Imagine this... Hanging out on the beach for a week long trip, sipping on cold beer while having fun with your friends. Have you ever noticed that terrible bloat that comes along with the beer buzz? That my friends is the effect of Gluten. That little protein is in everything and you could have an allergy to it and not even know.
Looking Back
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I was allergic to food. Looking back, I have had stomach issues since I can remember. I am talking knock you down to your knees pain. I was never to worried about what I ate or put into my body and thought I ate pretty healthy. Salads and fruit have always been my go to foods, but I ate my fair share of bread, fried foods and pastas too.
Infertility, was it related to gluten?
After a 10 year struggle with the worst infertility (I will share in another post later) due to endometriosis. I eventually had to get an hysterectomy. I was really praying that the pain would finally go away. It never did. I felt like I was going crazy, what else could be causing this?
During a check up, Dr. Long, my sweet, amazing fertility doctor told me to try to cut out gluten for 2 weeks and see how I feel. That was in October 2012. Well I wish I had just jumped fully into that suggestion that day, but I thought it would be too hard. After all, the holidays were coming up that are all centered around food! Plus my brother and sister in law to be were getting married after new years, so I decided to wait until the day after the wedding.
My New Goal
Goal made: I made my goal! Jan. 5th, 2014 was the day I chose to go gluten free. It was the day after the wedding.
Between October and January, I slowed down on eating food that had gluten in it, but I really was guessing, and doing it half ass-ed. Trust me that doesn't solve the problem. I still had all my symptoms and was just trying to get through the holidays.
The day of:
I botched it. I didn't do it, instead I decided to get one more day of gluten in and postponed the inevitable 1 more day. And, if it was my last day to ever eat bread again I was going to go out with a band. I drove to our local bagel store, Crestline Bagel, to get the most amazing everything bagel with their homemade veggie cream cheese to go.
I got home, and noshed on it and enjoys the texture and the flavor. 15 minutes after I finished it, the pain erupted. Ugh! So I decided to grab a tape measure and measure the bloat around my waist. I was shocked because I have never done this before.
It was 36 inches around at my waist! Holy crap!
Motivation to get started
The next day was my day to take control over my body! I wasn't really sure what I should eat, so I completely cut beer, bread and pasta out of my diet. I was a work in progress over that first week, but the biggest eye opening that was the bloat and how quickly I lost the bloat.
Week 1 Stats
For the next 6 days I used that measuring tape to measure my waist every morning.
- Day 0: 36 inches
- Day 1: 35 inches
- Day 2: 34 inches
- Day 3: 33 inches
- Day 4: 32 inches
- Day 5: 31.5 inches
After witnessing this extreme loss of belly circumference I swore I would never touch gluten again. Plus, I started to feel better!!!! The pain and discomfort was going away with the inches. I honestly did not know that was possible to loose the bloat like that. 5 ½ inches is huge!!!
Mead was so supportive of my new venture and so proud of my lifestyle change as well. He had seen me feeling so bad for so long and was glad I had finally figured it out.
I haven't looked back since. I do eat bread and pasta again as long as it is gluten free. But it did take me a while to learn what has gluten in it and what doesn't have it in it.
What do I miss the most? Fried foods, like fried chicken!
Recap of My Gluten Symptoms
- Abdominal distention, i am talking extremely bloated!
- Pain on flanks, felt like fire and hurt so bad it would stop me in mid tracks
- Alternating diarrhea and constipation
- Gas
- Weight gain
- Very stiff joints at ankles and hips
- Brain fog
- Infertility/endometriosis
Let me know if you need help going gluten free. In my 6 week coaching bootcamp we will do this together and I will teach you how to do this with the tip and tricks I learned on my own after years of mistakes.
Learn More about the Faster Way to Fat Loss Here.
XOX, Laura
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