But these g-free sugar cookies did nicely compliment my cool, creamy custard.

Day 78 ~ G-free, caffeine free days in Tyler

I just spent 2 days in Tyler--my first few days of caffeine free. I had on and off headaches--still had one this morning. I have used a little ibuprofen here and there to keep it all manageable. I am drinking 2 cups of black tea in the mornings, which has helped me ease off the coffee. In the afternoons I often take a couple swigs of David's Dr Pepper-- that he has an afternoon addiction to (although he will not admit this). So I am still getting caffeine, but less each day. I found out when I was in Tyler, that most of my family only drinks coffee because I ask for it! When I quit asking, it quit being made. Hmm, well, it was nice of them to make it for me all of these years!

Karen, bless her heart, fixed me lovely, completely gluten free meals and snacks at her house the last two days. I am so touched when people do that for me! I also did some extensive g-free shopping at Tyler's Drug Emporium. They have the best stuff there--and such a large offering of products. There are tons of g-free frozen foods too--but I can't ever get any of those goodies--unless sometime I take an ice chest with me...

Day 74 ~ Adding on to g-free...

I decided to pick one more inflammatory food, besides gluten, to eliminate from my diet to help out with cutting down on inflammation that causes pain. I looked into several kinds of foods/drinks I had seen listed as promoting inflammation.  Finally I debated between dairy and caffeine. As much as I enjoy my coffee, I decided that it would be easier to cut out caffeine than it would be to cut out dairy. So I decided to start a slow cut back with the caffeine. I am not in a big hurry to make the switch, but I made a start this morning by first drinking a cup of tea, then a little leftover iced coffee I happened to have in the fridge. I did end up the day with a slight headache. But it was expected, and not as bad as it could be. So for now, it is no gluten, and less caffeine.

Day 72 ~ More g-free info:

"American strains of wheat have a much higher gluten content (which is needed to make light, fluffy Wonder Bread and giant bagels) than those traditionally found in Europe. This super-gluten was recently introduced into our agricultural food supply and now has “infected” nearly all wheat strains in America."---Just a little something interesting that I read...

Day 69 ~ 6 Reasons Why

Ben told me a while back that I should offer a little education on my blog...so I have been thinking on that and decided to look up gluten-free for Dummies, just to keep it simple. Here is what I found (my big reason is highlighted):

Reasons to Go Gluten-Free

By Danna Korn and Connie Sarros

A gluten-free diet isn’t just for those with celiac disease or a wheat allergy. Although eating wheat products, especially whole wheat, does offer some health benefits, the gluten can actually be harmful. Here are some reasons you may want to go gluten-free.

• Humans don’t fully digest wheat. The undigested portions of wheat begin to ferment, producing gas. Icky, belchable, fart-forming gas.
• Wheat is a pro-inflammatory agent. A pro-inflammatory agent is rapidly converted to sugar, causing a rise in the body’s insulin levels, causing a burst of inflammation at the cellular level, among other problems.
• Wheat can cause leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut syndrome is a condition whereby stuff is leaking from your gut into your bloodstream — stuff that shouldn’t be there, such as toxins.
• Refined wheat has little nutritional value. Did you know that manufacturers actually have to enrich refined wheat because they’ve taken out all the nutrients? And even then, the wheat’s not that valuable, nutritionally speaking.
• Wheat is one of the top-eight allergens. Millions of people are allergic to wheat — so many, in fact, that it has made it onto the top-eight allergen list.
• Many people have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, and don’t know it. So, how many people fall into this category? No one knows for sure. But 1 in 100 people has celiac disease — but most don’t know it. No one knows how many people have gluten sensitivity, but estimates are that it may be as high as 50 percent, or even 70 percent, of the population.

Day 67 ~ Good news! SPAM is gluten free!

Today Ben and Julia had a SPAM cook-off party. My first thought when I got the invite was, "That's a bummer!" I was sure that SPAM probably had gluten in it to hold all that pressed meat together. A lot of processed foods and luncheon meats contain gluten. But to my surprise, right there on the can it says "gluten free".  So I happily got into thinking up SPAM recipes.

I made arepas stuffed with SPAM and cheese, (and a tomatillo cilantro dip) and David made jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and SPAM. There were several other entries, (as this was a contest with real prizes!)--there were a couple things I couldn't try, because of the gluten in the recipe. But would you believe that David and I won both prizes for best recipe, and most creative.

I think I need to keep some SPAM in the pantry for hurricane food. They say that SPAM will last indefinitely!

Day 64 ~ Finally, my first GF chocolate chip cookie try!

I have been holding off making chocolate chips cookies--something I have missed. I sort of wanted to see how long I could go without. I guess those cookies on Sunday baking at Brandon's house stayed on my mind, cause today I broke down. I made a recipe from Land 'O Lakes Butter GF website.

You can tell these looks sort of ok...but not really the chewy, craggy, lumpy kind that I really like. But the taste was there. I did eat 6 of them right off the bat, so guess I was not too unhappy with them! However, I will try another recipe next time, to see if I can improve on the texture. Oh, these also were very fragile. I had cut back on the xamthan gum...and probably they did need the full amount afterall to make them hold together better.

Day 62 ~ How a spring roll overpowered the cookies

Yesterday we were visiting at my nephew's house with my brother's family. Cookies were baked...first chocolate chip, then oatmeal raisin. The aroma was everywhere. Coffee was brewing. Cookies and coffee really go well together--and I really do like cookies. But of course, I didn't eat them. Julia had brought a left-over Korean spring roll from her lunch out and gave it to me. I stuck it in the fridge at first, thinking I would take it home with me. After a while though, the cookies were just too much. So I jumped up and pulled out the spring roll from the fridge and gobbled it down. Then I was able to refocus. Being full sure helps take your mind off what you want to eat but can't eat. Thanks, Julia, for thinking of me.