Sayonara!

I'm a little late but I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend! I went to the Outer Banks with Mikes family and returned last night... yes, I took 2 extra days off of work and it was WELL worth it! We had fabulous time! I felt ok in my bathing suite... not as confident as last year but not as bad as I"ve felt in the past. I did the best I can with eating (started everyday off with a greek yogurt) turkey salad for lunch (with some chips... his Aunt lives in Hanover, PA where all the good chips are made!) and pretty well at dinner... it was Happy Hour appetizers that got me! However, I did a good and I mean COME ON it's a vacation! I ran the first morning we got there but after that sleeping in got the best of me and the time I awoke at 9:30 it was too hot and humid to even think about running. Instead I laid on the beach and at the pool:) Occasionally getting up to play paddle ball, walk on the beach, or throw the frisbee:)

Ok... back to the important part of this blog (besides the fact I need to kick it up a notch... or 2 or 3...

I've had stomach issues since... well forever. I always associated it with certain foods or stress but I finally figured it out! I have a GLUTEN ALLERGY! I do not have celiacs but I definitely do have a gluten allergy to the point where it's time to cut it out! Mike's cousins have celiacs and they are completely gluten free so I thought why not try going gluten free when people around me are gluten free. Well we had gluten free pasta and bread (I know not the healthiest but I didn't have a lot) and it was delicious! Usually after pasta or bread my stomach turns for the worst. NOT this time! But it was one meal, it could have been a fluke. So I continued eating gluten free the rest of the week and had no, zero, ziltch problems with my stomach. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! It's hard to really put into words how it feels not to be in pain after I eat. I've dealt with it for so long that it became normal. Well guess what! It's not normally!

Glutens (seen below here) are my nemesis


For those of you who don't know what celiacs disease is or what having a gluten allergy entail here is a great site to check out:
http://www.celiac.org
Basically, it's an autoimmune condition where the intestines are unable to absorb foods that contain wheat, rye, and barley. (That's a very brief version but those are the 3 main groups that i'll be cutting out... So many foods and products contain these things or different combinations that it's going to be tough getting used to looking at the ingredients before just swiping things off the shelf. But I know long term it's completely worth it for me and by body.

The week was going great so I decided to say "what the heck" and have a few "glutenous" pretzels, really not thinking it would make a difference. 10 minutes later I was getting my pills and hunched over in pain. From that moment on I realized it was time to make a change. It's not worth the pain and knowing what it feels like to eat and not have pain is so much more glorious!
So I'm on the mission to find healthy, tasty, healthy gluten free foods! Lucky for me, just jumping on the Gluten Free wagon, stores have SOOOO many more options of gluten free products not to mention the hundreds of websites that are available!

All in all my mini vacation was incredible! I was able to spend time with Mike's family, relax, get tan, and learn exactly what the DEVIL inside my stomach is caused from!:)

So as hard as it may be to let go some of my favorite glutenous foods it's time to say "See Ya Later!"