As I wrote Thursday, I am listening to the Gluten Summit offered by TheDr.com and I am thoroughly enjoying what I am learning. I am learning a lot. I am processing a lot of information while I am taking notes to the presentations.
One particular nutritionist is standing out in my mind today as I am writing this. Here name is Melinda Dennis. What she talked about on Thursday was how to thrive with a gluten related disorder. I liked how she said the words THRIVE. When hit with an illness all you have to change is how you view and eat food you don’t think about thriving, you think about deprivation. What you cannot eat anymore that you used to enjoy. It is so depressing.
Dennis had some great tips in how to thrive. She suggested everyone has a different mindset to their diagnosis and how they are going to approach this new challenge in life. That makes so much sense. How am Igoing to approach my illness will be totally different than how you will approach yours and we have to stop comparing ourselves to each other. That is so hard to do, but I know it is a necessary step in the process of healing. Then she suggests focus on you getting healthy, not anyone else, but you. And realize you are going to feel deprivation in the beginning, but to fight through it because it will get easier as time passes. I like Dennis philosophy on how to approach a new change that is happening in your life.
With me, I have known that gluten does cause my body to swell up, but I have not made a commitment to stop eating bread or even read labels. To me reading labels and knowing what is in my food is a chore, but I also know it is important at the same time. Not only is it overwhelming, but I also feel exhausted just thinking about it. While listening to the Gluten Free Summit I realize that it is time to make that commitment to myself because I am worth fighting for. It is time to take the next big step towards my health and that involves how I view and eat food. Before I made this decision I bought some salad dressing. Well, I read the label after I got home and guess what it has malt in it which is gluten. I have not opened it. With this new revelation I realize going back to scratch cooking is one way I will be eliminating this harmful food from my diet. I know many people think eating gluten free will help you lose weight, but that is not necessarily true. It depends on what kind of non-gluten food you are eating. There is gluten free junk food and if that is what you are eating, guess what you will not lose weight. My goal with eating non-gluten is not to lose weight, but to help my immune system and my Vasculitis disease to be better.
As I am learning, I will be writing up more about gluten. Here are some websites that Dennis suggested you check out on your research.
Oh a neat fact I learned, the villi in your stomach starts growing back 72 hours after you stop eating gluten. Who knew?
Please wait...