Food plods on. We’ve found the most efficient way to tackle this project is to have “stock” meals on certain days. Mondays are some pasta dish (rice noodles with jarred sauce that is GFCF, or I’ll make a delicious sauce over the weekend). Tuesdays are NEW MEAL days. This week we tried a yummy recipe that Tracy sent along for a raspberry chicken salad. It’s raspberries, papaya, and chicken on a bed of spinach, essentially. It was quite tasty, and my first foray into the world of papaya. The raspberry vinaigrette I had was a nice compliment. Thanks Foo-Bear!

Wednesdays are leftovers. Thursdays are some potato dish. Fridays are leftovers. Saturdays are stir fry. I forget what Sundays are, so they’re probably leftovers (when we aren’t having dinner at Ash’s folks’ place). Each day I seem to want to add sweet potato fries, because they are super yummy and I’ve gotten quite good at making them.

So we’re getting close to being able to “add” something. But before I get there, how am I feeling?

Well, I’d like to say markedly different, but really, I am not noticing much of a change. Except it’s stressful to shop and Ash is frazzled with having to cook specialty meals. It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out when Ash starts her student teaching. Fortunately, that’s at least after the 6 weeks, so I’ll be able to add dairy back in, which should ease the pain a bit.

I shouldn’t say that. My stomach has only had one weird pain episode (which wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past, but more than just normal discomfort). Hard to say if that’s “better”, because before the diet I would go a few months without problems, then have a week or two with lots of problems. But I suppose not having any of the bad incidents is a step in the right direction. As for my “side-issues” (skin problems, Reynauds, fatigue), I’m seeing no change. Rather, my skin is MUCH better, but I’m currently on 4 different medications for that, so it’s hard to attribute the improvement to diet). I still get Reynauds – my hands will be very cold even when I’m quite hot. And I’m very tired, but that’s probably because Duncan got up every hour last night, and the only way he’d sleep is if I held him, so I was up for 2 hours last night just rocking him. It’s probably teething, but it’s not doing Ash or I any good.

I’m getting better about preparing for tourneys. I have a small one-dayer tomorrow, so I’m going to make a medium salad and throw it into a cooler, bringing along a few GF bars for the rounds. That should suffice. With water. I’m finding that most juices – except orange juice and apple juice – I just am not loving anymore.

Final note: it’s really weird going to a casino and ordering OJ. I mean, I have gone a few times this year, twice since the diet, and when they come around and offer you FREE booze and you say no thanks, just an OJ? It’s odd. I’ll look forward to abusing my free drink privilege somewhere down the line. (But hey, I have a four-visit-win streak going! Woo!)

A few quick notes about milestones. First we have Landen who VOLUNTARILY wanted to show Mom that he could go underwater. Here’s proof.

Second, we have a video of Duncan rolling over. (He also popped some teeth just today, but no pictures of those yet. In fact, I haven’t even seen them yet!)

Finally, an awesome picture I took of Duncan with my cell phone yesterday. I love it.

I’m finding small victories in this process. The other day I was shopping for some basic stuff, knowing we were having tacos that night (I had planned on just putting the ingredients in a bowl and eating) when lo-and-behold I found a few different GF tortilla wraps. In fact, they even had the “official” GF stamp.

This also makes me wonder about things that are listed as Gluten-Free but DON’T have that stamp. I know the book I consult says to be wary of those. It’s so stressful finding things to buy that I am just counting them. Ash and i printed out a list of “secret bad ingredients”, so hopefully we can avoid even those products that purport to be GF but aren’t.

As far as I know, no real slip-ups since those first few days. I’m not going to say I’m LOVING this. I’ve had some okay meals, and I made a very yummy meat sauce that’s GF and that I eat with rice noodles. That’s not really expanding my horizons: it’s staying with comfort food, but the “safe” kind. I suppose if I’m happy doing it that way, that’s a step.

I’m really curious how we’re going to do this after Ash starts student teaching. As it is, we simply don’t have time to make meals like we want to. Most days when the kids come back, we just can’t summon the gusto to try a whole new recipe. In fact, I haven’t even done the research I need to to COOK new recipes. I’ve received a number of them from friends (thanks Sis!) but haven’t compiled a notebook yet with them.

Oh, and by the way, couscous is NOT good for me. So I may keep those recipes but substitute quinoa instead.

Anyway, life plods along. My skin is notably better, but I’m also currently on FOUR medications for it (I had gone to a dermatologist the day I started this diet). I still have frequent Raynaud’s symptoms (like right now – I’m practically sweating and my feet are ice cold). My stomach has been MOSTLY better, though I had a strange bout the other night that lasted for about an hour+ and was quite uncomfortable.

I’m counting down the minutes until I can put milk back into my diet. It’s just going to make life easier. Hopefully I don’t have any issues with it.

I’m into double digits!

We’re learning more every day as we go. I found a handy list of ingredients that are “bad”, so hopefully I’ll have a better time buying things in the future. Ash did a mega-shopping spree today and overspent our budget, but as a bit of stocking-up, it’s what we needed. She bought various types of salmon (who ever knew I’d start eating fish) that are GFCF – because some actually aren’t! – and some other goodies.

In the next week or so, we might start Landen on a GF diet. He’s been having some issues which could easily be just a 3 year old having some potty issues, but the doctor suggested since we’re already going that way to give it a try. I don’t know how he’ll take to that, as his diet is as gluten-heavy as mine was. But if we can find a few special treats that he can have, it might be okay.

So I haven’t had any slip-ups (that I know of) in 5 days. Of course, yesterday we went out to dinner, and eating GFCF is not so easy out live, even with fancy allergen menus. Macaroni Grill has a comprehensive menu, but when all was said and done, I had about 5 things to choose from. Not exactly my favorite meal out, but it could have been worse.

The more I’ve been thinking about that the “first” thing I’ll reintroduce is after 6 weeks, I think it’s going to be dairy. It’ll just take so much stress off the buying and hunting for food thing. Liquor isn’t that important, and as much as I like Dew, I fully know it’s terrible terrible terrible for me. So that can wait.

One step forward…

The weekend was interesting. Before leaving for my disc golf tournament, I poured another bowl of cereal and was about to put milk in it when I decided to look at the box again. It was rice cereal from Trader Joe’s. But it never occurred to me to actually LOOK if it was GF. Turns out, no, it wasn’t, and it didn’t pretend to be. It’s not like it said it was. I just made an assumption. So now I think I’ve slipped up 4 times (I had that cereal twice last week). Ash’s mom had the idea of “rating” how bad the slip-ups are. 1 being it was a sneaky ingredient I didn’t know contained gluten, 10 being me saying “screw it, I’m getting Taco Bell and having a Dewtini.” This one is a 4. It wasn’t deliberate (which is around 5 or 6 or higher), but it was stupid. I just didn’t even look.

Anyway, the actual weekend came and went with good and bad news. The good news is I was totally GFCF. The bad news – I didn’t eat a whole lot. For breakfast each day, I had 2 bananas. During each round, I had 2 GF bars, and at lunch I had parts of a large salad that I’d made. I didn’t really eat dinner on Saturday night, instead snacking on the deceptively tasty 180 Snacks Almond Pops with Blueberries. I had 2/3 of the 17 oz bag. They are good, but probably not what I should be eating for an entire meal.

When I got home on Sunday, there was no dinner, so I got more Qdoba, this time opting for the safe pulled pork.

Today, I ate an omelet that was almost made correctly, and then for lunch I finished the salad and tried reheating the quinoa meal from last week. It just isn’t reheating well. I’m feeling very frustrated with lunch. It’s rarely something I’m loving. Mostly, I’m tolerating it.

Ash gets home so late each day that we really don’t have time for dinner. I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to keep this up and keep our sanity. As it is, this blog post has taken me almost the entire day because of how busy work has been. I’ve been writing a sentence here, a sentence there… and when I get off at 4, I usually have to go get the kids right away. Methinks we might be eating out more often than we’d like.

On the bright side, I am not feeling quite as sluggish as I had before. I attribute that to the caffeine as much as anything, but that’s something. I’m not sure if it’s a psychosomatic reaction (or anti-psychosomatic) – I WANT this experiment to make me feel better, so I’m manufacturing feeling better as a result. Either way, every little positive I can walk away with is great.

Plus, the support (and recipes) I’m receiving are SO appreciated. Keep it coming! I’m compiling an e-index of recipes, as well as an actual hard copy. I know I’m not the first one going through this. I just like to bitch about it like I am.

Slip-ups: Unintentional – 4

I’ve slipped up again accidentally. After playing some disc golf, I was informed that dinner was ruined so I should pick something up. No biggie, I stopped Qdoba and got their naked (tortilla-less) taco salad with chicken and roasted veggies and pico de gallo. Only after I ate the entire thing did I remember that, when in NY, Stephanie got the pork (not chicken) because it was the only “safe” thing. I looked it up. Their chicken has milk in it!?!?!? WTF?!?!

Slip-ups: Intentional 0 – unintentional 2

I know it’s different than eating a sandwich and a glass of milk, but still, this is much too difficult for someone as unread (unprepared) as me. I will say I have felt a little more energy lately (not a ton, but hey, everything is good). It might be because Ash took the kids this morning (THANK YOU!) and when I had them yesterday, they slept in for a bit.

The real challenge will be this weekend, when I’m gone all weekend for a disc golf tournament. Food on the road is tricky, and preparing enough food that doesn’t need to be heated up is a challenge. I’m going to make a super big yummy salad, and bring tons of bars. Beyond that, I’m not sure. I think I need more than that, but I’m stuck for things that don’t require heating up. Ugh. I’ll try to do research today.