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random musings of a crazy cat lady

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Gluten free update

I've been gluten free for three weeks.  It is going ok. I'm trying not to be too vocal about it other than in here and to my closest friends.   It hasn't been particularly difficult when I am cooking for myself (which is most of the time). I no longer eat bread with meals, but I probably did that less than half the time when I wasn't watching what I ate, or less than a third of the time when I was being careful.  This is a habit left over from when I lost weight following the "Zone" diet.  I have also been avoiding all the work snacks, which is not an insubstantial amount, since 'free carbs' seems to be the modus operandi of the department.  I have neither gained nor lost weight, since I've been indulging myself as a payback for my dietary changes.  That will stop soon.
It was somewhat more difficult when I was on vacation.  The resort was good about labeling stuff and providing gluten free options, but it was definitely harder when there was good stuff available that I wanted to try.  Meals at the airport were a bit of a challenge, but not too bad.
The biggest issue is actually baking.  I miss it.  I've made some almond macarons and sesame candy for myself, as well as various permutations on gluten-free pancakes, but I'm still accumulating all the supplies I need for hardcore gluten free baking.  I'm not sure how much I'll do, but it will be entertaining to learn a new baking skill set.
Anyway, I noticed a big difference in how my knees felt when I first started, and seemed to debloat a bit.  I then proceeded to beat the shit out of my knees on vacation, and then once I came back the ongoing presence of deep crunchy snow and ice and the omnipresent stairs and hills haven't helped matters.  I might be tempted to abandon my experiment, but I have noticed that my skin looks a lot less ruddy and I look younger.*  Sure enough, a quick Google search revealed that some people with rosacea have noticed an improvement upon going gluten-free.  For now, vanity wins and I will continue.  However, I will probably still eat sourdough bread when I go to California in late April, knees and skin be damned!

* I had noticed the same thing,  to a lesser extent, when I was following a Zone diet and eating very little gluten.  I assumed it was from eat fairly low carb, but that's not the case now, so I'm going to assume it's the gluten.

2 comments:

  1. You know of course that the salted brown butter rice krispie treats from the Smitten Kitchen website are totally gluten free and TO DIE FOR??? If not, you're welcome! :)

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  2. LOL, Deb! I've made those a few times already, although not since I went gluten free ;-)

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