The New Gluten-Free Me begins...

I have another blog, but this one will be dedicated to my new journey- life without gluten.

Hi. My name is Brittany. I'm 26 and am gluten-intolerant. At least, I'm somewhere between "gluten sensitive" to "intolerant," but I'm not sure where I stand officially. Either way, I'm starting a new life without gluten and am better off.

You see, I've always had tummy problems. I was a premie with underdeveloped lungs and intestinal difficulties which required a lot of care and grew up with motion sickness, tummy aches, and lots of time feeling sick. I always figured that I was sensitive because of my premie beginnings and that things "just didn't work very well" inside of me. I did not give the reasoning a lot of thought. Until recently.

I have been married for eight years, have 3 children, and have graduated from college (in that order). I've been a little too busy to think about my life's worth of stomach aches and bathroom problems. And then, my mom was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.

I learned a lot from Mom about what it means to have an intolerance of gluten and I've been around when she explains, yet again, that she cannot eat that for lunch, either. To be honest, I was a little annoyed at first. That's mean... Yes, I know.

And then, I starting slowly connecting the dots... Stomach problems... Mom's Celiac Disease.... Other possible symptoms...

The next step for me was observing the reactions my body had to certain foods and taking mental notes.

5 days ago, I ate a piece of toast for breakfast and felt incredibly crummy and came to the conclusion that gluten was causing my IBS-ish symptoms along with fatigue, dizzy spells, and general ICK. And so I decided to give it up.

I'm just beginning to educate myself on this lifestyle and so far, have been pretty clueless about what to eat and so my days usually go as follows:
1. Hungry... Look around for something safe to eat...
2. No idea what I could eat because pre-packaged foods often have hidden ingredients, are processed in gluten-y environments, or contain gluten under an alias.
3. Eat food that I know is okay but isn't quite enough for a whole meal, like an apple, peanuts, popcorn, spoonfuls of peanut butter... Not balanced meals, of course.
4. Continue snacking because I don't eat enough to keep me full for very long.

Needless to say, I need to educate myself on how to eat gluten-free well.