Happy Saturday! I hope you are having as wonderful a morning as I have been blessed with. As much as I love and adore my family, I have been given a rare gift of being alone in my house. AHHHH!!! The perfect time to sit and blog, don't ya think?! It has been a fantastic week in my Journey to Wellness and I am so excited to get it written down. First and foremost, I want to thank each and everyone of you who has reached out. I did not start blogging to get pats on the back but I have to tell you the kind words, support and stories of your own journeys, genuinely mean so much to me! Thank you so much! My goal with this blog is to work through my journey and, if it helps somebody in the process, awesome...if not, it helps me to get my thoughts in one place where I can look back at them. So, quick group hug and thanks for the love!
I started off the week talking again to my doctor who I met with last Friday. She sent me in for a bunch of lab work so I did that first thing Monday morning . .well, after a kick butt new workout of course! I am still waiting for the results of the Celiac test but got everything else back. I met with Dr Huntsman on Wednesday and the conclusion we both came to was this .. .all my anxiety started when I stopped taking the active T3 thyroid medication I had been taking for years. What my blood work showed was that my body is not converting the T4 into T3 so I have all the classic symptoms of this simply being my thyroid. Now, I say simply because the "fix" can be somewhat simple. The diagnosis can be very hard to come to. Many doctors just do not do all the right blood tests and the "normal" ranges of thyroid are huge. We could do weeks and weeks of blogs on this but you can google and get plenty of info. I am also happy to talk with you about this. So, for me it is a simple change to a thyroid medication with T3 and T4 that should hopefully eliminate the symptoms. Time will tell!
What has become 100% clear in this process is that whether or not my Celiac test comes back positive, I have a pretty strong gluten intolerance. I spent some time this week playing around with it and have been amazed at the results. Since I have cut big gluten out of my diet for the most part, I can tell when I eat it. Stomach aches, headaches, intestinal misery, etc. But, when I cut it out, none of it. So I finally decided enough was enough. If Celiac is involved, it will take it to a new level but for now I choose to eat Gluten Free.
Yesterday was the first day I ate totally Gluten Free . .well, to the best of my knowledge. Turns out the shredded cheese I added to my eggs has gluten but I will learn! It was a great day to experiment. I went on a half day hike which meant taking food. My first challenge was to figure out what convenience foods to take that fit my needs. Veggies were great, fruit, gluten free bars (I have a friend who gets them made by somebody . . super yummy!). Success! I ended up eating lunch and dinner at restaurants so I really got to test the waters! And, not only just any restaurant for dinner but ITALIAN!! Lunch went well with a yummy salad and salmon. I need to ask more questions in the future but it worked out. Dinner...I just had to ask the server what I could eat off the menu. This is such an authentic Italian restaurant that they don't have GF pasta or anything which is just fine! The server was knowledgable and awesome. When she asked about dessert she just told me what I could have. I really appreciated it. You know what else is interesting, I did not leave any of the meals with that miserable full feeling. Hmmm...
Let's talk about cocktails. Of course in all the fun and social time yesterday there were cocktails! I enjoy my cocktails (in moderation of course!) :). Now, when you are changing your eating you have to check the alcohol too. So this whole experience is crazy! Wine is gluten free so that is an option (though a migraine trigger, which means I am being very careful). That leaves Vodka and Gin. I prefer Vodka and it comes from potatoes so I am all good right...WRONG! Did you know that there are only a handful of potato or Gluten Free Vodkas? Who knew?? And, this whole time I thought I was being so good making the right choice, I was still drinking gluten. Thankfully Brad takes such good care of me and stopped at the store to make we now have Gluten Free Vodka in the house. What I was super surprised about as well was the restaurants. The servers do know if they have a potato vodka! It was so helpful!
The result . . .I felt good yesterday. I woke up today without all the fun symptoms I mentioned before plus my head feels clearer. For those who pay attention to their weight, I also found it interesting that my weight was down quite a bit today. Since gluten in an inflammatory food, I wonder how much that made a difference cutting it out. Not sure I can prove anything but thought it interesting. This Journey to Wellness is definitely an interesting one! I am learning so much and find it all so fascinating. I truly believe we are eating so many foods that are causing problems in our bodies so the more natural we can eat, the better. The rule of thumb is to shop the outside of the grocery store. It is a good rule. Now adding the GF to the mix will be a ton more learning for me . . as well as my family but it is worth it! Are any of you on the GF fence? I would love to hear what is holding you back? Feel free to share comments. Thank you for the support in my Journey to Wellness!
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