Friday, June 22, 2012

Living "Clean"

I have been "clean" for just over a year now. That means that I have not allowed anything with wheat into my mouth if I can help it. It means that I read all labels. My whole family reads labels. My church family reads labels. If the label reads gluten free everyone smiles when I am around.

I am kind of quoting when I say this but: when you go through something new or difficult you find things out about yourself that you never would have otherwise. I am learning that most people are much kinder and more sensitive with me that I had ever been with/about others who have allergies. Secondly, I am learning that this lesson carries over into all areas of my life and practice. Judge not, means a lot more to me now.

For the most part, living clean is much easier than I thought it would be. There are many substitutes for flour and I do not miss bread that much anyway. Eating at home, gluten free, turns out to be more healthy for me and everyone else, too.  Most whole foods other than wheat are legal: beans, rice, corn, oatmeal, meats as long as they are not too processed, vegetables, fruit, and dairy. Who needs anything else? So it is easy... at home.

I miss pizza, though. Oh yes, we tried rice flour crust, but let's just say that pizza on rice flour crust is not pizza anymore. So when it's pizza night around here, I skip and eat desert for both courses. :) Is that too much ice cream?

One hard part about a wheat allergy is that even the smell of bread is bad now. We have stopped making our own homemade bread because too much flour in the air offers me a significant reaction. (Never mind the details of my style of reaction.)  And the other hard part is that fast food restaurants have wheat in most of their menu items.  So I stick to ice cream in those places too, unless we are at McDonald's. Even their ice cream has wheat in it. Odd!

So the longer I have been clean the better I feel in general. I can work all day and still have energy left over. Bike riding for miles is wonderful. Health is a gift from God for which I am truly thankful. He gets all the glory for bringing me through.

Just this week, I blew it.  After perfect health for months I had a couple days of going back to the old exhaustion. My gluten free flour became tainted with the wheat flour being in the same cabinet. How dumb was that?! So I am still learning to be careful and clean.

Most of all, I want to thank each of you in my life who has been helpful and kind to me while I learned my lessons of life this past year. My first thanks goes to God and next to my dear husband who watches out for me in every way he can that I am getting safe food. He even checks the labels on the chocolates he brings me regularly.  Thanks to you too, especially, Dorothy, for your encouragement and good ideas and recipe education and research for me and others that you know.


5 comments:

  1. Mom, it was good to have you healthier this time we were back than before. I think you're healthier than I am these days. I will be happy for the day when I can go to bed with just a little bit of energy left over. But I'm getting there. -Lisl

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  2. I'm real happy for you, glad you found the answer to your health. For your pizza situation, since we have been in that situation also. If you can eat corn tortillas, we use that for the crust and just build your pizza from there. Happy eating :)

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  3. It's good you don't come visit me ...as I bake every Friday.... I still think you could get a good gluten free pizza. When I get it perfected I'll let you know. Sam and Louie's offers gluten free pizza and I think their pizza is good. Anyhow, I'm glad you found such good clear answers.

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  4. I am feeling sorry for your lack of pizza! You could try this, http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/pizzasflatbreadswraps/r/GFPizzaCrust.htm or this: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/05/slow-cooker-puffy-pizza-casserole.html Okay, I haven't tried either of these but I know what it's like to try to tweak recipes because of allergies... :) However, I know sometimes it's just too much to try EVERYTHING.

    And I know what you mean about the difficult things and finding out things about yourself. God is good like that. :-)

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  5. Wow, I could say so much! I say an amen to all the lessons learned with food allergies! I have been doing it long enough to be able to bless others with food they can eat when they come for a meal. That has been my greatest joy so far in having to be different that the world at large is to now not be at all afraid of cooking for people with allergies.

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