Day 5 And Miserable

[tammykinz]

I have been gluten free for 5 days now. I don't even know if I truly have celiac but am trying it to hopefully manage my IBS. Well was doing fine each day until today. I am getting headaches and I am very irritable...like really irritable. I feel like I can snap at people easily and things are just annoying me really easily. That aside I am miserable because I really have no idea what to eat anymore. I am worried about eating too much rice and corn stuff.

tomorrow I am going to head to chapters to try and get a gluten free recipe book. My family is expecting me to make them dinners that are packed with gluten and I just am so frustrated right now because I am trying to concentrate on me. I am not selfish I just really need the Me time right now. I told my husband to step up and start cooking !!!

anyways just wondered if this moodiness and headaches were normal when you first start !!

[mushroom]

Oh, they are SO normal. You are going through gluten withdrawal, the same kind of withdrawal as when you quit smoking, or drugs, or alcohol. You can expect it to last a couple of weeks and you just have to grin and bear it, I'm afraid. Your body has become addicted to gluten and is crying out for more, but DON'T GIVE IN!!!

As for the cooking part, it is really easy to cook gluten free because most foods are naturally gluten free. All fresh meats (that have no ingredients list), all fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, potatoes, no gluten in all these (unless you buy them in boxes). And your family will not even know it's gluten free if you don't tell them. You will need some Pamela's Baking Mix so you have a flour mix for making gravies and for making pancakes and cookies. And you might want to buy some Udi's bread and Tinkyada pasta. But that's all you need to get started. Things can also be thickened with cornstarch.

Don't make a big deal of it. Cook them basic meat, potato and veg type meals with some pancakes and stuff thrown in, a grilled cheese and ham sandwich, whatever is not processed so you don't have to worry about reading the labels but things they will lhave been used to eating. And don't fret about being irritable - just tell them that your body is having to adjust and you should be better in a couple of weeks and you are sorry. Do not cook gluten for them at this point at least; you have to learn how to handle cross-contamination issues and how to deglutenize your kitchen (or if it is going to be a mixed kitchen, how to keep your things separate). Learn that things that you will need to buy for yourself alone (toaster, colander, nonstick pan) and how not to use gluten contaminated things. There are lots of threads on here for deglutenizing a kitchen.

Don't make things any harder than they need to be You can DO this.

[Bracown]

I was diagnosed w celiacs about 8 years go, maybe 10... When i first went gluten free, my first two wees were complete hell. My struggles became more profound. Irritable, pain, everything was worse. All of the sudden one day when i woke up, i felt like i never had before. I did not know what it was like to experience any measure of comfort at all. I encourage you to be an absolute fanatic during the trial period. I hope very strongly that it helps. For me, there seems no end to the symptoms of gluten. Maybe it will not help- but i believe it really takes time for your body to adjust to such a profound change. Truly, I wish you much better life than the struggles you are going through- and other people simply may not understand how important it is for you to take absolute care of yourself through diet. Please, for yourself, give yourself the chance and do not feel selfish or overly burdensome. If others knew the depths of your struggles, they would be glad to support your decision to try a gluten-free diet. Best regards!

[GFinDC]

I don't think hubby should do the cooking unless you are with him and can supervise. Men need a lot of supervision after all. It's hard enough for a new celiac to learn to cook gluten free, but someone who doesn't have celiac and isn't reading and studying about it is not going to understand right away. So, if you are both cooking that might be good so you can both learn at the same time.

That is good advice to stick to whole foods and avoid the processed foods. It is simpler to identify foods that cause you problems if they are made from whole ingredients. You should also avoid spice seasonings or blends, as they can have gluten sometimes.

You need to avoid wheat, rye, barley and probably oats also. At least to start, some people can eat oats but leave that to try later after a few months.

You may also find you do better without dairy in your diet.

[viviendoparajesus]

i am still having moodiness a year later but i have been glutened and eaten foods only to discover i cross react to them so it definitely happens. i agree try to stick with it and you might love the results so much you never go back. you are not being selfish you are taking care of yourself. like mushroom was saying there are a bunch of healthy foods you and your family would benefit from eating so cooking those will be great for all of you. i agree try to make your life easier. we are here for support and help. you can do it. it is a big change to make for you to get used to different habits and your body to have such a different diet. i think if your family gets it they would want you to do it. i hope you give it a chance and have great results. perhaps you can work with your husband so you can get a break and he can make safe meals. like someone suggested buying naturally gluten free foods would help you all out and help minimize accidental ingestion of gluten. best wishes!

[ravenwoodglass]

I was diagnosed w celiacs about 8 years go, maybe 10... When i first went gluten free, my first two wees were complete hell. My struggles became more profound. Irritable, pain, everything was worse. All of the sudden one day when i woke up, i felt like i never had before. I did not know what it was like to experience any measure of comfort at all. I encourage you to be an absolute fanatic during the trial period. I hope very strongly that it helps.

This persons experience was my experience also. For me it was the withdrawl and then just all of a sudden it lifted and for the first time in years I felt calmer and became a much easier person to live with.

It can be hard to be in a mixed household but it can be done. One thing you do need to do though is to get your children tested and also suggest testing to any first degree relatives. There is often more than one person in the house that needs the diet.

Do pamper yourself a bit. Make time to enjoy a hot bath, long walk, a book or a movie or what ever is a treat for you. The changes are hard at first but it will soon get much easier.

[tammykinz]

I would never let him cook for me on this diet. ha ha !! I just want him to cook for himself and the kids when I am feeling overwhelmed which during this first week I am overwhelmed !! Right now I am on sick leave from work and want to get back to work so I am really stressed about trying to get this all right and trying to get to a manageable point. it is hard when you have to worry about feeding everyone else in the household too. I right now just want to cook mainly for myself while he cooks for him and the kids. BUT he is mad because he goes to work and doesn't want to have to come home and cook too especially since I am at home all day. So you are right I will keep it simple and stick to the basics. if they don't like my bland food then too bad. At this point I don't know how to make things super tasty yet I am just learning right now.

I sound lazy but I am really overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to eat. In fact I cheated and went out to eat 2 times because I didn't want to cook anything. Once was wendy's where I had baked potato and chilli and the other was a restaurant where I had plain pot roast and steamed broccoli with rice and I think the rice might of been glutened. So I got to stay away from eating out right now but I am one that has always hated cooking to begin with and I don't have any kitchen creativity at all.

I just got the eating gluten free for dummies book so hoping to try some things in there.

[GFinDC]

Some people make crock pot meals and like them a lot. Another thing you can do is make really big amounts of food on the weekend, and freeze portions to microwave during the week. If you do that for several weekends you can have a nice variety too. I used to make big batches of rice with fixins. One trick is to not use a lot of spices etc when you make big batches, just in case you react to something in them. Just add spices when you eat the food. Saves throwing out a big batch of food.