Really Listening to Your Body

I am vindicated.   Which is just my way of saying that I was right, that 15 years of struggling with my weight, and five years of living in a fog really can be caused by a simple protein with a mission to destroy my well being.  I am joyous at my diagnoses ... not cancer, fibromyalgia, or some other terrible fate ... just the simple straight forward diagnoses of Celiac disease.

The irony of this diagnoses is that my obesity was the reason I was never tested.  My father nearly died of starvation, losing 70 pounds off his already low weight, turning his 6 foot 5 frame into a skeleton, before they diagnosed his gluten allergy, and my sister had a gastro-intestinal war zone to alert her to her problem.  Despite the obvious family issues with the disease, I was never tested because my doctor believed that obese people couldn't have the disease.

I have since discovered that almost half of all Celiac patients are overweight, some are even morbidly obese.  I fall into that category.  People say I carry my weight well, but they are just being kind.  The truth is that I have a lot of self loathing due to my weight.  I am hoping that going gluten free will be the key to the weight loss that has so thoroughly eluded me before now.  I did have a short stint about 10 years ago where I got off all but 10 pounds of my extra weight.  Looking back now I realize it was because I never ate gluten unless I was eating out, and as a grad student I didn't do that very often.  My diet was mostly white fish and chicken, with either rice or potatoes.  There was always a salad, or fruit and vegetable as well.  This of course means that my gluten intake was nigh unto nonexistant.  Of course I walked everywhere too, but really the biggest factor to my weight loss was good food and yoga.

So that is my plan.  As of today, I am going gluten free.  Completely no holds barred.  I don't see the point in weaning myself off, since it makes me so sick.  I am looking forward to taking my life back from the protein that has taken far too much of my life already.  As of today I am declaring war on gluten (yeah, I know it is cheesy ... actually flour-y ... yeah yeah)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and my husband will be working so we are delaying our celebration until Saturday.  He is on the bandwagon, and is going mostly gluten-free with me since he is Type II diabetic and will probably benefit from the lifestyle change as well.  He will probably eat the occasional sandwich, but our meals together will be gluten free.  I love that he is such a great support.  So Saturday I will eat my pie with a pecan and walnut crust, and cornbread not normal stuffing with the turkey.   I am sure that this will taste as good if not better than the original pie ... I will miss Mom's stuffing, and pie crust, but the sacrifice will be worth it when I feel great and look better.  Gluten free ... here I come.

PS ... I knew I loved Boar's Head for a reason ;)