Monday, January 18, 2010

How I became Gluten free...

I came to read a book called, The Ultramind Solution by Mark Hyman, MD. He provided plenty of narrative for removing just about everything from your diet in order to feel vital again. His examples made me think. I had read other books proposing to remove just about everything from my diet, but the thought of never eating gluten-containing foods again was enough for me to dismiss any validity that they may have had. Maybe it was the idea that this is only for a short period of time... The book says to take all gluten containing products out of your diet for six weeks. That certainly seemed like a doable time period. I never thought that I would never add it back.



On September 27th, a little more than a week after my 42nd birthday, I stopped eating gluten. I had been slowly reducing the gluten containing foods since the Sunday previous, as well as getting off caffine and artificial sweetners, as his book suggests. I followed the "diet" that Dr. Hyman illustrates in his book for the first week to help me know that I was eating the "right" foods. I began searching out GF recipes online and was discovering all the wonderful options available.



I weigh in every Tuesday at my local Weight Watchers meeting. On September 29, I weighed 8 pounds less than the Tuesday before. I continued to drop 1-3 lbs a week until the holidays rolled around. I held my own during "the baking season" and found some really knock-out GF cookie recipies. To date, I have lost 40 lbs, about 22 of it by going gluten-free.