The Gluten Free Thing

Some of you have recently asked me about "the gluten free thing." I thought I'd address it briefly here and clear the air since some of my meals I've posted lately have clearly not been sans gluten. When I went to the doctor back in early 2011, he talked to me about my digestive issues and suggested trying a gluten free diet for a few weeks to see if it helped. I went full force into the gluten free lifestyle, (I even bought Gluten Free for Dummies on my Kindle!) and initially thought I had the answer to all of my problems. But slowly but surely I realized, that while I may get irritated from gluten when eating too much of it, the real answer to dealing with my very sensitive stomach (the doctor said it sounded stress related - which I fully believe) is eating a super clean diet and being totally aware of what I'm putting in my body. That's it. Sounds pretty obvious huh?

With the back to back days of business lunches and dinners, nights out with friends, weddings, showers, birthday parties, and vacations, I've found that for me being pickier than I want to be has paid off. That's not to say I don't indulge, believe me, I do...I just am more aware of what's going to set me off. For example, I've found that I really can't handle a big bowl of oats in the morning after having a carby dinner the night before. So I try to balance it out with a smoothie or yogurt and fruit. However, if I ate a salad or veggie based meal at night time, my stomach can handle oats in the morning or even a sandwich for lunch. Just not a big one.

So that's it, and I have to say I am so happy. Being 100% restrictive is just not for me, and I'm happy to be able to enjoy a Sierra Nevada again! I am loving eating more conscientiously on all levels and have learned a lot from my numerous experiments with my own digestive system :-) Back to regular posting tomorrow, and I promise that TMI will no longer be an issue!