Changes To Be Made.

[whitey]

I take it all back, i always assumed that anybody on a weight loss diet had no will power, now i know it's hard,

because ive only been diagnosed a week ago and im struggling, to frightened to eat practically, iv'e been living on boiled

chicken, boiled chicken,ho yeh boiled chicken, im seeing a dietitian tomorrow hope thats going to get me on my way,

my heart goes out to everybody on here because i didnt realise what a change we have got to make to our lives,

only goto convince my wife of the importance of the changes to be made now,

did anybody feel down when they realised what a change they were making,

dont know why but i feel has low as i can go at the moment, hope it wont last

best regards to you all

steven.

whoops my chickens boiled

[mushroom]

Yeah, it is a bit of a shock to realize that "calories in, calories out" doesn't always hold true. Not to worry. Give your body time to adjust to the proper regime and you should be right. As soon as everything gets back in balance thing will normalize.

This does include having your physician measure your nutrient levels for deficiencies in things like Vit. D, B12, folate, magnesium, zinc, calcium, iron. Things will not "normalize" if any of these levels are subpar. You have to remember that your body has not been acting normally for a while, you probably haven't been absorbing these nutrients properly, and it is probably going to take supplementation to get things back in line. If you are having trouble losing weight, your body probably still thinks it is in starvation mode because it is short of these nutrients and trying to hang on to anything it can get its hands on. Once it has what it needs, then it can let go.

[whitey]

Yeah, it is a bit of a shock to realize that "calories in, calories out" doesn't always hold true. Not to worry. Give your body time to adjust to the proper regime and you should be right. As soon as everything gets back in balance thing will normalize.

This does include having your physician measure your nutrient levels for deficiencies in things like Vit. D, B12, folate, magnesium, zinc, calcium, iron. Things will not "normalize" if any of these levels are subpar. You have to remember that your body has not been acting normally for a while, you probably haven't been absorbing these nutrients properly, and it is probably going to take supplementation to get things back in line. If you are having trouble losing weight, your body probably still thinks it is in starvation mode because it is short of these nutrients and trying to hang on to anything it can get its hands on. Once it has what it needs, then it can let go.

No problem loosing its puting it on thats hard, i can binge eat all i like and not put on an ounce, (8st 12oz)soaking wet

[ravenwoodglass]

The previous poster gave you some good advice.

Until you get to your appointment my Mom gave me some good advice growing up that was borne out in the nutrition classes I took as an adult. Your plate at meals should be colorful. For example, a plate with chicken rice and corn is not going to have as many nutrients as a plate with chicken, sweet potatoes and peas. As far as being afraid of what to eat goes if you stick with whole foods you will be pretty safe. Fresh meat, chicken or seafood, fresh veggies and fruits, nuts, beans etc all are going to be naturally gluten free. Do be careful of processed gluten-free foods and read the labels. It appears from the way you state your weight that you may be in Europe. Some consider codex wheat starch to be gluten free but many of us react to it. Avoid it for now.

It is also normal for you to be pretty down moodwise right now. In addition to the nutrient deficit you may also be going through a withdrawl from the gluten. That will pass.

You have found a great place for info and support. Hang in there things will improve. You didn't get sick overnight and healing can take some time but heal you will.

[Skylark]

whoops my chickens boiled

As others have said, we tend to go through a rough time first going off gluten. There's the stress, and a shock to the system.

That said, you don't have to live on boiled chicken! There's lots of good food we can eat.

Let's take your chicken breast. Grill your chicken with a gluten-free barbecue sauce and serve with baked beans (see link below). Throw some corn on the cob onto the grill too while you're at it. Or stir-fry your chicken with San-J brand tamari sauce, sliced ginger, green onions, a little white cooking sherry, and lots of veggies. Thicken the sauce at the end with cornstarch paste and serve over rice. I also like to cook chicken breasts in a frying pan with a little olive oil salt, and herbs du Provence.

gluten-free beans and barbecue sauce:

Open Original Shared Link

(Note that you should probably put your chicken on foil if you grill on a rack that has had gluten-containing barbecue sauce in the past.)

Don't be afraid to eat. Anything that's a plain fruit or vegetable is fine. Plain, unseasoned nuts are fine, though buy them in packages and not bulk bins. Normal cheeses are fine if you can eat milk. As you know, meat is fine but you can season it to your liking using onions, garlic, or plain fresh or dried herbs. Eggs are fine. Yoplait brand yogurt usually says gluten-free right on the label. Rice and potatoes and sweet potatoes are naturally gluten-free. Until you see your dietician, just use common sense and eat whole foods where it's easy to tell there's no gluten.

[T.H.]

did anybody feel down when they realised what a change they were making.

Oh yeah, I felt really, really down. I also felt really, really hungry for weeks, which only made it worse. I think the hardest part is realizing just how much of our lives revolve around food: parties, movies, family dinners. Even just going out for a beer - all stuff that completely changed. I think for a lot of us, we need a little time to grieve, like anyone who has lost a limb or anything else that was so much a part of their daily life that they never even thought of what it would be like without it.

What helped for me - although it took a while! - was to realize that this would make me feel better. I used to suffer from depression, and 8 months into the diet, it's gone, completely. Old aches and pains I used to have: gone.

Time...well, some of that's gone, too, LOL. I had to spend a lot of time looking up recipes for new foods. There are a LOT of gluten free blogs out there with marvelous recipes; I would really recommend googling 'gluten free recipes' or 'gluten free + 'your desired food' ' and see what you can find. I like blogs a little better than cookbooks, personally, because they often have little tips and tricks.

It's daunting at first, because of the extra time needed for every meal, just to figure it out. I tried to use what extra time I could find, like getting a gluten-free cook book and reading it when in the car, or instead of watching TV, or waiting in line somewhere. I had to have a meal plan for the week so I would know all the foods I'd have to buy.

Another couple things I've read that have helped others, or helped me:

1. Just ditching anything that is a gluten free version of your normal food - gluten-free bread, gluten-free crackers, etc... Some people said that when they did this, and then 6 -12 months later introduced gluten-free bread, their taste buds had kind of 'forgotten' what wheat bread tasted like, so the taste wasn't so different, and thus less unappealing.

2.going for naturally gluten free foods. I've found recipes that never HAD gluten have been tastier than foods that are gluten free versions of gluten recipes. I often look at foods from countries that don't have that much gluten. Ethiopa, for example, makes a traditional bread called injera that uses teff flour. You can find recipes for it on-line - but look for 'traditional' recipes for these types of foods. many modern recipes will substitute wheat for the traditional flour, because it's cheaper.

3. Also, if you look up 'flat bread' recipes, you'll find a lot of different ideas. There are indian flatbreads made from chickpea flour, for example. I find that I miss my bread less when I am eating foods that are so different from what I had - i don't see a sandwhich and think: I wish I had good bread for this! I see instead stir-fried bokchoy with rice, and the bread connection doesn't pray on my mind as much.

Good luck to you! It'll get better. Takes a while, but it really does.

Oh! one thing you might not have been warned about: lipstick and chapstick are both usually filled with gluten, so you'll need to be careful about kissing your significant other! Lotions and such can have it too - basically anything on skin that you plan to kiss needs to be gluten free, or you'll get it.

The description I heard that made me think of it best was like thinking of gluten as raw meat that never cooks. Wherever gluten touches, I treat it like that was raw meat, and take precautions to match. :-)