Being Gluten-Free

My husband has a wheat allergy and my granddaughter is celiac but we found the easiest way to deal with it is to just eliminate those items. The GF replacements are expensive and they often pack way more calories than the originals do. Rice pasta has to be the grossest slimey mess! $7 for a loaf of bread, no thanks!

For around the holiday table, just make sure you have options for your favorite things. The biggest one for me this year is stuffing. I don't like GF bread, so instead of using a substitue, I'm making a wild rice dish with all of the other flavors, ingredients, and spices that are normally in my stuffing. Sweets are pretty easy to adapt as well. Our pumpkin pie is just getting a nut/coconut crust.

Congrats on your weight loss! That is awesome!

Being gluten free for over 20 years and its a lot easier today than it was then. I struggle only because of other allergies. We went away at the weekend and hubby was able to have gluten free bread etc that the hotel kept a stock of.

also, the BIGGEST thing during the holidays is gravy. Obviously avoid that unless someone tells you they specifically made it gluten free. A more hidden problem comes with the mashed potatoes, as many of the low fat creams and cheeses people use in their special recipes contain gluten fillers. depending how sensitive you are, even the turkey can be a problem if it is cooked with the stuffing inside it, but my bf is usually okay to take a chance on that one lol

My bf has celiac disease so I eat almost entirely gluten free and it is a piece of gluten free cake once you get the hang of it lol

LOL

I have been gluten free for about 6-8 months for allergy reasons. (I really wish I had known sooner, would have made my quality of life much better). My mother in law has actually gone out of her way to make sure everything was Gluten Free for Thanksgiving because her daughter also had gluten sensitivity. It's fair to assume nothing at my grandmother's will be gluten free but I have the excuse of already eating earlier in the day so I will just bring some safe dishes I can eat.

As far as temptation, every time I think it will be worth it to go ahead and eat something that will make me sick, I have a few hours/days of misery to reflect on my poor decision and this lovely rash on my elbows to remind me for the next several weeks not to do that again. The hardest part of me has been to remember to read the labels and look for alternate names, and finding restaurants where I can eat things I know will be safe.

Congratulations on your weigh loss, if you didn't know already there is a gluten free group on here.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/112-gluten-free

Living a GF lifestyle is actually easier than you might expect. It's amazing what a simple change can do for your overall health. The fantastic thing is that I can still eat all of those things that I used to enjoy before going GF. There are so many great GF products out there now and many of the foods I've always enjoyed are naturally GF.

The whole point of this post was to see how other MFP's are adjusting to a GF lifestyle or how you've all overcome the gluten temptations. Post away

^I agree, it's not that hard. But as you've mentioned with the holidays coming it can be testy.

I've not officially diagnosed by a Dr. or anything, I wanted to see what kind of impact (if any) this would make on my goal to lose weight. Like you, the belly bloating has come down quite a bit. I've been doing this for about 3 months now. I was in a size 14 but can get in a 12 & some 10's w/o the bulge in front.
My fiance & I do have hypertension and while doing some research I found that these grains (rice, corn, wheat & soy) causes inflammation which in turn raises our blood sugar. We're also on a low carb diet to help keep our blood sugars under control. We don't eat any of the pre-made gluten-free products as I have yet to find one that is free of rice, corn, wheat & soy all at once. I try to avoid them like the plague. I do use the almond & coconut flours for my crust when I make my low carb cheese cake (so far that's all I've ever made as a sweet treat) And yes, some of those flours can be pricey which is the other reason why I haven't tried baking yet.

Aside from that congradulations on your weightloss & cheers :drinker: to you on your gluten free journey. I hope it all works out for ya' and keep up the good work.

Shelley - I recently was told to do a 3 month trial of GF. My blood sugar is high, I am very sensitive to high carbs (eat too many, and I gain significant weight), and I have one of the celiac markers. Honestly, bread/baked goods are a problem/trigger food for me anyway. I don't care for the GF breads much, and keep some in the freezer just in case I just HAVE to have some.
I find that doing whole foods that naturally don't have gluten works best for me, instead of gluten-free this, gluten-free that. Because a lot of the "gluten free this and that" are snack foods, or high in carbs/sugar, which I can't do anyway. I do like the Mary's Gone Crackers products if I crave a crunchy snack (and even have have a hard time stopping because I like them so much...crackers & pretzel sticks).

There are some good GF frozen pizza crusts...I find them to be better than the local pizzeria's attempts at a GF crust! But make things yourself when you can, and you'll know what's in it. So volunteer to bring something to parties, etc.. Use substitute flours for recipes calling for regular flour, use corn starch as a thickener (works great, but use less than you would when using flour), and a little creativity goes a long way. I've had some failures (like GF muffins...ewww!), but I keep trying. My solution for Thanksgiving is that I'm making the dinner. I am making traditional bread stuffing for my family, but I'll have a little mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and veggies. I'm good with that! I just need a taster while I'm making the stuffing. Lots of volunteers in my house!

I've adjusted better than I thought I would. I LOVE bread!!