Going Gluten-Free

Since I didn’t particularly know the best way to bring it up, I’ve mentioned on the sly that I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (CD) last week. CD is an autoimmune disorder which causes the body to destroy its own tissues in response to gluten intake.

It starts with destruction of the villi in the small intestine – those little “hairs” which help ferry nutrients to the bloodstream. Due to this destruction, folks with CD are usually either quite thin from malnutrition or, as in my case, rather large due to an enormous appetite that can’t be satiated since the body’s not correctly processing the foods it consumes. The condition also brings with it a whole host of other unpleasant symptoms, including abdominal discomfort and distension, anemia, GI problems, mental confusion, fatigue and joint pain.

The only cure available is to completely eliminate gluten from one’s diet, which is exactly what I’ve been dealing with all week.

Yes, I still have fibromyalgia, but as I’ve learned recently is often concurrent with CD. With fibro, exercise is almost indispensable. With CD, my health depends on eliminating all sources of gluten in my diet. (As a side note, Sarah K. was the first to recognize my symptoms. Hopefully she won’t charge me for the diagnosis!)

To be honest, I felt a flood of relief when I learned of my diagnosis. After three years of feeling increasingly worse with each passing day, and one doctor after another attributing that to everything from depression (um, no) to rheumatoid arthritis (despite negative test results), it was a relief to finally know what the problem was because now I can begin to address it.

In the 9 days since my doctor broke the news — which, frankly, was pretty grim for a foodie like me — I’ve eliminated all forms of gluten from my diet. My husband has been surprisingly supportive, to the point where he actually spent Saturday shopping for gluten-free foods with me at Whole Foods. Thanks to him, most of my pantry and kitchen are now gluten-free, too. The only remaining sources of the stuff are my son’s snacks, and as I learn to cook gluten-free foods I hope to change that, too.

Now, as Atkins- and South Beach-type folks might have guessed, eliminating bread, most chips, tortillas, crackers and cookies from my daily foods has worked mini-wonders on my waistline: I’ve lost 5 pounds! Granted, some of the loss might be due to stopping the CD autoimmune reaction that was causing my entire body to inflame and consume itself in response to gluten intake. But some of it’s due to simple calorie reduction.

And, as we all know:

Weight Loss = Calories In - Calories Burned

I’m not getting nearly as many calories these days, mostly because my freakish appetite (caused by the CD-body’s inability to absorb nutrients in the face of an autoimmune reaction) has diminished. As to the food I am eating, I’m focusing on what I can have, rather than what I can’t because the latter list is long and depressing. I’m eating lean proteins, plenty of salads, brown rice and lots of fruit.

It’s standard dieting fare, really, but I’m finding it surprisingly satisfying. A side salad holds me over throughout lunch. A grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli leave me stuffed. So, this is what a normal appetite is like, one that’s satiated without popping Orovo. Who knew?

As far as the calories burned, I’ve renewed my commitment to blogging from my treadmill at least part of each day. Hence why the graphic for the site’s new design was so perfect. I’ve added in some weight-bearing exercise, too: push-ups, squats, side lunges and crunches. Not a lot — I plan to increase slowly, rather than burn myself out — but enough to feel proud of myself at the end of each workout.

As far as my fibro symptoms, I’m surprised — and not a little pleased — to tell you that they’ve been non-existent for most of the past week. I’ve had energy. I’ve had seven pain-free days out of nine (the two exceptions being days I got “glutenated” by inadvertent consumption of the nasty stuff). I’ve woken up without an alarm clock in the morning, and I’ve been the one among my family to suggest we go places to do fun things, much to everyone else’s surprise. (Mine, too.)

Left untreated — which means, if I were continuing to consume gluten — CD increases my risk for just about every form of cancer, along with a lot of other serious health complications. In other words, going gluten-free is not an option: it’s a necessity, but so is repairing the damage done to the rest of my body.

On that note, I’ve decided to hold myself a bit more accountable: tracking the foods that I eat religiously, logging the amount of time I spend exercising (and admitting when I blow it off) and posting my weight loss as I progress toward my goal. As a result, you’re going to start to see some new kinds of entries here: food and exercise logs with progress notes. They’re for my benefit, really: I suspect that publicly posting this stuff much the way Jae’s been posting her Wednesday Weigh-Ins will keep me from straying from my weight loss commitment.

And, hey, if the food logs help provide recipe ideas for others with CD or weight to lose, so much the better.