Thursday, January 1, 2015

Nine months later, and still no Baby

Today marks the 9-month anniversary of the blood-draw that led to my diagnosis of celiac "disease".

It has been a wild ride, but has seemed to settle down during the last couple of weeks.  I have learned alot, healed alot more, and also came to more insights.

Here's a few tidbits and insights:

1.  I am (was?) not very much low carb.  I didn't worry all that much about what I ate during this transition.  I felt I had enough to worry about with potlucks, finding out what I could eat, and trying to not get contaminated, than to worry about other things.  The result was that I gained back all the weight I lost.  I hate the idea that I seem to be one of those people who cannot lose weight without constant starvation.  Oh well, guess I'll have to own it.

2.  I finally trained my family.  This was hard, and required constant monitoring during holidays.  I discovered that it is almost not worth it to even try to eat during the holidays, just fire-bomb the kitchen afterwards.  Despite dozens of planning discussions, I still had to swoop down and rescue the butter knife, keep the cookies out of the kitchen, say no, no, a thousand times no to family members who insisted on bringing on all sorts of crap despite hearing constantly, "Just bring plain sour cream,",  "Lets just have plain food," "Just bring plain sour cream," and seemingly-endless phone conversations where they read off the list of ingredients for the fake sour cream-like dips they bought "because they were cheap", instead of buying plain sour cream.

3.  I chugged a carton of milk.  I was milk-intolerant.  How did this happen?  I haven't been able to drink milk since I was a little kid.

4.  Potlucks suck, but things are good if there is hot coffee and real cream.  Coffee is my go-to food at potlucks, since I tend to get something contaminated at potlucks and restaurants, even when I am very careful.  I quit being careful at restaurants, not worth the hassle dealing with the questions, the rolling eyes, and the contamination.  I can usually drink the coffee, and I drink lots of it.  I have found that if you are drinking coffee, especially with cream, people don't notice that you are not eating.

5.  I need to find a new religion.  I first knew I was in trouble when I was chatting (with coffee) with a new attender at a potluck.  She was an up-and-coming healthywholegrains dietician wanna-be who insisted I try her quinoa salad.  (I also got a lesson about the healthyquinoa, which I thought hilarious, especially after I told her I had been a vegetarian.)  I caved and tried the salad.  I got sick.  Since then, I have not eaten any grain salads at the potlucks, but I have had to endure the animal-rights wing of my religion shame people for eating animal products.  Since I can no longer eat wheat, corn, oats, soy, MSG, most wines and spirits, most beans, and most rice, I really suck as a vegan.  That vegan ship has sailed, and then it sunk.  I am no longer apologetic, despite the public spiritual shaming by my soon-to-be-former religious affiliates.

6.  People hate gluten-free eaters more than they hate low-carbers.  Sad, isn't it?

I'll have more to say later.  Right now, I need to just go back to straight low-carb and hang out with supportive people.

12 comments:

  1. Sometimes I think people pay too much for the social side of eating with others. I just left a comment elsewhere explaining to another person that munching vegetables was convenient while eating socially.

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  2. Sorry to hear about your struggles. I've had the same but mine were 34 years ago. Eventually you will get through to them or not. I had the same reaction with Quinoa myself and find all that stuff suspect. See if there is a support group in your area. Ours is the East Central Florida Gluten Intolerance Group. I am a speaker and educator for the group.
    I was also, a vegan for about a year after trying to be vegetarian. I actually did better as a vegan but I don't eat legumes. Getting protein was difficult so I became a vlc/zc eater. It works for me. WE all have to find what our gut will tolerate. Best of luck for the New Year!

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  3. Hi EB ... nice to see you back, although sorry to hear about your struggles.

    Do hope 2015 will be a good year for you ... and looking forward to hearing more as you say " I'll have more to say later. Right now, I need to just go back to straight low-carb and hang out with supportive people. "

    Sounds good to me.

    Take Care and

    All the best Jan

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  4. I wonder why quinoa is a problem? I never ate it yet, but bought a little bit a while ago to experiment with it as a thickener in stews.My son eats a gluten-free diet, me too. His reason - over-wise he is allergic to things like oranges, alcohol and spicy foods (he has an eczema flares as a form of an allergic reaction). He can eat corn, rice, buckwheat, beans. Small amount of a sourdough rye bread didn't cause the reaction.

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  5. In my son case gluten works as an amplifier for allergies, he can't tolerate several foods while eating gluten, but intolerances go away on a gluten-free diet.
    I used to be allergic to eggs, nowadays it is gone.

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  6. Hi again EB. This is just a thought .......

    Have a look in the 'members journals' section of our small but friendly Low Carb Forum - link here:

    http://lowcarbdiabetic.forumotion.co.uk/

    You may find it a useful place.

    All the best Jan

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  7. Good to see you back. I'm back to low carb too, after a year in the sugary sweet fairy land of Ray Peat. Here's to a new year and a fresh start.

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  8. Hi, Galina, I used to be sensitive to so many foods, but that has mostly died down when wheat is removed. Now that things are pretty clear, I can notice the subtle issues I have with other grains. It took me awhile to determine if it was the extra carbs or the grains themselves. Eating a pile of sweet potatoes or even cooked fruit with no problems has convinced me that it is the grains.

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  9. I am not sure what the problem was with the quinoa. It could have been prep contamination, grain processing contamination, or something else. I have only eaten quinoa a couple of times, and both times had a problem, but I never ate it plain and alone. I also cannot figure out what is up with soy. I have bad reactions to both regular and wheat-free soy sauce, but I didn't have a problem with edamame. I have just avoided large quantities of soy until I figure it out.

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  10. I haven't found any support groups in my area, so far I only know one person irl who has celaic. I know plenty of people who don't eat wheat for various reasons.

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  11. Hey Sanscarbs, the Ray Peat diet would just kill me.

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