Feel Like Cheating

[Jackiebear]

I am about to have my year anniversary of being a celiac/ being gluten free. I have never felt like cheating but as this anniversary gets closer part of me wants to just cheat. Please talk me out of it! Give me statistics or articles or anything!

[Takala]

Chances are you'll have a much stronger reaction after being off of it for a year. Then you'll be wondering why you just did that temporary sensation for a week of brain fog, nausea, heartburn, & extra bathroom trips.

Long term cheating means that you are at much higher risk of neurological and brain damage... imagine gluten antibodies running around in your brain, and the ensuing chaos.... guarantee you wouldn't want to spend years and years trying to recover slowly from that. Or, then there is the bone loss, and tendon inflammation and damage which messes up your joints, so you can spend decades doing physical therapy every day so you can pass for "normal" and walk without too much discomfort - if you always wear heavy, supportive footwear. High heels ? Fugggetaboutit - balance is permanently off. Don't forget a fresh breakout of acne can hit every time you eat gluten. Or that thyroid disease is always lurking, ready to make your metabolism so slow you are always gaining weight at the sight of a rice cracker.

Don't forget the return of kidney problems from the kidneys filtering extra calcium out of your blood. Stones- what fun!

Really, why don't you just plan to eat something really, really high quality and good that is not gluten.

[nvsmom]

After a year, it won't taste the same anyways. Soooo not worth it.

Think icecream or m&m's or caramel popcorn or nachos with salsa, cheese and guacamole. Who needs the wheat!!

[Adalaide]

My one year gluten-free anniversary also happens to coincide with my birthday. (Give or take 2 days.) For my birthday before going gluten-free I indulged in red velvet cake. For my birthday this year I found a gluten-free bakery and bought a half dozen red velvet cupcakes. In my defense, I let my husband have one. I have also taken up one of my favorite passions again, baking. I now have a stash of cookies in the freezer leftover from Christmas that I can indulge in any time, one at a time. These things keep me from cheating.

In the year since gluten-free I have not purposely eaten gluten a single time. I have accidentally. Over time my reaction has gone from bad, to worse, to life altering for weeks at time. It isn't the hours in the bathroom that bother me, or the day following that is filled with dread knowing what is coming. It is the following 3 or 4 days or week that I sleep it off for 16 or more hours a day. The weeks following of nearly unbearable all over pain, sometimes so bad I can't tolerate the touch to put lotion on after a shower or even the water from the shower. Stumbling around like a drunk for a month with ataxia. Covered in bruises all over my body, from fresh and purple/black to old and green, sometimes overlapping each other, from bumping into so many things. I stop talking in the middle of sentences because my fog and memory are so bad that I forget that I was having a conversation. This is at its absolute worst for 2-3 weeks, then slowly subsides and after about 6 or so weeks is gone enough that I can function more or less like a human being.

This isn't some sob story about how much life sucks if I get glutened. This is to point out that there is no food on earth, nothing, not even red velvet cake, not even my grammy's cookies, that is worth that. And I'm just talking the immediate effects. That is without the risk of AI diseases or the thought that one day years from now if I happen to get cancer would I look back on the day I willingly ate gluten and forever wonder if that was the straw that broke the camel's back? Was that the one too many? Was that the gluten that gave me a death sentence? I don't want to live with that. Do you?

[IrishHeart]

Nope. Not going to trot out my list of AI diseases or ramifications of gluten exposure or bring out the doom and gloom flow charts with graphs and such I'll save those for another time.

I am sure you know by now why cheating is not a good idea. I presume you are a grown-up and if so, this is totally your decision, hon.

Instead, I'll say this: I take every precaution to avoid CC because of what celiac did to me, so I find cheating to be just plain stupid.

There is nothing worth five or six bites of some delicious goodie I can recreate myself that is gluten free and safe--only to endure weeks of feeling like total sh*t and having burning pain in my joints, bones, muscles nerves, hair loss, insomnia, heart palps, migraines, brain fog and ataxia etc, not to mention the time spent in the loo.

Chances are, you'll feel like crap.

But, if you escape unscathed, promise me you will not brag about it or mistake it for a green light to do it again, okay?.

And I promise that if you feel like crap, just this one time I won't say "I told you so". Most members know how much I am (unapologetically) anti -cheating.

oh..... I am really curious.....what gluteny food is so tempting that it is calling you to the dark side?

[Opa3]

Don't do it. I did in 2007, and ended up with IBS/GERD. Wheat is not worth anything.

Make progress, be well and STAY well.

[gancan]

Stay strong and celebrate your year anniversary with a big pile of gluten free nachoes!!

[Gemini]

I am about to have my year anniversary of being a celiac/ being gluten free. I have never felt like cheating but as this anniversary gets closer part of me wants to just cheat. Please talk me out of it! Give me statistics or articles or anything!

For me, I never get far enough to even worry about serious complications because the immediate effects are enough to keep me from ever cheating. I never even have any desire to cheat...not on the radar. But, then again, being up all night, hurling until I think my stomach will come up, does the trick for me!

Think of what you are craving and find it's gluten-free counterpart and indulge yourself.

[tarnalberry]

I don't get it.

We don't think that an alcoholic celebrating a year sober is ok to go out and drink. We don't think a serious diabetic is ok to go out and eat sugar their whole birthday long. We don't think it's ok for someone allergic to peanuts to go eat a peanut butter cookie on their birthday because it's their favorite.

I mean "Yay! I want to celebrate doing a super great job by totally screwing it up! Yay!" ???? It doesn't make any sense to me.

Oh, I get the the desire to stop watching every little ingredient. The desire to go back to old comfort foods you once knew and loved. The desire to be "normal" compared to your gluten-eating peers.

But you can't go back in time.

[Pegleg84]

The best way to celebrate would be to indulge in some really good gluten-free goodies. Bake yourself a cake, make something wonderfully delicious that you wouldn't usually have, or find a good bakery that will do it for you, but keep the gluten out of it. You don't need a hangover for a week.

(Now I have the urge to bake chocolate cake... great...)

Congrats on making it through a year!

[GFinDC]

How bad is cheating?

[twe0708]

I am about to have my year anniversary of being a celiac/ being gluten free. I have never felt like cheating but as this anniversary gets closer part of me wants to just cheat. Please talk me out of it! Give me statistics or articles or anything!

I can't believe it's an option for you. I had one small bite of what was supposed to be flour less fudge and I was sick in an hour. I can't imagine what would have happened if I ate a regular piece. I remember when I was first diagnosed my doctor telling me I could cheat for special occasions. NOT an option. If you decide to do it, I wouldn't do it on your special night because it may just ruin it. Good luck!

Order the flourless cake at P.F. Chang's with raspberry sauce and strawberries if you are looking for a special dessert to celebrate your special occasion. It is so goo you can't tell is gluten-free.

[bartfull]

If I were diagnosed with a fatal disease and told I had a week to live, I would fly to New Orleans and pig out on anything I wanted. But until that happens, I will stay home and pig out on as many gluten-free options as I can find and enjoy every bite.

[JNBunnie1]

Did that work? Want more horror stories? We got plenty!

[Jackiebear]

I did decide not to cheat. Its not a certain food i want, its just all the constant checking. It really gets old. The holidays were really hard, but i got through them. I have never purposely cheated and i don't think i will anytime soon. I have been doing so much better and i would like to keep getting healthier.

[IrishHeart]

Good for you!! You put your health first. We're so proud of you!

Hon, I think we all get the "sometimes it gets old" part. We really do.

Personally, I hate the lack of spontaneity of just dining out wherever/whenever I want to, especially

because we like to travel.

But there is nothing like feeling good and not being desperately ill 24/7 for years..

Keep up the good work. And congratulations on your first "rebirth-day"!!

hugs, IH

[Celiac Mindwarp]

Good choice

I don't like the thinking and. checking part of either. I have been eating wholefoods the last 3 weeks, and that has cut down the checking a lot. Our spontaneity is a bit different, and we are masters of the picnic now, even in winter, we just have to be creative about venues. We also entertain at our home more, which we enjoy especially

Keep it up

[Adalaide]

Woohoo! Best decision. It does get old. I had a pity party early in the winter. I whined about everything to my husband, about none of this is fair, about how stupid it is that I can't even eat a freakin mint because it could have who knows what in it. I just want to be able to wake up one day, say hey lets do this, leave the house and go. But no, I have to plan everything or starve to death while I'm gone.

You're right, it is so stupid and unfair! It is okay every once in a while to stamp your food like a petulant toddler and say so too. Then I always go indulge in a cupcake to get over it and I forget what my problem was. And you should totally get a cupcake to celebrate anyway, since as IH pointed out, it is your rebirth-day! (I got ripped off... my rebirth-day and birthday are at the same time.)

[IrishHeart]

And you should totally get a cupcake to celebrate anyway, since as IH pointed out, it is your rebirth-day! (I got ripped off... my rebirth-day and birthday are at the same time.)

poor babe. Didn't we celebrate your birthday enough? okay, here's one for your re-birth day too.

[IrishHeart]

Jackie bear, make this flourless chocolate cake and celebrate YOU!!

Open Original Shared Link

[Adalaide]

poor babe. Didn't we celebrate your birthday enough? okay, here's one for your re-birth day too.

psh, it was a joke. Let the Jackiebear have the happy birthday. If it turns out as an excuse to have 2 a year, that much better!

[GFinDC]

Great decision!