Tag Archives: Gluten Free

beyond

“After a few weeks of varied reintroduction and claiming I’m not paleo, I’ve conceded that, well yeah, if I want to feel my best, then yeah, I am…”

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As time went on I discovered that dairy, legumes and grains (oats, barley, wheat/gluten) caused an incredible amount of inflammation, bloating, heartburn, and other discomforts that I realized,  I really need to break up with dairy, and limit my grains on a daily basis or risk feeling like this bird!

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While I’m not Celiac and do not have a life-threatening allergies or a specified condition, I don’t think legumes, many grains  (specified above), or dairy are really all that good for me but then again, I don’t think all this Minnesota snow, sub-zero temps, or spending 15-20 hours in my car each week is good for me either… but I digress.

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Turns out. milk definitely does NOT do my body good.  I recently worked with an Internist, (Dr. Hannah) who full-heartedly agreed milk/dairy is my main problem, and while some of my bloodwork showed some inflammation and a lower-end TSH (hyper) value, she isn’t all that concerned and stated I’m healthy as a lark.

My lower TSH value is a good sign that my metabolism is working good as it should! My Lipid panel came back absolutely perfect with a nice high HDL cholesterol, and very low Triglycerides, so she said, eat what makes you feel good, and don’t eat what makes you feel crummy, but if you go somewhere and it looks worth it… GO. FOR. IT.

Even if its a huge cup of milk at the MN State Fair – All you can drink milk stand! (Which actually sounds terrible right now, HA!)

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Unfortunately, it seems that any amount of added dairy seems to really set me off, so here I am, making my own clarified butter (which is actually so easy), and scanning labels as I strive to be as dairy, legume and grain (oat, wheat, barley) free as possible. (I wonder aloud how I would fare if we actually did breed Oreo our Nigerian Dwarf Goat… I’ve heard goats milk is easier to digest.)

Now, of course, there will be parties and dinners out where the inevitable creeps in and I won’t freak out. I don’t get that ill…(I actually do experience an incredible amount of inflammation however in my shoulders, back, my bursitis flares up in my hips from my 2016 injury with Crosby, debilitating heartburn and bloating to pretty much write these food items off in normal circumstances… but I’m not gonna create a scene at a family function, or sit there and starve… ). I’ll make the best choice possible, or, if it looks worth the pain, I’ll indulge.

I recently picked up a copy of, “eat what you love” by Danielle Walker. It’s amazing and couldn’t recommend it enough to anyone following a grain, legume, and dairy free diet.  There are so many recipes that she has recreated that are reminiscent of my childhood staples. Chicken Divan anyone?

Over the next several months, I’m going to be trying out a few recipes that I can take to the backcountry that are dairy and grain (see above) free. Perhaps I’ll have to create a post with “test kitchen” results! Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, in my next few posts, I’m going to be taking a sharp turn away from my adventures in food elimination, and the paleo-way, and talking about our adventures in trying out maple syruping on our homestead!

Last fall I hiked around our 20-acre property and discovered we had over 20 maple trees on our land. Seven are ripe for the tapping this year, so we’re going to try our hand at it, and see if we have any success.

Until next time, be well my friends ❤

la

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Living the Paleo Dream

Hey Guys,

Now that I’ve officially finished my Whole30 its time to re-introduce some of those foods to:

a.) see if it has any effect on me
b.) loosen the reigns a little bit.

I really wanted to give this section its due honor and not kick off my heels to much. I wanted to take each food group I spent the last month avoiding and evaluate it slowly. So that’s what I did over the past 10 days. Here are the categories, and how they affected me.

Wine:
As a glass + of wine per night girl, I was excited to jump back into a world of wine… My first wine back I had a Pinot Nior by Erath and it was DELICIOUS!   A sleep disturbance was definitely noticed. After just one glass of wine I was BUZZIN’! I also had a bad headache and felt crappy. Over the next week and half I enjoyed more wine on the weekends, and while I can say, I enjoy wine… I can also honestly say I no longer WANT wine every day…   Definitely part sugar, and part alcohol, this “food group” did a number on me, and this is why I’m limiting my wine consumption to just Friday-Saturday or special occasions! In some ways I felt like I was breaking up with wine, but we can still hang out… just on a limited basis… which is what I would want anyways.  I was very shocked that I could no longer “handle” my wine – even after abstaining for 9 months while pregnant with my daughter – after just 30 days I really experienced a major tolerance set back.. but I did some serious changes within my system detoxing of sugar, and my body definitely took notice. With that almost assuredly adding to (gulp) slightly tighter pants, and general feeling of sluggishness, brain fog etc, I do not want to affect my daily life anymore!

Additives:
Additives with too much sugar are definitely impacting my sleep. While I feel I can loosen the reigns a little bit with this one, its best to avoid when I can, and purchase (sugar free) when available… but I don’t think I’ll make homemade ketchup anymore. (Though I did find an amazing avocado mayo that is to die for!)

Peanut Butter | Legumes:
I enjoyed some PB with some apples, and tried some beans. The PB tasted creamy and almost chocolaty. I made a bean salad and noticed that I felt extremely full (uncomfortably so) after eating these. For this reason, I will skip beans in the future. On occasion I may have some peanut butter, but since I really do love my apples and almond butter it won’t be a common indulgence.

Non-Gluten Grains:
– CORN: Finally – Taco Tuesday with the taco shell! But an hour or two after dinner I had knots in my tummy that didn’t feel good. Several days later I had a corn shell tortilla with no ill effect, so perhaps I will just limit them. I’m in the process of deciding to NOT do Tacos every Tuesday anymore!

– QUIONA:
I hit this one with dairy for Sunday night homemade pizzas! Read below in my dairy response! Seemingly went alright!

Dairy: Had some homemade pizza on a quiona crust and I didn’t notice any side effects. I did end up with a bloody nose though later that night. Coincidence? I’ll have to play around occasionally with this one some more.

Gluten:
Dun-Dun-Dun – oh the “dreaded” gluten! I wasn’t even going to add this one back  based off several symptoms that have mysteriously disappeared over the past 40 days – that haven’t returned with adding in dairy, non-gluten grains, sugar etc I’m convinced now, more than ever that gluten was definitely a culprit to several of these symptoms! I won’t bore you with all of the details, but here are a few…

  • Daily nosebleeds
  • Keratosis Pilaris (which has gotten significantly better)
  • Iron-Deficiency anemia
  • Reflux
  • Dental issues, including canker sores
  • Extreme fatigue
  • Brain Fog (I would be in the middle of a sentence and forget what I was saying)
  • Scary dizzy spells
  • Dry Hair

Okay – that last one seems silly, but my hair was always extremely dry! I didn’t even realize this was abnormal until I went gluten free for 40 + days! So one of our planned meals out in the BWCA will have gluten in it… so I decided to jump back into gluten to make sure I didn’t have any ill effects…. no lie. Within 30-40 minutes I had searing pain in my neck and shoulder blades. Did a google search and found this, and this, and this,and this!

Now, I’m not claiming to be celiac, or even say I’m “gluten intolerant” at all – I haven’t had any tests done, or gone to the doctor whatsoever besides a 40 day elimination diet, and betterment of my Keratosis Pilaris which has plagued me for my entire life, no more dizziness or reflux, no canker sores, more energy and no shoulder/neck pain (that almost hurts with breathing) and then suddenly blearing shoulder/neck pain, bloating and complete brain fog? I’m not sayin’ – I’m just saying I think I can break up with the gluten.

The opposite of Addle’s Hello.

Goodbye Gluten….Its no longer me…..

They say that time’s supposed to heal yah – and I have DONE some healin’.

 

Sweets & Treats: I didn’t really hit this as hard as I thought I would. After loosing some weight, and returning to pre-baby weight, and a noticeably smaller tummy – I just don’t want to go back! With that said… an indulgence here and there (not daily) is something I don’t want to have handcuffs on for the rest of my life though. I’m glad to know I can exercise self control in this department!

Friday the 6th I had my first dabble in a pure sugary treat which was a mini s’more on a gluten free graham cracker. The marshmallow sent me in to sugar overdrive and I felt like I was going to puke! Haha. It was delicious though. This will definitely help with a “one bite” is enough. I guess technically with the milk chocolate I had dairy but didn’t notice any ill effects.

Final Conclusion? Have you tried the Whole30? If not, I definitely recommend that you give it a go. All in all it was a neat experience. It helped that I am a maniacal food planner to begin with. You don’t want to find yourself in the morning, staring down the fridge wondering what you’re going to eat for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner for that matter.

Plus – everyone complains about the amount of dishes they will now have to do, but I always go all out on my dinners, so that didn’t change one iota.

Find your grooves. I found I really, really LOVE baked eggs, or over hard eggs with cut up mini-peppers in them – EVERY DAY! I love this so much, that I don’t mind eating eggs every single day! I’m slightly cringing for our BWCA trip when I’ll be eating oatmeal every day, but it’s just 6-7 days and then I can go back to my beloved eggs! :). — Good thing I have my own chickens!

I also found a few favorites I made several times, such as this delicious shrimp skillet, that you’ll see I Instagramed several times, and Cracklin’ Chicken, which might take over as a weekly menu item like Taco Tuesday did!

It also helped that we butcher our own chickens, and deer/venison,and have purchased 1/4 cow, and 1/2 pig… and oh yeah did I mention we have our own chickens for my daily egg breakfast? Oh – okay… so I guess these things make Whole30 and a Paleo Lifestyle MUCH easier to obtain. I used to sell 75-80% of my eggs, and now I sell only 20%!

Without going overboard and developing orthorexia, I do plan to follow a “fairly strict” paleo diet. It honestly seems to suit me, and I’m working on finding my groove without breaking the bank! All of these amazing cookbooks I’ve come across like Nom Nom Paleo, Against All Grain, and Well Fed have me wanting to try all kinds of new recipes, but I know now I can make a simple yet delicious dinner with the very simple, meat, and two veggie side! Can you believe that my food budget has actually decreased?

While I won’t be as hardcore as the “Whole30” rules, and I may have wine DURING the week, and the occasional GF grain,  I realized in these 30 days that it IS possible to have self control, feel better, and gain perspective.