We survived week 1

Today is the start of week 2 being gluten free, so I thought I would post about what week 1 was like.

Mike and I found week 1 fairly easy, in fact it was much easier than we anticipated.

What we ate.


Almonds and other nuts
Cheese
Creamy Mexican Chicken and rice casserole

• http://isaisenough.blogspot.com/2013/01/creamy-mexican-chicken-and-rice.html

Fruits
Ham
Omelets
Organic Greek Yogurt
Veggies

Gluten free products 

(either marked gluten free or we checked the ingredients to make sure since they are not whole foods)
GF Cinnamon Raisin bread - Rudi's
GF Corn Chips - Garden of Eatin
GF crackers - Crunch Master & Blue Diamond
GF granola - Udi's
GF pancakes - Bob's red Mill GF Pancake mix
GF pizza dough - Bob's Red Mill GF Pizza crust mix
GF Salsa - Newman's Own & Muir glen

Isagenix Products

Cleanse for life
Isadelights
Isagenix Snacks
Isalean Shakes & Bars
Fiber Snacks

Mars Venus daily Cleanse
Mars Venus Shakes

Vitamins and minerals

What we noticed. Smaller bellies, better sleep, increased libido. Energy was really good as well, but that has been normal for us since we started with the Isagenix products. 

What we didn't notice. CRAVINGS :) 

The Importance of "Plan B" (or being fast on your feet)

Mike here, again.  :-)

Today was a bit of a test for us.  Generally, on weekends we like to do a brunch for our main meal (bookending the day with 2 Isagenix meals - our Mars/Venus cleanse and shakes in the morning, and an IsaLean[Pro] shake in the evening).  Yesterday, we had a three-course extravaganza, and we found it to be wholly satisfying.  

Today, not so much.  One of Kelly's specialties is pancakes, which we inevitably do most Sunday mornings.  Obviously not gluten-free.  So we tried Bob's Red Grain Gluten-Free pancake mix.  I thought it was okay, given enough maple syrup, and managed to finish 2 pancakes.  Kelly couldn't even get one bite down.  So, gluten-free pancakes?  EPIC FAIL.  

And, after reading some of the info in Wheat Belly where it indicates that most mixes with starches are even worse for me (a Type II Diabetic) than gluten products, we have decided that we would rather have the real thing, only very occasionally (like once every couple of months, as a treat), than a substitute.  

OK, lesson learned.  And we had some more of the Rudi's Cinnamon-Raisin bread with some organic peanut butter and coffee a little later.  I was more or less satisfied.  But I had managed to eat 2 pancakes, so I was actually full.  Kelly, on the other hand, didn't get any kind of a decent meal today, and it is Super Bowl Sunday, a day where we traditionally make "fun" foods, so the cravings were starting.  And they were physical and mental, which makes it even tougher.

So, what do you do in a time like this? 

You need to have a Plan B.  Always.  Or, barring that (since we did not, sadly, have a plan B), you need to be able to think fast on your feet.  So we quickly hopped in the Mike-N-Kelly-Mobile and went to the local Chop & Shave (Shop & Save for you out-of-towners), in hopes that we would get inspired.  This is a 50-50 proposition.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn't.  

This time, we got lucky, and scored big, with ingredients for a monster "cobb" salad (called that because we didn't toss it).  We started with bagged Romaine lettuce, and to it we added:

• Breakfast ham (organic, uncured, bought in slices and diced)
• Red bell pepper (bought whole, sliced into strips)
• Seriously Sharp cheddar (shredded)
• Chickpeas (organic, canned)
• Carrots (organic, bought whole and slivered)
• Non-gmo blue corn tortilla chips, crushed (these were the "croutons")

Kelly made a dressing from Champagne Vinegar, Blood Orange Olive Oil (picked up when we were in Arizona visiting my dad last summer), and a dash of Fuego.  We sat down, had our pills (we are IsaJunkies, after all) and dug in. 

Oh.  MY.  GAWD.  Heaven.  It was sooooo good.  And it was just a freaking salad, man!  And, best of all, it was still gluten free.  But naturally gluten free, not something that was made gluten free, knowhutimean?  

Bonus: We had leftover chickpeas, so we grabbed a roasted chickpea recipe from Food Network and are baking the rest even as I write this.  Hand-drying chickpeas with a towel is not fun (I'll take Kelly's word for it on that one).  But I believe it will be worth it.  

Next weekend, we will plan backups.  This week is already covered:

• Monday/Tuesday - Curried Chicken with Cashews over Basmati Rice
• Wednesday/Thursday - 2-day deep cleanse
• Friday - Leftover Creamy Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole (frozen from last week).  

We'll plan Saturday/Sunday on Friday.  Lather/Rinse/Repeat.  But if we try new things, you can bet we'll have Plan B items in place this time around.  Read about it then! 

Gluten free grains

Amaranth
Buckwheat
Corn
Millet
Montina (Indian rice grass)
Oats** see below
Quinoa
Rice
Sorghum
Teff
Wild Rice

**Oats are inherently gluten-free, but are frequently contaminated with wheat during growing or processing. 

Trying to get educated

Let me just start by saying that I am shocked by how little I knew/know about wheat in any and all of its forms. I am trying to educate myself and I can honestly say that what I am learning makes so much sense, too much sense, that I can't believe I haven't stumbled across this until now.

Friday evening Mike got us electronic copies of the book "Wheat Belly" by William Davis, MD. I absolutely love ebooks. You buy them and you have them available immediately.  As a result, I have been reading this book since Friday evening and I just can't put it down.

The most important thing I have learned so far is not to replace wheat with gluten free products that are mainly made of starch (potato, rice, tapioca, etc) if weight loss is a goal.  WHY?  Because these types of starches are some of the very few foods that have a higher glycemix index than wheat. Slaps hand on forehead.  This should have been sooooooo obvious because these starches are a more easily digestible carbohydrate than wheat.  But it wasn't obvious at all.....Glad I am reading this book so early in my attempt to go gluten free, and now wheat free.  I don't want to gain weight and most gluten free foods will do just that because they are primarily made with high glycemix index ingredients.  I had even been warned by a friend and still fell for it.  SIGH!

The second most important thing I have learned so far is how much wheat can affect every cell in your body negatively and the long list of symptoms associated with even mild gluten intolerance, that are completely not associated with celiac, making gluten intolerance so hard to diagnose.  But based on what I am reading, if you have any pain or discomfort in your body, you should try eliminating gluten for 4 weeks to see how you feel.  If you feel an improvement then likely you have a gluten intolerance.  Why wait for an official diagnosis. Just take control.

Saturday Brunch

Another happy weekend custom that Mike and I enjoy is brunch.  You've seen me post that I didn't think I could live without pancakes, well cinnamon raisin toast/English muffins with peanut butter are right up there as well.

Thursday, when Mike and I went to the local grocery store to scope out what they had for GF products, we found Rudi's GF Cinnamon Raisin bread in the freezer.  Umm....BRUNCH!

This morning, Mike and I started brunch with broiled grapefruit.  Yes, broiled.  Slice a grapefruit in half, segment it as you would to eat it out of the skin, place on a cookie sheet cut side up, put a little brown sugar on top and broil for a few minutes, until the grapefruit is warm and the sugar is bubbly.  Broiling intensifies the grapefruit's peppery-ness.

Next up, scrambled eggs with onions, red bell pepper, uncured ham and reduced fat cheese.

Lastly, a cup of home made (stove top, no fancy equipment) cappuccino and toasted cinnamon raisin toast topped with natural, creamy peanut butter.

We are pretty happy :)  The GF toast taste different than regular cinnamon raisin toast, but they were still delicious.

Gluten Free - In the Beginning.

After deciding to go gluten free for 30 days, the first thing we did was go through the house and find everything with gluten in it.  Read the labels carefully.  We dumped a lot of stuff, but for those of you with family members that will continue to eat gluten, move the gluten containing foods to a separate location from gluten free foods.  My thought, having them separate will make it easier to know what you can and can't have without having to read the labels each time.

We were especially careful with condiments, sauces, salad dressings and processed foods.  After the purge, we took stock of what was left and asked ourselves, "Can you be happy with eating just those GF items or are there items in the gluten containing pile that you just don't think you can live without?"  For me the answer was, right now I can't live without pizza and pancakes.  Expect to see GF recipes for both of these from me in the near future.

What we tossed. 

Grains that contain gluten: Wheat, barley, and rye.

What we kept.

Grains that do NOT contain gluten: Corn, buckwheat, rice, amaranth, millet, quinoa, sorghum, and teff. 

Click the link for a more complete list of both gluten free and gluten containing foods. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gluten-free-diet/my01140

Aside from grains, all whole foods are gluten free as long as they are not processed on equipment that also processed gluten containing grains.  YAY!  

Advice. 

Yes, even though it hasn't even been a full week I still have some words of wisdom to share. 

If you think you will have difficulty going gluten free avoid foods that might trigger your cravings until a few weeks being gluten free.  GF equivalents will rarely have the same taste and texture, but can be just as good, if not better, than the gluten containing equivalents.  However, the difference in the 2 may be enough to drive you back to your favorites if you don't first give your body a chance to adapt to GF. 

Resources.

Great blog with recipes and the science to help us understand how to live to be healthier. 

http://mariahealth.blogspot.com

Another great blog with gluten free information and great recipes. http://glutenfreegirl.com/

A third blog which I have just discovered that I think will be a good resource.

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

More advice.

Do not rush out and buy all the gluten free products without also checking the ingredients and nutrition labels since many GF foods can be higher in fat and sugar.  Pick the healthier ones and pass on the nutrient deficient products.  Pinterest is a great source to find alternatives as well.  Just type in gluten free.

Isagenix :)  

The only Isagenix products that contain gluten are the Slim cakes and the Isa Greens, though I have heard that the greens do not actually contain gluten any more.

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.  :-)