I am starting on Monday as well. I was just diagnosed with hashimoto's disease and gluten free is supposed to help with the symptoms. I am not a huge bread eater so I am hoping it is not that hard. Of course once you tell me I can't have it I want it more.

I have decided that I am going gluten free starting Sunday February 16th. I want to take time to clean out my refrigerator and go shopping for things that don't contain gluten. I am totally new to this and I know it will be hard at first but I am trying to stick with eating things that I know are naturally gluten free. I don't want to have to deal with making things like gluten free bread or working with xanthium gum until I have the time to really experiment. Any suggestions on things I should add to my shopping list? I'll probably go shopping this Saturday to stock my kitchen with gluten free items. (mostly naturally free gluten items) Any easy gluten free recipes? All advice is welcome.

Fruits, veggies, rice, quinoa, oats (make sure they are certified gf) meats, dairy...all naturally gf. Brown rice pasta is ok too. Gf Rice Krispies/chex....

And check all your labels. Soy sauces, salad dressing, soups, deli meats, candy, some chips, rotisserie chickens, reg. Rice Krispies, pretty much any processed, prepared meat (nuggets, etc) can/will contain gluten. And we discovered gluten in things like gummy candy, BBQ peanuts, pre-shredded cheese and plain white rice from local restaurants.

There are certain decisions you're going to have to make for yourself. The biggest one that comes to mind is, "Made in a facility that processes wheat". Since wheat is so easily incorporated into the air, it can be virtually impossible to make a facility that uses wheat gluten free when they're making non-glutenous products. In our house, we've decided that we're fine with items saying this.

The harsh reality for our house: Our grocery costs went through the roof, shopping time quadrupled (label reading, and such), and experimenting with traditionally gluten containing foods has become a way of life. On a good note, our grocery bills have leveled off and we're much quicker at getting through a standard shopping experience. We still experiment all the time.

I spend more time in the kitchen, too. This isn't a bad thing, as I love to cook. But it gets tedious and frustrating sometimes.

Perhaps the most harsh reality has been dealing with people dealing with our lifestyle change. 2 of my 3 daughters (elementary school age) went gluten free (intolerance) and it was a huge - HUGE!!! - strain on their daily way of life. They couldn't eat the things they used to. They had to pack their lunch every day. Their friends laughed at their lunches and occasionally mocked them. They had to take their own snacks for when kids brought in cupcakes (our school system, when a kid has a birthday, he/she brings in cupcakes for the entire class). The social strain was the worst. Thank You God, our oldest daughter outgrew her intolerance and is now back to a traditional diet. But she took the brunt of much teasing at school and occasionally came home in tears from it. Some days she'd come home starving, as she wouldn't eat her lunch. The kids teased her and she just threw it away. Our other daughter who is still gluten free comes home every so often still upset by it all. One night, after being crabby since getting off the bus, admitted that she gets sick of explaining her chocolate snackie treat bars while everybody else eats cupcakes and doesn't understand why she won't.

But that's the worst. From a health perspective, she's doing so much better than while eating gluten, and all the struggles are worth watching my daughter(s) grow up healthy and active and happy.

So the positive from this all:
If you enjoy being in your kitchen and noodling around, there's no limit to your diet. We buy bread mix in 25lb bags, portion them, freeze, and bake buns every so often. They freeze perfectly, and my daughter just loves them. We've found pancake and waffle mix that you can't tell the difference, and on occasion I'll even make sticky buns out of it. I'm not the best cupcake baker, but I don't do too bad. 2 weeks ago I made apple spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing that were pretty doggone good. My wife took them in to her job. Once last year, for my daughter's school project, we made GF Chilean style crullers (she did a report on the people of Chile). Again, nobody knew, and nobody cared. She was so proud to see all her classmates shovel the crullers in. A little bit of GF vindication. We take GF buns with us when we go out to eat and ask for her hamburger bun-free. Then we do our own thing with our bun. Sometimes we'll give the bun to the kitchen staff and they'll make her burger with it.

Last night, we fried fish. Okay not the healthiest diet, but it was a very rare treat. There are these things called plentils. Lentil chips. They're pretty good, believe it or not. Anyway, I grind them in a food processor till they look just like bread crumbs. GF flour then egg wash the fish/shrimp, dredge in the plentils, then deep fry. It's better than standard fried fish. It gets crispy and delicious, and it's amazing.

To make a long story short: Expect troubles to start. It's not easy, and the challenge may feel insurmountable from time to time. But with time and ingenuity it gets easier and more routine. Don't expect people to understand, but enjoy the ones that do. They're gifts. And once you've figured it all out and are well on your way to your healthy routine, be sure to pay a little forward to the next poor soul about to go through it.

I hope this helps. Feel free to hunt me up with any more questions you may have.