Going 'gluten free' when I never thought I would, and how it's helped me!

Writing about a ‘diet’ or a way of eating seemed so silly to me at first, who wants to know how I eat, or even cares really? But it’s been a big part of my life the past few months and I knew it was something I definitely wanted to share about in some capacity, so here goes! I don’t believe in pushing diets or eating lifestyles on people, if you eat meat and it works for you, that’s awesome! And if you are vegan and that works best for you, that is amazing too. We all have different bodies that are properly fuelled in different ways, and I believe everyone can find their own ‘sweet spot’ in what works best for them, and their family when it comes to food.

I was always typically an ‘everything in moderation’ girl for many years, and I still go with this approach for how I feed most of my family, but a few months ago, when a doctor strongly suggested omitting dairy, gluten and refined sugar from my son’s diet to help him with some struggles he had been having, it really made me think. The doctor had explained that these foods caused inflammation in the body and brain specifically in decision making, and that were likely making his (behaviour disorders, without going into too much detail for his privacy) worse. At first I thought, Ok this guy is trying to tell me that eating BREAD is what it causing my son so much struggle? I didn’t buy it. Yet, in all my research I’ve done over the years trying to help my son, I had read many times about how gluten makes certain behaviour disorders worse, but I didn’t want to believe it. My second thought after thinking it was ridiculous that omitting these foods would help my son, was that it would be far too difficult to feed him no gluten when the rest of the family was still eating it. But in an effort to try everything I could to help our son thrive, I decided that we would try this diet and that I would do it along with him, so he wouldn’t have to do it alone (as I knew it would be very hard for him) and also because I was very curious about how it would effect my body as well.

So on May 1st this year, we went ALL in on the no dairy, no gluten and no refined sugar diet. I spent the month of April planning for it, finding recipes and making meal plans. I wanted to be prepared so that we didn’t have the urge to ‘cheat’, I wanted to really stick to it as much as we could, so that we would truly see what kind of affect it would have. The easiest part to start off was not having dairy, because to be honest I haven’t really eaten much dairy at all for the past 10 years anyhow, except for yogurt, as it’s never really agreed with me. The refined sugar wasn’t as hard for me either, as I don’t have a sweet tooth, but it can be sneaky because they put sugar in EVERYTHING, so I really had to keep an eye on reading labels to make sure we didn’t get any sneaky sugar in our meals. On the other hand, giving up refined sugar WAS hard for my son, as he does have a major sweet tooth, so I was put to work finding homemade recipes for granola bars and treats that had no sugar in them so that he wouldn’t feel completely put off by this new way of eating. By far the hardest part for both of us was giving up gluten. If you would have asked me even a year ago about giving up gluten, I would have probably said “Never!” gluten is bread, and bagels and pasta and baked goods, I can’t say goodbye to those! So the first week or so was probably the trickiest, especially when we were feeling ‘snacky’ because even most crackers were not on our new ‘diet’.

What really helped us was having a solid meal plan, I literally wrote out every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack we would eat every day for the first month to get us into a routine. I wanted to make sure that in those ‘hangry’ moments we didn’t reach for something that we would regret. So I made sure we had meals ready to go as well as proper snacks so that there wasn’t ever an excuse. We originally wanted to do the diet for a month, just to try it out, but as we got to the end of the month and started seeing so many positive results, we decided to keep it going. This time with letting in a ‘treat’ day every Saturday for my son, so that he would have a reward for all his hard work with sticking to this diet. He mentioned his first ‘treat day’ when he was eating a splurge, Poutine, that he could barely finish it. Which was crazy for him because he is normally a bottomless pit, but after not eating food like that for so long, his body had already stopped craving it, and he said he found he didn’t feel the ‘need’ for those treat foods as much anymore. He was honestly bummed that he couldn’t finish his treat meal, but he was realizing how this way of eating was really helping him.

So how did this new diet help us? For my son, it helped him exponentially, in being more level headed, being able to control his anger and emotions, and having a more positive attitude. My husband and I noticed a difference in him after the first week, and we held our breath thinking “No….this is not actually helping is it?” I think we both didn’t really want to believe it, but it’s was undeniable, it was helping him and helping our whole family in return. It was not a ‘cure all’ for his struggles by any means, but it was a tool in him thriving, and anything that helped him thrive was a big win for us all.

For myself, I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of benefits I had from cutting gluten, dairy and sugar from my diet. The biggest one I noticed first was that I had WAY less headaches and when I did get them, they were a lot less painful and wouldn’t stick around as long. As someone who has had frequent headaches and migraines since I was a child, this was huge! Some other things I noticed was my crazy intense heartburn was gone, my monthly cycle pain started to get more manageable (sorry TMI) my head felt more clear (I could focus on things longer and wasn’t so distracted), and any bloating, puffiness/inflammation in my body had gone way down. I had more energy in general, and just not having to deal with so many headaches was amazing! I also feel like my blood sugars were evened out. I used to think I was ‘hypoglycaemic’ and would have crazy hangry moments, but since cutting these foods I haven’t felt those big low blood sugar drops, I am thinking mainly because I am fuelling my body a lot more properly with more nourishing foods. I hesitate to even write all of these things, because I feel like if I say it out loud it will stop helping me (which is completely ridiculous) but it is now mid-July and apart from a few ‘treat days’ here and there I have stuck with this diet and I hope to continue to see such positive results. Because going forward, my son and I have decided to stick with this way of eating for the forcible future.

Again, if you had asked me even half a year ago if I would eat this way I would have said NO WAY, because I thought it was too hard, and that it wouldn’t be worth it. Now that we are in the routine of it, and we know what things we can and can’t eat, it has gotten much more ‘second nature’. We eat a TON more veggies and fruits, way less junk food, and we just feel so much better in general. I think my son would agree with me that we are craving those junk foods less and less also, as we know when we eat them how they make us feel and it’s just not always worth it. I am really glad that I gave it a shot and pushed past my skepticism. We don’t know how long we will eat this way, but for now we will continue and be thankful for how it is helping us both do well in body health and mental health. I have realized that I love the philosophy of ‘eating intuitively’ which is knowing what foods your body needs and what foods it doesn’t and listening to what it wants when it wants it. Your body will usually never steer you too wrong in this way if you listen to your ‘gut’ (no pun intended) ;)

Now I can’t pretend it’s as ‘easy’ for my son to stick to this diet as it has been for me, he has had trouble many days if he see’s someone eating something he can’t have, but I try to keep the meals things he likes and things that fuel him so he’s not searching for snacks all the time, but feels full and energized. I also try to remind him WHY we are eating this way and remind him how much it is helping him, and that seems to help in those hard moments. Having the ‘treat day’ for him to look forward to has been great for him also, as he feels the reward for his hard work on those days. After all, he is a pre teen and what pre teen doesn’t LOVE pizza and ice cream and burgers? Overall I am so proud of him with how he’s stuck it out with me!

I would love to start sharing some of the recipes that have been keeping us going and that we have been enjoying the past few months, and wondering if making some ‘recipe videos’ would be fun, would you guys be interested in that? Let me know in the comment section, as I would love to start helping others if they are feeling overwhelmed by this way of eating also, but know that it will be a help to a family member that they love. Just know that you CAN do it and there are so many good and yummy options out there! Maybe a ‘what we eat in a day’ video would be helpful and interesting too, I know those are one of my fave videos to watch on youtube.

Well, I did it, I wrote about a ‘diet’ and it was a bit weird, but it needed to be shared ;) so I hope you got a little bit of good info out of it! And if you have any questions, let me know as I would love to help and share :)

stay cozy friends,

Shelley