Kaycee's Blog

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I guess I am lucky, I struggled to loose nearly a couple of stone a few years back (was 90kg/14st), and even adjusting to the gluten free diet in the beginning, I did not gain it back. I was really chuffed and told myself that no way was I ever going to get over 80kg, but look at me now, one year on and the weight is creeping back up, I am now 83 kilos, which is 13 stone! It is all the Christmas extra eating that is doing it. Not so much chocolate, but in general just eating more.

I feel I have been dieting or in need of it, all my life. At 16 I lost a stone as I was just over ten stone. But that went back on, and maybe a little bit more. I remember just after getting married I was about 9 and a half stone. Good. Then the children arrive and with the first one I put on a horrendous amount, and the doctor put me on a diet while I was pregnant! But it was so so hard to do that, I was excessively hungry. My son was born, his placenta was small and I was asked if I smoked. Not I had given it up the moment I thought I was pregnant. But you know what, the weight just slipped back off. I was chuffed and I guess I rested on my laurels with number 2 son, the weight went on, same problem excessive hunger (Is that a symptom of coeliac while pregnant?) I know I got excessively hungry the last year before I was diagnosed. And I got the same questions about the size of his placenta and whether I had been smoking. But you don't need to guess what else happened, the excess weight did not fall off. So another diet, I lost a heap, then I got sick with a cyst on my ovary (the pain was worse than childbirth), which needed surgical removal in 1986. and I sort of related dieting to getting ill, which really is a bit lame, but the connection was there and yet a few years later another diet and another health connection! Tell you about that one soon.

So from this point, I have had two more children gained another few stone to bring me up to that awful 14stone which put me into the obese catergory! I did not like that, never have, but I was a bit reluctant to diet, I would walk and walk and keep active, but I could not push myself to diet until I reached that magical 14 stone in late 2004.

Then into the diet. What amazed me (as I already had signs of coeliac, that I didn't relate to anything), upon increasing my fibre as in fruit and veges, my diarhoea almost cleared up in the first couple of weeks. I thought fibre would've worsened the problem! In hindsight it cleared up because I had drastically reduced the glutens in my diet. But that phase did not last long and the d came back as there was still gluten in my diet.

By March 2005 I had lost all the weight that that diet was going to give up. I was 77kg 12 stone 7? and quite happy, and still trying to diet, but this is where I got hungry hungry again, and there was no way I could even seriously try to loose more weight. But at least the weight had stabailised and now I was thinking about finding out what was wrong with me. I was a bit embarrassed thinking about going to the doctor, I thought it would be awful complaining about my bowel habits. From about March I realised that what I had was serious, I realised, (always have really) that it is not normal to have diarhoea everyday of your life (for the last 10 years) and I was having problems with emergency evacuation of my bowels whenever I had anything that was yummy, as in shouts at work, or going out for a meal. Food was a problem, I was starting to get heartburn and that was horrible. My health was going downhill and was starting to impact on myl life at work, at home and everywhere. I was getting grumpy.

So I more or less diagnosed myself, which is not hard, as it was something I ate everyday, and as my sister suspected gluten intolerance in herself and got a result that was borderline, so I took the bull by the horn, tried gluten free, then realised more or less immediately, hey, this is really improving my life, hot trotted to the doctor (it was not hard to do as I realised it wasn't something embarrassing like worms!) and told him what I thought was wrong with me. He listened and took the tests and the results came back weakly positivie for Coeliac. I felt like yelling, I don't want that, I want the gluten intolerance!

So there you are, another diet only to find out that I was ill.

But I do want to loose more, especially what I put back on! New Year is just around the corner, and I will seriously get back into the weight loss diet, (I am 99.9% serious with gluten free). Notice just 99.9%, sometimes it gets so frustrating that like last night I will grab a couple hot chips from my hubby's plate. He reckons it is not worth telling me off, as I won't listen. I should listen I know, as there was gluten in there, but this is one risk I am willing to take once in a blue moon, maybe once every couple of months, as the gluten will be neglible. Go on tell me off, I know it is wrong for my health, but it is no worse than those accidental glutenings that I get from sources unknown, only difference is this way it is a calculated risk, as it is anytime when you eat out.

Cathy