How Long Did It Take You To Heal?

[clnewberry1]

I have been gluten free since December 1st. In November I had a very bad case of stomach flu - maybe glutened but either way I lost some weight. I am already a small/petite person 5'2" and 95 pounds. I am now 89 pounds. I thought I would start putting the weight back on. I am following a much healthier diet and the loose stools are gone.

I just wonder how long it will take before I can start putting some weight back on and when will my stomach heal. My goal is to be 100 pounds in 6 months. Possibly this is too aggressive.

I am drinking coconut milk smoothies in the morning and eating lots of almonds. I am not sure what else to eat I guess.

I can't have yeast so no bread and I may have a minor issue with milk. I need to get some further testing on the dairy party.

Thanks,

Crystal

[rinne]

Hi.

I appreciate that question, unfortunately I have no answer for you. Healing is very individual, if you have time to read some of the posts you will see that it varies, for some simply cutting (whoops I am sure someone doesn't think it is simple!) out gluten will make the difference, for others more intolerances seem to arise. Dairy, soy, corn, eggs are often a problem.

It also depends on how long you have been ill.

I too was very thin and it took time to gain weight, it seemed I could eat and eat and eat and still not gain, I ate almond butter by the half jar (a cup at a time), lots of coconut oil as I couldn't do dairy. Sometimes I would mix the almond butter and coconut oil together!

The important thing to do is pay attention to how you feel, keeping a journal is helpful.

I believe the general understanding is that it may take up to two years to heal your villi.

[Piccolo]

Hi, and welcome to the club. I have been gluten free for about 2 1/2 years. It took me a year before I was fully healed. There is yeast free bread available. I get mine from Ener-G. It is very dense and the only thing it is good for is toast. Here is my typical breakfast.

Cooked cereal with brown sugar and milk (any kind)

toast with butter substitute, nut butter, and sweet

plus my beverage

This keeps me full till lunch time.

Hope this helps. I also am very petite. I have never weighed 90.

Susan

[wschmucks]

FYI they do make gluten free and yeast free bread-- and it's not bad, I actually like it. They have it at Whole Foods in the gluten-free section. If they do not have it in stock they will order it for you and it will be there in about 2 days :-)

[digmom1014]

My test for beginning to heal was milk. I was able to drink it without a reaction in about 6 months. I am also gluten-free intolerant, not diagnosed celiac. You need to be pretty strict with yourself and eat "clean" foods until then. Figure on June/July to re-test yourself with the dairy.

However, everyone is different, as stated previously. I just know that it is a long and hard struggle to see when and if you can adapt gluten-free into a lifestyle your body is comfortable with. Sometimes people are also allergic to other items, even though they are gluten-free.

Believe me, once you are healed you will gain back the weight plus have a great deal of energy. I sometimes can't believe the way I feel now is how most people feel all the time!

[Glutin-Free Man]

There is yeast free bread available. I get mine from Ener-G. It is very dense and the only thing it is good for is toast.

Susan

Hi Susan,

I have some of the Ener-G bread in my pantry, and having eaten an entire loaf of it, I'd go even one step further than you, and say "The only thing I'd recommend using it for is a coaster."

I've been baking my own bread for a couple weeks now, mostly based on the recipes from Open Original Shared Link. I'd recommend trying her Open Original Shared Link if you've only been eating pre-packaged gluten-free bread.

For Crystal - no yeast doesn't mean you can't eat bread! It just makes it a bit harder. Irish Soda Bread doesn't use yeast as leavening. You can make it with baking soda and an acidic ingredient (buttermilk) to react together and provide the gasses to leaven the bread, or you can use a carbonated beverage (soda water) as a single, pre-gassed ingredient to leaven the bread.

I haven't tried any gluten-free versions of soda bread, but I enjoyed some wheat based versions of it before I became gluten intolerant. It's a bit crustier and denser than most yeast leavened bread, but still very good.

Here's some links to recipes that sound reasonable:

• Gluten-free girl's (no relation https://www.celiac.com/uploads/emoticons/default_wink.png' alt=';)'> ) Open Original Shared Link sounds good.
  
• Karina's Open Original Shared Link sounds very good.
  
• This Open Original Shared Link has fewer ingredients, so it might be easier to start with, but I'm not a big fan of things baked with mostly rice flour. It tends to have a gritty texture, especially with the health food store flour, which is usually easier to find but tends to be coarser than most people like.
  

See my post here (scroll down to the bottom of the page) for cheaper places to get some of these ingredients.

Hope this helps!

[sixtytwo]

Gluten intolerant too, going on five years now, my grandaughter has severe celiac disease for nine of her ten years of life. My only advice is not to think you can cheat here and there as YOU CAN'T. I started having lots of migraines and feeling yukky, and it probably was the fact that I though I could just have a little of this or that and get away with it. I went back to strictly gluten-free and I am much, much better now. My favorite bread is Bob's Red Mill bread that I bake myself and I make it into four small loaves rather than the one large one, much easier to get to rise and bake nicely. I also use their all-purpose flour mixture for all of my baking from scratch, a litte hint is to back off a little on the amount it calls for in the recipe as things tend to be a little dry, maybe add a little more moisture and always add 1 tsp of xanthun gum for every cup of flour. If a recipe is a really dry one, it doesn't adapt too well. When I made my own pumpkin bread recipe this last Christmas, I put in too much water by mistake and it turned out so moist and tasty using the gluten-free way. It is kind of trial and error using your recipes and changing them to gluten-free. Just keep working with your recipes and you will be surprised how well you can adapt them to gluten-free. If you don't tell people, they will never know they are your own special food.

Best wishes.........Barbara

[eleep]

It really took me about a year and a half to begin to put on weight. I went through a nasty breakup right after my diagnosis, which definitely stressed me out and hampered the healing process -- it also made me lose my appetite for a while. Even after a year an a half, I hadn't gained a whole lot of weight - but I'd always been skinny, so I assumed that was the way it would be.

Actually -- that's changed a lot in just the past year -- I've gone from size 0 to size 4 -- and it's a very good thing, let me tell you. I've been gluten free for three years and about a year ago I started to see an acupuncturist every other week. Although I'd assumed that I was "healed" before then, the acupuncture has really accelerated the process even more and I have more energy and feel better than I ever though possible -- I've also gained a really healthy amount of weight since then and my weight seems to have balanced out.

Also -- I've been making a lot of Socca -- which is kind of a chickpea flatbread -- it's all olive oil, chickpea flour and water -- no yeast or dairy -- quite wonderful. I've been using Mark Bittman's recipe, which you can find by googling Bittman and Socca.