Post 30 day GF challenge revelation

Well, Mike and I decided to add some gluten back in for a week to see if we would  notice the difference going backwards.  A reverse experiment.

For the last few days I have been cranky.  Not my normal, bubbly self.  I have been more easily upset and work has just been more challenging than necessary. Mike's tales of work have been similar, though his moods have been better than mine.

Ummm....What's going on here???

At first I was willing to chalk it up to life being life. And it took until today for me to realize that all this coincided pretty much with Sunday brunch, a gluten and wheat extravaganza of delicious proportions. The more I think about it, and the more I look back to the events of the last week, the more I am starting to think that all the bad stuff (moods, anxiety, stress, cravings, disinterest in eating well) can be linked to gluten being back in our lives. Ok, work is stressful, but not more so than it was last week or the week before.  And life is life, but not in a significantly different way than it was before. So I really have to believe that there might be something to this.

At first we only had small amounts, and a lot of time in between each gluten/wheat containing food, but since Sunday we have had a rather heavy does of gluten with at least 1 meal per day.  And coincidentally or not, that is also when I started getting grumpy.  I don't think it is a coincidence!

Of course I would come to this realization today, on our anniversary, which I decided to celebrate by making homemade pizza on a wheat crust.  We ate it anyway and it was good. Maybe even really good. But it wasn't great.  It wasn't better than the gluten free pizzas of the previous month.  Different, but not better. And this surprised me a lot.  I was expecting nirvana.  I make damn good pizza crust.  And this one was pretty much my usual crust, but it just wasn't that great :(

While eating our pizza, Mike and I discussed how we were feeling, and had been feeling over the last few days.  Mike admitted that he had not been feeling that great.  Upset stomach, gas and even a little heartburn.  I had the symptoms I mentioned above plus a few additional physical symptoms that were rather mild, but not insignificant; loose stools, smelly gas and mild heartburn.

Light bulb moments can happen at any time and I seriously think this was a light bulb moment.  Even though we were initially skeptical that gluten/wheat was an issue for us, we both now feel it is very clear that gluten/wheat affects us in a negative way.

What to do now?? Well....back to gluten free for starters.

But that won't be enough.  When we went gluten free for the 30 day challenge we found ourselves eating a little less healthy than we had been prior.  Many of the gluten free products available on the market are very high in starch, which causes high blood sugar levels and has an insulin roller coaster effect.  NOT healthy.  I will use the excuse that we were in the experimentation phase and just checking out what was available.  Moving forward we will shy away from these products, except for on special occasions.  I had also been baking a lot, something I didn't do prior to the GF challenge, and therefore eating more baked goods, many of them made with GF flours that were relatively high in starch.  Seeing a trend now.

You see where this is going, I am sure. Eating all this extra food was filling and we found ourselves cutting back on truly healthy, and naturally gluten free, foods such as fruits and vegetables. No wonder so many people who go gluten free gain weight.  It can be a dangerous expedition full of health pitfalls.

So, out with the GF products and in with fruits and veggies.  Out with the GF alternatives and in with naturally GF whole grains, like quinoa. Out with the high starch baked goods and in with lean protein and healthy fats.  And of course, more Isagenix!  Especially the cleanse.  We need to release these toxins post haste.

I look forward to being able to blog about how much better I am feeling, again, in just a few days!

Day 28 - Gluten Free

So far this whole gluten free challenge has been fairly easy.  Aside from reading labels our lives haven't changed much.  We just make different choices now. Day 28 without any cravings. That is still the biggest benefit I have noticed, on top of the weight loss. But day 28 arrives with a new challenge.  We've been invited to a foodie party. A pizza party. A deep dish pizza party. WE LOVE PIZZA!

The party throwers know that Mike and I are gluten free for this challenge, but invited us anyway and we are thrilled to be invited.  We have a history of being social hermits that we are trying to break free from.  But of course we would not expect them to make a special meal just for the 2 of us so when we accepted the invite we also confirmed that we would bring our own pie and dessert.

As you know, if you've read our past posts or even just browsed the titles, we've been experimenting with pizza, but they have all been thin crust pizzas.  Deep dish is a new challenge. A totally different process. And admittedly, until this morning I had missed the Chicago theme of the foodie event so I am completely unprepared.  Thankfully I am creative and fearless in the kitchen.

On the menu for today, GF deep dish pizza (or thin crust if the deep dish doesn't work out) and flourless chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla sauce.  If the recipes turn out well I will share them later. Can't share them now as I haven't made them up yet.

Gluten Free Pizza Redux!!!!

Mike, here!

We are very persistent when it comes to a thing that we really want to see succeed.  I think we both knew that, in order for a gluten-free lifestyle to be truly feasible, we would have to be able to find a way to either:

1. Find a really good recipe for gluten-free pizza dough, or
2. Enjoy a gluten-based pizza every once in a while.  

Now, I have heard it said that the longer you go without consuming gluten of any kind, the less tolerant your body becomes to it.  I do not know if this is true, but it kind of makes sense.  In much the same way you build up a tolerance to, say, alcohol, that tolerance tends to diminish when you don't maintain it.  "Absence makes the sot grow drunker," so to speak.  I can definitely speak for alcohol, and it doesn't even take that long.  Friday was the first glass of wine I had since going gluten-free, and that was only a week and a half.  And I was loopy!  I'm a 200-pound boy; I can drink a lot of people under the table.  Not Friday.  

But I digress. As usual.  The point I was trying (indirectly) to make is that, if we go a month or two without consuming gluten, and then Kelly makes her usual homemade pizza recipe (which makes not one, but two pizzas, both of which we usually snarf down), that could very well be the equivalent of a one-year AA veteran suddenly sucking back a beer bong (note: beer has gluten).  Or a reformed crack smoker suddenly deciding to cook up and mainline.  Or, or, well, you get the idea.  I don't think we'd enjoy it very much.  Or, rather, we'd enjoy the first few bites, before our stomachs exploded with all the force of a chest-burster from Alien.  OK, that's a little graphic, and most likely absurdly silly.  But without that gluten tolerance built up, I think we might become very, very sick.  I don't think I would enjoy that very much.  

No, to go gluten free means you have to really go gluten free.  For good.  Finite Glutatem.   (Yeah, I made that up.  But I wonder if Harry Potter has a spell to banish the gluten from your body?  Probably scourgify would do it).  So going back to my two options, above, Option 1 is really the only choice.  

A week ago, last Friday we tried the packaged GF pizza mix from Bob's Red Mill.  It wasn't bad, taste-wise, and the crust was OK on the edges, but we found it too dense and undercooked in the middle.  Well, Kelly wasn't about to give up after one go.  So she doggedly researched other recipes and options.  And she came across this gem from King Arthur Flour.  Made it today:

Toppings were sauteed chicken tenders (diced), sliced green and red bell peppers, sliced red onions, and Sargento Four-Cheese Pizzaria Blend (I think).  Sauce was Buitoni Pesto.  Tried to go sparingly on the ingredients, but as you can see we ended up loading it up pretty heavily.  

And it was awesome.  Obviously not as good as Kelly's homemade (gluten-based) recipe, but it was very, very good.  Texture was excellent, the buttermilk powder gave it a slight sourdough flavor, and it had a nice crunch around the edges.  This was as awesome as last week's effort was mediocre.  

OK, there's hope.  This is definitely one of the must-haves in order for us to really go gluten-free and stay there.  Kelly has one more recipe she wants to try; she just needs to get some unflavored protein powder (unfortunately, IsaPro only comes in vanilla these days, dang it).  Finding one that we trust is going to be tricky, but she has a source she's looking into.  

The other must-haves?

• Pancakes (King Arthur has a recipe for those, too)
• Sandwich Bread (got some almond flour; gonna try that soon as well).  

Not too shabby, really.  

Gluten Free Pizza!!!!

Howdy, folks.  Mike here on this post.  Guest star, pinch hitter, etc.  :-)

I am going to freely admit that, so far, this gluten-free thing has been a bit of a cakewalk.  I haven't really felt the lack of anything, all week.  This is going to be totally easy.

Ahh, but we haven't exactly been challenged thus far, because we really don't consume much in the way of gluten during the week.  Never have, really.  We do 2 Isagenix meals a day, and there are only a couple of their products that actually have gluten in them, and we can easily avoid those.  So that just leaves one meal a day, and with Kelly's Mad Skillz, that hasn't exactly been a challenge, either (see the previous casserole post for how she morphed taquitos into Gluten Free yumminess).  Add in 2 cleanse days, where we didn't eat anything except Isagenix products, and we have the equivalent of the bunny slope at the local ski resort.

But weekends...now, that changes EVERYTHING.

Weekends are when we usually cut loose and tend to eat enough gluten to more than make up for the week.  Pancakes (one of Kelly's specialties), panini (Saturday afternoons frequently find us at Cafe Sorpreso in Presque Isle, having a cup of soup and a panino apiece - yes, panini is plural, panino is singular.  If somebody asks you if you want paninis, slap them.  No, don't.  Just feel smug that you're in the know.  Your inner Grammar Nazi will thank you.  But I digress, sorry), baked goods, crusty bread, the list goes on.  This...this, my friends, is where the real challenge lies.  

And, oh yes, I forgot one very important weekend tradition.  Homemade Pizza.

Kelly makes her own crust; we have a pizza stone that we leave in the oven 24/7, and we have our favorite "configuration," so to speak:  Prosciutto, basil, and sliced fresh mozzarella, with a very light layer of marinara sauce (usually Bertolli Marinara with Burgundy).  It has become a Friday night tradition that we observe probably 40 weeks out of the year.  Usually with a couple of bottles of wine.  

Well, now, this will definitely not work on a gluten-free diet.  But...but...pizza!  Well, Kelly had been thinking about what we would have to do about this ever since day one, so she had several recipes that she had researched.  Yesterday evening we went to the grocery store to scope out a couple of ingredients we needed:  Xantham Gum and Psyllium Husks.  And we actually found the gum!  No husks, though.  But we did find Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Dough.  So, Kelly figured she'd give it a shot.  

Didn't have any fresh basil, but we did have some pesto in the freezer, so we used that instead.  We forgot to get cheese last night (duh), so I stopped on the way home and picked that up.  Kelly had some leftover Wolfgang Puck's Arrabiatta sauce from the homemade pizza we had last Sunday when we came up with the idea of going gluten-free for a month in the first place (and starting this blog in the process), and we already had prosciutto, so the pizza was made, and consumed.  

Well, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.  The flavor was pretty good!  The texture on the outside was pretty good as well, but the center was a little mushy and quite heavy.  This might be due to the wetness of the ingredients, or maybe we needed to blind bake the crust longer, or any number of other reasons.  I finished my portion, but Kelly didn't finish hers.  Nonetheless, we do not consider this a failure.  We both think the pizza dough could make excellent crackers, so the purchase wasn't wasted.  And we definitely intend to try some of the homemade dough recipes that Kelly has pulled from the various blogs she subscribes to. All in all, we are pretty psyched.

And we didn't have any wine, ether.  That's got to be a first.  Pizza demands wine.  Well, not tonight.  :-)