Wheat-free, dairy-free calorie counting.

That sucks! We had to do this for my daughter for a month. It was horrible, expensive, and she hated it! I feel for you! Hang in there. Soon you'll know all the items you want on your shopping trips.

Make a list for yourself of the products you can eat/do buy that way you can refer to it in the future. It will take a while at first, as you've seen - but soon it will get easier as you learn what to completely avoid and what you can definitely eat.

I used to do this. I have Celiac Disease. Then I discovered that the healthiest way to eat is by shopping around the outside of the grocery store. I am not worried about hidden gluten and avoiding processed food all at once.

Grocery shopping used to be such a horrible task, now I actually look forward to it.

It is hard to get used to eating fresh stuff and nothing boxed or pre-made and it makes snacking a chore but after some practice it is totally worth it!

I used to do this. I have Celiac Disease. Then I discovered that the healthiest way to eat is by shopping around the outside of the grocery store. I am not worried about hidden gluten and avoiding processed food all at once.

Grocery shopping used to be such a horrible task, now I actually look forward to it.

It is hard to get used to eating fresh stuff and nothing boxed or pre-made and it makes snacking a chore but after some practice it is totally worth it!

This is great advice. I'm not gluten-free but my boyfriend is and he almost never buys anything from the 'inside aisles' of the store.

Ya, I've been eating Paleo/Primal for over a year now; no grains (wheat, corn, rice, etc), legumes, sugar, and recently started cutting out dairy).

It's really not that bad if you learn to cook for yourself. As someone said, stick to the outside aisles. Load up on fruits and veggies for snacks.

If you stop buying things from boxes , you won't have that problem

I've been doing this for so many years I don't even think about it anymore. I actually don't check fat, but I do check sugar, protein and fiber (especially sugar and fiber). High fiber, low sugar is what I generally prefer. And I also shop fresh more than from boxes.

The rest of the time, I go to the local "whole foods" or organic store and just get the stuff marked gluten- and dairy-free.

Is anyone else doing this? It's such a pain!

Step one: scan ingredients for wheat and dairy. All good? Excellent, it goes in the 'maybe pile'. Step two: scan competing products for wheat and dairy. Put clean ones in 'maybe pile'. Step three: compare all items in 'maybe pile' in terms of calories, protein, sodium, fibre etc. Step four: make selection.

Great, that's rice crackers for the week. Now, onto the next item on my shopping list..

It took me over an hour in the store to do what used to take me twenty minutes! Almost worth getting sick from all the wheat and dairy, or fat from all the calories.

We're no longer dairy free, but we are still gluten and soy free. I ended up giving up on processed foods and making everything myself and finding alternatives. In many recipes I substituted almond milk for moo milk and it had a really nice effect (particularly in oven fried chicken). I have a specialty store about 30 minutes from where I live that we now go to every other week to pick up our processed foods supply when I don't want to actually make it myself.

So I was advised by my nurse practitioner to go at least 6 weeks without dairy and wheat....does anyone have recipes or certain things that helped them get by? I bought some nuts, canned veggies (since I tend to let fresh stuff go bad before eating them!) fruits and meats. I'm no cook, my boyfriend usually does that since I wind up messing up or burning things, but he is willing to make things if I can find some good tips/recipes. Searching the internet has been a true pain in the neck trying to weed out things! Also, I bought some Almond Dream dairy/gluten free ice cream but don't know if this counts....it has potato and rice starch. I'm going to the drs. office to weight myself next week but until then I'm not sure if that's one thing I should eat. What kinds of grains CAN I eat (besides oatmeal)?

I follow a wheat free diet as wheat intolerant. You do get used to it. I started eating lots of pure foods rather than processed. Annoyingly lots of the wheat free products are high in calories plus so expensive. I only tend to buy the pasta as I cant live without it, but that tends to be a treat. I usually have homemade soup or salad for lunch but thats really hard if your on the go. Any one else find it annoying going to peoples houses for food, so many times they get it wrong and you feel bad but cant eat it!!

Beware taco meat - it usually has flour in it of some sort.

Eat fresh foods wherever possible. That's my advice. You can also eat potato and rice-based products (make sure to read ingredients, though, since if it's not marked as wheat or gluten-free, it'll contain some derivation of flour). You can eat quinoa, as well.

Tapioca starch is another item that's okay. There's a great bread out there called Ener-G corn loaf. Fabulous - low-cal and high fiber. Tastes like sour dough bread. Works best when toasted.

Udi's also makes good products. I like their bagels. Taco shells and corn-based products are also okay. Stay way from corn-based pasta - it never seems to get soft with boiling!!

For other stuff, just eat rice and potatoes. I'd recommend brown or brown and wild rice for the fiber content. Soy delicious and purely decadent are my favorite sweet, frozen treats. You can also have rice milk (yuck) and soy milk (Silk is great - at least the chocolate one is!).

As for food, I cook up a whole batch of stuff for myself, then freeze it in meal-sized baggies. Makes eating much easier. I make fresh salads, put them in containers and store them in the fridge for lunches each day. I also use canned chicken that's marked gluten-free to eat with my salad. Most canned tuna is also okay, but I didn't like the mercury content of that.

I'm about to try something called "Arctic Zero." It's listed as gluten and lactose-free. I'm also dairy allergic so we'll see how it goes. It's only 150 cals for the whole pint!!