Bye-Bye Wheat

At a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago, my doctor advised me to eliminate wheat from my diet.  This wasn't a big shock to me. I've recently had some blood work come back that may suggest I've got an autoimmune disease brewing, and wheat can be problematic for people with autoimmune diseases. I don't have any noteworthy symptoms, thankfully, so no diagnosis, no medication for now.
A few months ago, a pharmacist friend of mine let me borrow a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle. That book outlines a diet called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), and my friend used it for his son following his diagnosis of Crohn's disease. After following the diet, his son is symptom free and not in need of any medication.  That is a huge victory.  However, the SCD plan is rather rigorous with a long list of foods to avoid - wheat is one of them, along with a host of others. Since I wasn't having any symptoms, it didn't make since for me to jump all in with it. One change I did make after reading the book was eliminating Splenda. I had been using it in my coffee and oatmeal. After giving it up, I realized just bad Splenda was making me feel.

After leaving the doctor's office, I decided that giving up wheat is doable. Coming from the girl who used to love and crave bread, that is a big deal.  Some friends gave me some good ideas of substitutions to make for wheat products in recipes, and I'm off to a good start.  Last Friday, the four of us went out to dinner at a little Italian restaurant. The bread didn't look appealing to me, so I didn't even want to eat it. The kids enjoyed it though.

I get most of my recipes from Skinnytaste, and you can find a searchable list of gluten free and paleo recipes there. I really love that the author post the nutrition facts for every single recipe. I had to give up my favorite Kashi granola bars, because they contain wheat. I started making my own, thanks to a gluten free recipe at Skinnytaste called Banana Split Bars.

So yummy!