Day 1

[ChristieKate]

I had my biopsy done yesterday (oooh - what fun that was!) but I was diagnosed based on my bloodwork. So today is Day 1 of my totally gluten free life. I've been almost gluten free for 3-4 days already, but allowed myself a few cheats. No more.

I am a bit overwhelmed my how much time it takes to prep my food. Lunches especially. I have a few ideas for making things faster and more convenient and I hope to get better/faster as this becomes more normal. I find lunches and that "after-work-go-straight-to-the-pantry-for-a-snack-while-cooking-supper" time the hardest to figure out.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm also lactose intolerant. Honestly, I don't know. I didn't think I was gluten intolerant either! I have lots of symptoms but they seem to occur all the time or at varying times and I never connected them to eating gluten (although - it may have been a desire not to see this too...). So I think I will try to eliminate lactose for at least a couple of weeks and see if that helps speed up the healing process.

Can I drink Lacteeze milk if I'm gong lactose free or do I need to stick to rice milk? I'm allergic to soy and almond so those subs are out for me.

Any other advice is welcome! I've learned a lot on this site already.

[tictax707]

Welcome!! It is totally understandable to be overwhelmed. I was too. Things will take a while as you learn, but there are temporary solutions to help get you off and rolling. It all depends on what kinds of tools you have access too for lunch. Do you have access to a microwave? Amy's makes some gluten free frozen dinners. Another think you can do is make a large amount of pasta & sauce and divi it into containers and just warm it up. The same works for stir fry - just be SURE you have gluten free soy sauce in it!

I totally hear you on the snacking issue! There are plenty of snack bars out there that are gluten free, and you choose your bar based on how heavy you want the snack to be. Glutino and food for life make breakfast bars that are light on calories, protien and fat to just tide you over. Bumble Bars, Lara Bars, Boomi Bars and tri bars are heavier, but you need to be sure to check the nut content. Also - fruits work well - bananas, apples, grapes, etc. You can much with little worry about spoiling your dinner!

I would go for rice milk instead of Lactiad milk. I think it's smart to avoid dairy for a while regardless because it's just hard on the digestive system. You can introduce it later as you start to sort things out.

I hope this helps some, and do keep us posted with your questions & thoughts!!

[Keela]

Here are some tips and tricks that have helped me

When you make supper always double the recipe. Put one recipe in the freezer for a quick supper when you are rushed.

For Lunch, buy some gluten-free wraps like Tree of Life and make sandwich wraps or pack part of your supper and take it for lunch the next day.

Snacks are easy too! You can still have most chips, salsa, gluten-free cookies, bars, cereals, veggie sticks, gluten-free crackers with peanut butter (that's my favorite)

Another trick I use is to do all of my cooking on Saturday. I'll cook several meals and freeze some and put the rest in the fridge for later that week. You can mix up 2 or 3 casseroles on a Saturday and pull them out of the fridge and heat them in the oven. It saves me lots of time.

Hope this helps! Good Luck!

[dhiltonlittle]

for snacks i usually eat chips and salsa, a bar of some sort, or rice cakes.i never in my life imagined eating a rice cake but if you get creative they are great! i've been putting peanut butter and m and m's on them for a desert snack. i have found i just don't eat out near as much which involves me making more meals at home at night to have for lunch the next day. i usually grill up a bunch of chicken at the top of the week to add to different meals.

[ciavyn]

It will get easier! Food eventually takes on a new meaning as you discover new things. I'm currently on a bland diet from being glutened over the weekend. (YUCK!) I actually crave my rice cake with almond butter (I can't do peanut butter) and honey, my raw carrots, and my larabar! Go figure! But I LOVE them. Hang in there and don't lose faith. Good luck!

[Bobbijo6681]

ciavyn,

I know what you mean about craving gluten-free foods now. I bought some Nut thins when I was first diagnosed and it took me a few days to get used to them, but now I can eat a whole box in 3 days and I LOVE them!! I also like the Enjoy Foods Snickerdoodle cookies with frosting for a snack (not very healthy, but again I LOVE them.) My biggest problem is that I like all of these things but don't like paying the price for them. They cost alot for very little product. But I guess that's the price we pay for being healthy so an little extra $$ will sure be worth having my life back!

[jenngolightly]

Most of us are lactose-intol in the beginning. The science is that a celiac's villi in her small intestines is damaged or gone completely from years of gluten-abuse. The part of her body that digests lactose is at the tips of those villi. Therefore, until she heals from the intestinal damage (by going gluten free), she cannot digest lactose. The good news is that many people return to normal milk-product eating, but if you stay on this forum, you'll see that many people can never go back to dairy.

Some tips? I learned to make rice at the start. It took me a few months to learn perfect rice cooking. I can make all kinds of rice now. Once you get the basic white and brown rice methods down, you can learn to add a variety of ingredients to liven them up. Buy a rice cooker. SOOOO much easier than in the pot. Another tip. Find alternatives to gluten food, but don't buy specialty gluten-free food. That's expensive! In the beginning, I think I tripled the amount of money I used to spend for groceries. I was buying pre-packaged foods that were made for celiacs. Now, I've found foods that I can get at regular grocery stores, but they're naturally gluten free. I'm back to spending a reasonable amount of money on groceries. This will probably take you some time to figure out. Look for recipes on the internet, buy cookbooks if you can afford them, and stay on this forum. I learned so much here.

Good luck.

[ChristieKate]

Well, I'm back from grocery shopping, and despite spending the GDP for a small country on my groceries, only $45 of it was on "gluten free" specialty products. So I'm happy with that. Part of the reason for the large order is that I've been quite behind in my shopping due to being so ill (and lazy). It feels good to have the cupboards stocked again. I got myself a cheap toaster and a new cutting board and some cooking utensils too, along with a lot of storage containers. Hopefully today's excursion will have me (and the family) in a good supply of meals and snacks for a while.

I have a super big pot of chili on the stove which should make enough for a few extra lunches (if the family doesn't eat it all!)

I live on the East Coast of Canada in a small town so my access to gluten free specialty products is a bit limited, but I'm finding some things that I think will work.

[tictax707]

YAY! Glad to see you are feeling encouraged. If store access is tough, there is a ton of stuff you can order online. Depending on what you are looking for, you can poll the community here for what's worth buying. There are forums on here for cooking & baking & other mainstream products you can get. Good luck!

[i-geek]

The "big batch cooking" idea is so great for lunches. I make a crock-pot of beans every Monday, refry them with onions/peppers/spices when I get home, and then we eat them with rice for dinner that night and I'll have them for at least two lunches that week (happily beans don't make me gassy- maybe my Mexican ancestry?). I almost always take dinner leftovers for lunch.

I second the recommendation to use non-dairy milks right now. I couldn't tolerate ANY dairy when I first went gluten-free. It's 4 months out and I can now eat butter, cheese, and yogurt. Give yourself time to heal.

[Lycopene]

Can't really concentrate on reading all the posts so I don't know if anyone suggested it, but there's always coconut milk. So Delicious I think the brand is? I'm not sure, can't remember. All I know is that the plain is pretty darn good! Vanilla is too sweet for my tastes. [:

It's quite good with cereal too.

[i-geek]

Can't really concentrate on reading all the posts so I don't know if anyone suggested it, but there's always coconut milk. So Delicious I think the brand is? I'm not sure, can't remember. All I know is that the plain is pretty darn good! Vanilla is too sweet for my tastes. [:

It's quite good with cereal too.

I haven't tried the milk but the coconut milk yogurt by that brand is IMO the best dairy-free yogurt out there. Good stuff.

[Lycopene]

Yeah, I agree. That yogurt is fantastic. You have to try the milk. It's sorta pricey... I think it was almost $5.00 for a half-gal, but it's oh-so-good.

[Indiana Joan]

I'm new at this too and I can't have dairy either. You can buy butter substitutes such as Earth Balance or Spectrum Organic Veg. Shortening. So with that, I baked a batch of gluten-free cookies and then put 3 each in snack baggies and put them in the freezer. When I need a quick snack I grab a baggie. They thaw quickly and they're even good frozen! Almost every evening after supper I have a frozen fruit bar (Edy's or Private Selection). I love raw nuts too, all kinds, and they're quick to grab a handful.

[Indiana Joan]

Oh yeah, my favorite snack bar is the Oskri coconut bar - it's chewy chewy coconut! Tastes just like an Almond Joy without the chocolate and almonds. Only 99 cents at my health food store. I even got my non-celiac friends hooked on them!

[WheatChef]

Cook in bulk, like enough to make that meal at least 3 times over. Most meals will save quite well for at least 3-4 days in the refrigerator. When you're cooking a surprisingly large part of your time is spent not on prep, but setting up and on things that you can't vary the time of all that much (like roasting, sauteing). When you increase the amount of servings you make it has a minimal effect on the overall cooking time of a dish but allows you to completely skip the whole ordeal 1-2 other nights of the week for leftovers.

[ali11]

I'm new to this too, and I know how you feel, sometimes it gets so overwhelming. The hardest part for me, I think, will be my family. I am a college student who commutes so I still live at home, and the rest of my family can eat gluten. My mom has been pretty supportive so far, but she keeps telling me things like, "I'm sure you can have small amounts every once in awhile" or "you don't have to worry about that, that's just for people who are really sensitive." But I think in time if I stay firm she'll get it. The house right now is full of food I can't eat, though, which frustrating. I have some gluten-free bread and corn tortillas, but I still wish I could just eat all the much better tasting foods we have in the house.

[ChristieKate]

A new question...is it possible that this diet is making me nauseous? I felt really good yesterday all day, and then last evening I got quite queasy. Today, same thing. Felt really good all morning, now really queasy again. It could also be the multi-vit I'm taking I suppose. Maybe I'll cut those out for a bit.

And I just went for my first run in 11 days. Running has been really hard on my tummy so I finally gave in and took some time off. I went out today hoping for a miracle, but my tummy got really crampy again. I'm getting fed up with this. My half marathon is in 2 weeks and I want to get running again. I guess I just need to put up with feeling like dirt afterwards.

[i-geek]

A new question...is it possible that this diet is making me nauseous? I felt really good yesterday all day, and then last evening I got quite queasy. Today, same thing. Felt really good all morning, now really queasy again. It could also be the multi-vit I'm taking I suppose. Maybe I'll cut those out for a bit.

And I just went for my first run in 11 days. Running has been really hard on my tummy so I finally gave in and took some time off. I went out today hoping for a miracle, but my tummy got really crampy again. I'm getting fed up with this. My half marathon is in 2 weeks and I want to get running again. I guess I just need to put up with feeling like dirt afterwards.

Could definitely be the vitamin. I don't take multi-vits for that reason. I've found that I can take B-complex, D, and calcium/magnesium supplements daily without problems. I tried adding in Vit E to the mix and had to stop because it always sets me off (and it's a gluten-free supplement, I checked). You probably need the nutrients, but maybe cut back to every other day and see if your stomach settles.