Still Starving In Nc

[valeriek]

I went to Boston Market and got mashed potatoes , corn and green beans but when I try to eat I feel sick. Maybe because I havent eaten in so long. I just feel weird and dizzy. I know things will get better but right now I am in hell. I want to eat but I cant. I only weigh 115 now so i dont want to lose weight for sure. How long untill I feel normal and why is my head so weird. I was fine with all this last week and just yesterday and today I am a wreck. I am going to drive my family crazy. I just feel so tired. I dont even want to go to the store. I need honest opinions....am I hust being a baby about all this or has any gone through this. Thanks so much for listening to me whine. Can any one give me an idea of what they eat during the day. I used to eat yogurt for breakfast, fried chicken, beans and tea for lunch. And what ever for dinner. But I did eat.

[maile]

Hi Valerie,

if you've not been eating then it's quite possible that that's the reason for feeling "weird and dizzy", combine this with D and you could be out of balance and dehydrated.

my suggestion, try and get something into yourself. If you can't eat "real food" then I believe there are types of Ensure that are gluten free (I've seen a thread on that here) which only requires sipping. Another choice (if it's available in your area) is young coconut juice, this has similar properties to Gatorade but is all natural and gluten free. (note: not sure on the gluten-free status of Gatorade) Young coconut juice has been used in southern areas as emergency food for children etc....another suggestion would be Pedialyte either drink or freeze pops.

Once you can get some nutrition into your system you may find those feelings diminsh and your appetite will return.

Good luck

[ravenwoodglass]

At first you really need to be cooking your stuff at home. There is a risk of CC in any restaurant or cafe sort of thing.

If it helps here is what I typically eat:

Breakfast

Rice Chex or Bakery on Main Granola with Rice Milk, Yoplait or Wegmans yogurt and coffee, eggs and Kinnickinnick toast with Jones All Natural Sausage, Pocono Cream of Buckwheat cereal with lots of cinnamon and a piece of fruit

Lunch,

Pnut butter and jelly sandwich, Hormel turkey or ham sandwich, Dinty Moore Beef stew, Tuna with helmans mayo stuffed in a tomato

Dinner, Rice cooker cooked rice with veggies and leftover meat or shrimp in the steamer basket, Roast with potatoes and veggies, Rice pasta with tomato sauce and ground beef, stir fryed veggies in olive oil and garlic with rice pasta

I know others will have some ideas for you too. It will get easier.

[GFinDC]

Hi Valerie,

I saw your other thread where you said you just ate spinach for a week. While that worked well for Popeye the Sailorman it probably isn't too great for most other people. Don't tell Popeye I said that though!

Your body needs time to adjust to your new diet, so you may experience some GI symptoms as you change your way of eating. I suggest you start as others have said, with a simple diet of homemade foods vs packaged processed foods.

What I do is make a big batch of rice or quinoa with lentils, veggies and meat. Quinoa has more proteins than rice so it's a good choice for that reason. You can probably eat eggs for breakfast. Maybe add a little meat to the eggs for extra protein to help you heal. Bob's Red Mill makes a hot cereal that is gluten-free though. Tastes fine with some banana slices, raisins, dried fruit etc. added in.

I suggest limiting sugar and salt also to start out. Your gut has lots of little critters running around that can tend to get out of control with too much sugar. I think this tends to be more likely during the diet adjustment.

You might want to get some vitamin D, Vit B-12 liquid form, some calcium, and some pro-biotics also. Your doctor can test your blood for vitamin deficiencies. Dairy is a problem for lots of us special diet peeps too.

I also like to make guacomole and eat it with Tostitos corn chips. Some people have a problem with corn also. I also eat oats but some people have problems with them also, especially at the beginning of the diet.

Stew is easy to make in a pressure cooker.

For a treat I like to make something like peanut brittle, but use an assortment of nuts, seeds dried fruit etc.

To find your previous posts you can click on the My Assistant link and choose My Last 10 posts. Then click the post preview link, usually a number.

[TES]

I went to Boston Market and got mashed potatoes , corn and green beans but when I try to eat I feel sick. Maybe because I havent eaten in so long. I just feel weird and dizzy. I know things will get better but right now I am in hell. I want to eat but I cant. I only weigh 115 now so i dont want to lose weight for sure. How long untill I feel normal and why is my head so weird. I was fine with all this last week and just yesterday and today I am a wreck. I am going to drive my family crazy. I just feel so tired. I dont even want to go to the store. I need honest opinions....am I hust being a baby about all this or has any gone through this. Thanks so much for listening to me whine. Can any one give me an idea of what they eat during the day. I used to eat yogurt for breakfast, fried chicken, beans and tea for lunch. And what ever for dinner. But I did eat.

I got to the point that I could not eat anything and was losing almost a pound a day. Started drinking Ensure, has the nutrients your body is probably needing, and while I didn't like the taste, I drank 4-5 a day and slowly was able to start putting real food back in my diet. Drank them for about three weeks, getting down to a couple in between meals, slowly didn't need them anymore.

[Durntootinnoglutin]

Hi again Val....

some valuable advice from the previouse posters.

I too lost a lot of weight and was frantic to stop the decline. Here's what i learned......the Ensure drink is a good way to go, to use as a suppliment, that one or Equate, both sold at Wal-Mart and both gluten free and lactose free. It goes down easier if drunk cold. Unfortunatly i discovered i was soy sensative too and could not use them.

The other thing is to choose food which is calorie dense, that is rich in calories. Especialy if you don't have much of an appetite or fill up fast, use the stomache space wisely. And count calories to make sure you are getting what you need to survive, i use this one Open Original Shared Link online. Check into the weight controle and calorie intake featured in blue on the first page...it will give you a blanks to fill in info with your age, higth and activity as to how many calories you will need in a day.

Get a foodscale and weigh your food.

Use the good oils, those rich in Omega 3, olive oil, canola, to name two, sneak em into food, eat potatos, sweet potatos, brown rice, converted or otherwise, and if you do meat, do lots of it, and dairy. Eat beyond feeling full....that's what it takes to begin with, and with no appetite it IS work, stay with it, that appetite WILL come back. First you will be eating to live with little enjoyment in it, but that will change.

Learn to bake your own bread, there are some marvelouse recipies on this forum...use the search engine to track down what you want, there is a great fococcia (Sp?) bread recipie here somewhere. If i can find the time i'll post the one i use almost exclusivly.

Keep up the good work, posting here and asking questions is your beginning to gaining your recovery.

[Maura]

Hi and welcome. I too would avoid eating in restaurants till you're better at the diet. It is so easy to make mistakes when first starting the diet. I also shop at Wegman's because they have such a large variety of gluten free foods. And... they make it easy to identify safe foods.

When I was first diagnosed and began the diet my appetite was ravenous when I began to feel better. I ate large amounts of food but still only gained about a pound or two a week. It took about 6 months for me to gain back the 35 or 40 pounds I lost when I was sick. Your gut needs time to heal and it will if you are vigilant about being gluten free. The diet is difficult however and gluten hides especially in restaurants.

I eat Wegman's gluten free cereal for breakfast with skim milk.

I take leftovers to work for lunch and reheat in the mic. I also have a stash of snacks at work in case we stay late and I get hungry. Many times I eat yogurt, fruit and cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs etc for lunch.

We have a great dinner at night (which provides great leftovers). We often have rice or potatoes, any kind of veggies cooked in olive oil, broiled chicken etc.

When I was recovering I often was still very hungry after eating lunch at work. I brought a bottle of "Boost" (strawberry was best) with me and kept it in the fridge at work. I often drank it after my lunch and then finally felt satisfied. After a few weeks the hunger subsided and I no longer drink any supplements.

Hope this helps ... give it time ... good luck

[CeliacMom2008]

You mentioned that you used to have yogurt for breakfast. You still can, Yoplait is gluten free and I'm sure there are many others as well (we eat Yoplait though, so I don't know about others). I think Stoneybrook Farms is, but you'd have to check to be sure.

You lunch is still doable. Instead of fried chicken, bake up a whole chicken and then eat off of it for a few days. Not sure what sort of beans you had, but Bush's Original Baked are gluten-free. Green beans are of course gluten-free.

If your old foods are the only thing that are sounding good, I think you can use the above to get by for a few days until you get enough calories in to feel a little better. Then maybe you'll feel up to being more adventurous.

Hang in there, it gets easier and the rewards (feeling good!) are very worth the effort!