GF Intolerance & Me

I have been doing a lot of gluten free baking and cooking, just nothing new or noteworthy. I will post more recipes soon.

I just thought I would take a few minutes to write down some of the symptoms of gluten and lactose intolerance that I have been experiencing. Take a few minutes to just enjoy how I feel and what I don't miss!

1. Nausea after I eat. Do not miss this one at all! This one was random but always more pronounced when dinner was pasta. It was actually my first clue - I am not a stranger to celiacs and what it means. I have friends and family with the disease.
2. Stomach pain or aches. I will get the odd cramp post-gluten days, usually when I am less than careful about dairy. The dairy intolerance confuses me. I am often okay with regular dairy products when food is not involved. BUT if I eat with my milk product- like cereal and LF milk- watch out!
3. What is the nice way to say it...rectal bleeding? Yeah, this is the symptom that got me to my doctor.  It's still unexplained, but since it seems to have cleared up, I am okay with it. Not going to say more, because it's already TMI!
4. Mini Nose Bleeds. Odd but true. I don't blow dried blood anymore. I actually thought that it was related to my scent-sensitivity, but no, it was gluten.
5. Gas. This is under control, not that it was really a problem, just present. It usually presented itself about 20 to 30 minutes after eating like clock work.
6. Headaches. I will get these still, but its no longer a daily, back ground pain that I am forced to deal with.
7. Chronic dehydration. Yes. This was a crazy side effect of gluten intolerance for me. I could not drink enough in a day before! I sweat like crazy- even when I was cold. I peed about 15 times a day. I learned that I had gallstones when I went in for an ultrasound to try and figure out if something was up with my bladder. It has taken about 4 months of being GF, but I am now able to leave my house without water. I can manage the 40 minute commute to work without being tethered to the bottle! Simple things amaze me...
8. Sweat. I think it was about 10 days after being 100% gluten-free that I noticed my sweating issues were gone. One day, suddenly out of blue I noticed that my entire arm pit wasn't soaked. No more embarrassment over wet pits or the need to wear layers to hide it. On day three, I actually got pretty freaked out, wondering if I had a blocked duct.
9. Insane, frequent urge to urinate. I believe I mentioned this one above, but it should be noted separately too. Glory, hallelujah! I can now accept meetings that are over an hour long without wondering if I am going to be forced to pee my pants or have my bladder explode. I still pee before I go ANYWHERE. Better safe, than sorry. At least I am not being forced to make the mad dash at the other end of the trip anymore. Seriously though, I hated university for this reason. Classes were to long and the break was timed in such a way that I was sweating and in agony from trying to hold it. I was that student making the mad dash from the room.
10. Depression and Anxiety. I do not miss either of these. I can tell when I have accidentally been glutened when I experience stomach cramps and a headache that is usually followed by mild anxiety the next day. No anxiety, means that the culprit was milk not gluten. It's not a foolproof system yet.
11. Exhaustion. I was tired all the time on a gluten filled diet! I read now that this is a sign of my adrenal fatigue.
12. Bloating. Up until a few weeks ago I would probably have told you that I was never bloated, because I was ALWAYS bloated. There was never a non-bloated state in which to compare it to. Seriously. Over 3 years of never being able to suck in your gut. Now if I am bloated I can at least compare it to my morning flat stomach.
13. Weight Gain. Another contrary symptom of my gluten intolerance. Gluten shut down my metabolism. I am naturally more on the thin side. This crazy fat girl body I have had for the past 3 years isn't normal. I know everyone wants to tell me that it was a product of too many calories and not enough exercise, but really up until a few years ago I was always able to maintain my weight eating whatever I wanted. I am not old enough, nor do I have the genetics for people to tell me that gaining weight as you age is normal. Fact. Hurting my knee was an excuse to gain 50 lbs in 6 months, but it was just camouflaging the root problem. Going off gluten seems to have kick-started my metabolism with minimal effort on my part. No, it is not my weightless solution.
14. Loss of focus and the sensation of being high. Gluten foods in the last few weeks that I was consuming them made me loopy. I could not concentrate after eating. It sometimes felt like I was having an out of body experience. Occasionally, I had difficulty walking in a straight line after a full meal.
15. Poor and accelerated  digestion. Okay I still have this one, but it's not as bad. The length of time that food takes to go through my system has increased and not as much of it comes out looking like it did when it went in. From what I have read, food should take 20 to 24 hours to go through your intestine, mine takes between 8 to 12 and, no, it is not in the form of the runs. If I had had that particularly unpleasant symptom I might have concluded sooner that I was having food issues.
16. Craving Carbs. It took about 3 weeks, but I no longer crave carbohydrates. This is true even when I am regularly eating the GF bread I make.
17. Hunger. When I was eating gluten, I was never hungry. I mean never. I ate because I love food and because the clock told me to. If I missed a meal I might have been prone to motion sickness on the bus, but no signals to the brain to eat. Really. People have never understood why fasting isn't a big deal for me and why it didn't bother me to do it. No, it was not amazing self-control, it was a lack of the hunger signal. I will sometimes lose my appetite now that I am gluten-free, but my body does tell me that it's dinner time now.
18. Gait. This one is weird, but I have stopped having problems with stairs. I used to have this thing climbing stairs where near the top I would lose track of where I was and had to take a double step. From behind, it probably looked like I tripped. It drove me nuts! I love that it's gone. Hopefully for good.
19. Phlegm. Gross, eh? My snot production is way down. Love it! Apparently this is common once you switch to a gluten free diet. I had a regular latte the other day- milk, the big no no- and within 4 hours I had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. Bizarre.
20. Back pain at night. You know that first five minutes when you go to bed? When it hurts to lay on your back? No? I am a back sleeper, but I used to have to spend time on my side before I could flip onto my back. This is mostly gone. I still have the odd night but it can be explained by the day I had now.

Do I miss gluten? NO. There are so many other options that taste good and I actually don't mind making my own bread every week. What do I miss? Milk and milk products. I haven't been able to give them up yet. Soon. Symptoms are escalating. It's just a matter of time before I am forced to give up my lactose-free products in surrender.