I grew up a Texas
meat-eating, BBQ-loving, Coke-drinking girl. And I like dark beer. I’ve tasted the gluten-free stuff and it’s…ok. So what could convince me to change my diet
to gluten-free, dairy-free, rice-free, almost-meat-free, and much more? (much less? Oh whatever...) It's not a trend/fad/bandwagon thing. I love my wings and beer. Desperate times call for desperate
measures. So who is Sam???
 |
| Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. - November, 2010 |
This is me and my
husband, Rich, a few years ago in Washington D.C. Not too shabby! A little
overweight, but fairly young, healthy-ish looking, and happy. In reality, we were both struggling
with our weight and energy levels, not feeling so great, never quite reaching certain goals, and
clueless that things were about to start getting worse - especially our health.
Rich has Graves Disease,
the most common form of hyperthyroid disease, but he's been in remission for 10+
years. He's taken radioactive iodine to kill the thyroid and even had surgery where the eyeballs are
"temporarily relocated" to remove orbital bone, alleviating
pressure behind the eyes. No, I'm not kidding.
I've fought allergies
all my life and have been pricked and poked so many times, I think I might be
a human voodoo doll. A few years ago, we found out Rich is just as allergic as
I am to about as many things, plus pistachios. That was a fun
New Year's Eve when we discovered that little gem! He also suffers from
migraines, dermatitis, and occasional ADD-type focus issues, and we both
struggle with lack of energy, weight-gain, thyroid issues, and the allergies I
already mentioned.
After random eyelid
swelling and multiple tests, I was diagnosed in early 2013 with Hashimoto's Disease, the most common hypothyroid
autoimmune disease. Basically, my body has decided my thyroid gland is not my
friend and is on a slow and steady mission to kill it. (You can read my story here.) Additionally, I was just recently diagnosed
as having “a severe reaction to gluten/gliadin” and cow’s milk/casein, as well
as chickpeas. I’m also moderately
sensitive to rice, almonds, and a whole host of other things. I’m not surprised by the gluten-intolerance
diagnosis, based on recent articles about the potential gluten-thyroid connection, (even my doc is on board with that
theory), but I’ll post more on that later.
So the prescription is to eliminate these foods for 3-6 months and then
slowly add items back in to see what I can tolerate after my body heals. That's right. I have to live without cheese, pho, decent beer, my favorite pizza, wings...(sniff).
It’s not easy to
find dairy-free, gluten-free, rice-free, almond-free recipes out there! Gluten-free flour mixes alone often contain rice
flour and/or almond flour, not to mention all the rice-based substitutes for pasta, pizza crust, and everything else! So I'm now discovering quinoa pasta and how to make other replacement foods, which leads me to the reason
for this blog! I'm psyching myself up to drastically
change my diet as I start phase 1 of the elimination diet. I’m also not supposed to drink alcohol while
letting my system heal. Therefore, I’m
on a mission to find more recipes that don’t taste like cardboard or veggie-flavored
dust. I also plan to track my progress,
vent my frustrations, celebrate my successes, and share recipes and resources with
others in the same boat. I’ll also try
to spread the word out about the evolving treatment of Thyroid diseases, as
they have gone long neglected and under diagnosed, and many doctors still don’t
ask for the right (complete) tests! I,
personally, wouldn’t be on medication and getting answers if I hadn’t been
persistent and found a great, open-minded doctor who has experience with the “new”
treatments.
We leave on a cruise one
week from tomorrow, so I'm waiting to jump off the high dive until we get back.
You can't seriously expect me to give up wine and
chocolate-molten-lava-oh-my-God-cake on a floating buffet! So I have two more
weeks of eating things I may never eat again - at least not without paying for
it in some way. Because I can tell you right now this girl WILL taste Guinness,
hummus, Godiva green tea ice cream, mango sticky-rice, and buffalo wings again
in this lifetime!
I'm excited to see how I
progress, as I hope to lose 20 pounds, as well as reduce (and hopefully
reverse) my health issues! So, I'll post about our diet/health changes,
but I also plan to get into a few other topics, as well. And frankly, I may
bounce all over the place, as this is just an outlet for me to share whatever
the hell is going on and whatever I feel like venting about or celebrating. As
I mentioned, hopefully it will help me, and maybe it will help someone else.
The universe is a pretty surprising place.
