I titled this post Adventures of a Hypochondriact Part I because this is not the last time I will convince myself that I have a disease. Confession time: when I was younger I broke my arm and nobody believed me. I had a tendency to exaggerate, and even the school nurse told me to go back to class. Once I learned to quit crying wolf, I discovered I actually had a myriad of health problems. Go figure. Remember the time I choked and wound up in the emergency room? Me too. Further proof that I will do anything to eat ice cream for a solid weekend.
Any who, since the discovery of my deeper health issues I've been searching for an answer, and after some conversation with co-workers and friends I convinced myself I had Celiac Disease. My doctor said the only way to know for sure is to cut it out and see how I do. So this is the diary of the week I didn't eat gluten:
Day 1: Going through my cabinets and starting to panic. Absolutely everything has freaking gluten in it! I start to wonder what my life will be like without cake, bread, or whole wheat pancakes. I start chanting "pleasedon'tletthisworkpleasedon'tletthiswork!"
Day 2: I feel fantastic! No stomach aches to speak of, I have a good deal of energy that I attribute to making better choices rather than just making grilled cheese sandwiches, and since most chocolate is gluten free I don't feel all that deprived. Kind of awesome.
Day 3: Tired, which I attribute to Thanksgiving partying. Curiously, while grocery shopping I walk past the bakery and feel that I would indeed rip someone's throat out for a brownie.
Day 4: I feel like total and utter crap. Trying to supplement carbs with brown rice but so far, no dice. I fell asleep on the train and I felt completely drained despite not doing a dang thing all day. Boo.
Day 5: I think about quitting but chalk yesterday up to carb withdrawal. I down a second cup of coffee and seize the day. Have more energy today but it's not solving all of my health problems.
Day 6: Had to wake up early for a training session at work and realized the lag is subsiding but the old problems are still occurring. Co-worker suggests it could be dairy. Oy.
Day 7: It appears some of my issues have been made better by eliminating gluten while others remain intact. I think it would be a good idea to limit the amount of gluten I eat rather than cutting it out entirely, and the same goes for dairy. There is apparently a delicate balance for me, and I just haven't hit it yet.
As of another week later, I'm continuing to limit (but not eliminate) my gluten intake which seems to be helping. The next step is finding a work-out routine I enjoy enough to stick to. I hear you number 4. Other than meals being difficult to plan this has been an extremely helpful experiment that I hope to carry on. Maybe I'm not always a hypochondriact!
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