Seven Weeks Later....

I've had a lot of people ask me about my diet. They have lots of questions. So I will just save time and answer them all here.

• Do you enjoy the new diet?
  

  Yes, I'm really liking the new diet. I know where all my foods started from. That's really a bonus as I cannot eat most processed foods. So now I get to see what they were before I eat them.
  

• Does this mean you can't eat Oreos, Chips Ahoy, McDonald's, etc. anymore? What about dining out?

  Yes, but those things weren't good for me anyway. I have found a few fast food options that I can go to in a pinch if I'm out without food. I've also discovered that most Chinese food places are mostly gluten free. They have steamed rice and rice noodles with veggies. Sauces are thickened with corn starch. I just have to steer clear of the soy sauce because it's made with wheat. No sweet and sour combos or won tons either. I have plenty of food to eat. I just have to figure out what's on the menus. Some places are starting to offer allergen menus. Sadly most aren't up to par yet.
  
  

• How do you feel?
  I feel great. For the first time in years actually. I no longer have heartburn daily. I don't have a lot of headaches or muscle aches. The one thing that I do not miss are the constant yeast infections. It was so bad that I had a prescription on file. I could call it in myself. I used to always feel bloated after eating. Oftentimes I couldn't swallow. I had lots of gastronomic complaints. I don't have any of those anymore. Heck, even my skin isn't as dry and itchy as it was. It's winter and my skin is less dry than it was in the summer. I'm not even having panic attacks anymore. OK, I have those whenever I try to convince myself that just one bite of cookie or one taste of something else won't hurt. It always comes back to haunt me.
  

  I can go on and on but it just upsets me and that's not where I want to be. I'm just happy to be feeling good. I haven't felt this good in years. I can't see myself going back to my 'old diet'. It just goes to show that doctors don't always know what they're talking about. If I had followed the original plan, I would have had stomach surgery, still have been taking tons of pills, and despite every effort on my part.....gaining weight or at least not losing any.
  

• How about weight? Have you lost any?
  I sure have. All those years of yo-yo dieting. All that money spent on diet foods, pills, potions, plans, etc. They didn't work. I had to change me and my basic diet. I've lost 5 pounds in the past week and I've eaten ice cream every day. Yes, real ice cream. Yes, every day. I've even tried the vegan variety, the recipe is in this blog somewhere in the last 7 weeks. I made it with coconut milk and carob. It was awesome.
  

• What's available in the stores?
  Lots of stuff. There's gluten free stuff out there but the best bet is to 'Shop the walls'. Do this by sticking to the outer walls of the store. That's where the fresh stuff is. The produce, meat, and dairy are on the walls. The less processing that happens to a food, the less likely that wheat was added to it.
  

• What results does your doctor/s see?
  Well, I got some test results back the other day. I've been taking vitamin supplements for years and they're finally working. I'm not fighting their efforts with my diet. I just wasn't absorbing some of those minerals so the supplements were only staving off the end result. My vitamin D and B12 levels are higher now than they've been in a very long time. This means my bone density will improve. Which just might mean that I can walk longer without pain. My muscles will not feel weak and exercise will finally help me. Also that I will stop, hopefully, breaking my bones all the time. This is really getting old.
  

• Will this work for me?
  Only you can decide that. I have to eat this way or go back to feeling the way I was. I might miss the old food but I really don't miss the results. You can still have the old foods so it'll be harder to stick with the plan.