I Want All Of It

we-should-fuck-now-that-i:

#me

this is why i studied communication

(via pleasecallmebelinda)

So here it is – the last post. This gluten free challenge has been just that, a challenge. As I mentioned in my first post, I’m big on pasta and sandwiches, cake and cookies (I mean who isn’t right?) and basically everything that contains gluten. This is what made this so challenging.

            I did my best to try to eliminate all of it, but there were some days where there was just no way I couldn’t eat gluten. There were some cravings, but it was eating somewhere where someone else was responsible for my meal. Not being able to cook my own food was a challenge. When I was eating out, I was careful to get salads or similar things. I ate at a burger place called The Works, and they have a gluten free bun option, so that helped me quite a bit! Restaurants weren’t as challenging, it was usually eating at someone else’s house that was a problem. One night over reading week I ate at a family’s friend’s house, and she made lasagna and garlic bread. It was challenging for me because I’m not going to ask her to make something else separately after she’d just made a wonderful dinner! So instead of eating both lasagna and bread, I just had a smaller portion of the lasagna. Another night I had dinner at my boyfriend’s family’s house and that was a bit better because they all knew I was doing this project, and they were all trying a no carb diet or something like that, so it worked out quite nicely.

            Deciding to do this gluten free diet was for me to see if I could actually follow through with it, and to see if it actually worked. As I mentioned in my proposal, I’ve always struggled with my weight, and it’s gotten to a point where I need to do something about it. It’s not fun being the biggest one in your family, or the biggest out of 4 roommates. I joke about it not bugging me or like how much food I ate one day, but I don’t feel good about that. Obviously we all have certain days where we “pig out”, like at some kind of celebration, family dinner, or after Easter when all the Mini Eggs are on sale and you have to eat them fast so no one else in your family steals them from you. But those should be rare or special occasions, and for me sometimes it’s not so rare. I’ve tried Weight Watchers, which according to Jennifer Hudson and even Jessica Simpson, works incredibly well. Which is does, I dropped about 20lbs when I was on it just from changing what I ate. But then my dad started coming with me, and men drop weight faster than women, so I got discouraged when the weight started melting off him and I plateaued. My family was incredibly supportive, and my mom seemed to be a little too supportive, and it kind of came off to me as nagging. “Kels, you should go to the gym today!” she would say, and because she said it, I didn’t want to go anymore.

            Throughout this project, I think I strengthened my self-control. I had to otherwise I would have eaten gluten the entire time. I started to look more at the ingredients in things I was buying, and eating healthier things and more natural things. I started eating more fruits and veggies, and finding new recipes for dinners and lunches. Not eating pasta and sandwiches was pretty hard as they’re my favourite, but I had to come up with some alternatives. I started eating rice noodles, and quinoa instead of pasta. I would make extra to take for lunch the next day, or I would make a big quinoa salad with veggies, beans, and a vinaigrette dressing. I had to be more creative with what I was eating, and I’m happy that I’m a bit more adventurous in the kitchen now. I tried to not buy a lot of things labeled as “gluten-free” as they can be full of starches, which doesn’t really make it better for you, and they’re expensive! There was NO WAY I was spending $8 on a loaf of gluten free bread. I’d rather save that money, or spend it on something else that I would enjoy more.

Although I enjoy a lot of different foods now, I realized that my problem is portion control. If it’s a crappy day outside, freezing cold and rainy or snowy, I love nothing more than cozying up on my couch with a bowl of pasta watching TV. It’s a weakness. It doesn’t matter what kind of pasta either: fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, even good old Kraft Dinner. I love noodles. But I would just put a whole bunch into a bowl and eat most of it because it tastes so good! And that’s where my problem is. I don’t know when to stop. But near the end of the project, in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that I haven’t been eating until I’m almost uncomfortably full. I’ll stop eating and think that it’s okay I didn’t finish it, I can eat the rest for lunch or dinner tomorrow. I used to not be a big fan of leftovers, so I had to get over that “fear” at the same time.

            At the end of all of this, I need to do this for me, and no one else. I can sometimes have a lazy mentality, and know that getting back to a healthy weight is going to be really hard. I think that that’s one of the reasons I still haven’t really done anything about it. It’s going to be a lot of work, and the last 4 years have brought on a lot of different stresses and I’ve had other things to focus on. Now that I’m finishing at UOIT and have another year of school lined up in Ottawa that won’t be as intensive, I’ll have all the time in the world. Because as much as people say that image isn’t all that important, it definitely is. I like to think I can be fashionable, and love cute clothes, nail polish, hair, and all that girly stuff, but I can’t wear all the clothes I want because some of them don’t come in my size (also because I have no money left, the last 4 years drained my bank account!). And I would love to be able to work in either fashion or beauty or something along those lines and to get into that industry, I have to look my best, and getting to a healthy weight is going to be an asset for me. And there’s no time like the present!

(Source: twloha, via nicolegrace)

Hi guys, please help me out with my capstone project by taking less than 10 minutes to do my survey! thanks so much! 

http://questionpro.com/t/AJzhNZPL2k

I found a really cool little restaurant in Downtown Oshawa that essentially caters to everyone, but it specializes in vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free diets. Obviously there are certain things that only fall under one of those categories, but maybe it’s all 3! 

My boss has been raving about this place for a long time, so I finally tried it today. I walked in and was thrown off by the huge table in the middle. Instead of many smaller tables, they have one big one.  I think that’s kind of a cool idea. they do have 2 or 3 other smaller tables for those who aren’t very social. 

I tend to think I’m a little socially awkward, so I walked up to the counter and asked how this place worked. Took me a few minutes to completely understand and read the menu. I ended up with a turkey salad sandwich on gluten free bread, which was AWESOME. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but for this type of cuisine, it makes sense. 

I would definitely go back, maybe next payday when I can afford it again. I also like that they grow a lot of the herbs they use, they use only fresh and natural ingredients, and the girl at the counter said that they all get there super early in the morning to make the daily soups fresh! None of the powdered or frozen stuff like they use at Tim Hortons! (Sorry for possibly ruining Tims for you. I worked there through high school and know some secrets from behind the scenes).

I found this website while looking up recipes for breads or muffins that are gluten free. I found a wonderful banana recipe that turned out amazing the second time I made it…

A lot of gluten free breads call for an ingredient called xanthan gum. It’s used in a lot of sauces and it basically is used to thicken everything up. It also happens to be almost impossible to find. I looked in almost every grocery store around my house, and went to a few health food stores that I knew of. Finally, my mom found it in the grocery store at home and mailed it up to me. But the first time I made the banana bread, I didn’t have any xanthan gum. So I decided to just not use it. The recipe only called for 1/2 ts, so I figured it wouldn’t make a huge difference. So an hour later I took the loaf out of the oven, and it had sunk instead of rising. So I let it cool, and went to cut a slice, and it just fell apart. It tasted great! But I had to eat it in a bowl with a spoon instead of in slices…

The second time I made it, i had the xanthan gum, and it turned out perfectly. Long story short, this website has helped by giving me a lot of ideas with gluten free cooking and baking!

I know I keep complaining how hard this transition is, and while it has been an adjustment, it hasn’t been as terrible as I may have made it seem. However, this week has been probably the toughest. Reading week at home has posed quite a few challenges. While I’m in school, I live on my own, so changing my diet is a bit easier as I control the food that’s available to me – a.k.a, I do my own groceries. But while at home, my parents do the groceries. No one else in my family is going gluten free or is celiac, which makes it a challenge for everyone. It’s not easy when you can’t eat some of the same foods as your family, and then they feel bad eating certain things in front of you. Also, it was my brother’s birthday so there was cake everywhere in the house, and it was so hard for me to not eat any.

Since it is reading week, my sister is home as well. It’s rare that all of us are home, so my mom tends to cook and bake a bit more. We had a dinner to go to and she baked another cake, which makes my life so much easier… It doesn’t help that the main course for dinner was lasagna, Caesar salad and cheesy garlic bread. This is one of those “face palm” moments. Quite possibly one of my favourite meals, and I can really only eat the salad. I will admit that I caved and had a small piece of lasagna, mostly so that my parents’ friends wouldn’t ask too many questions.

So I went a bit off track this week. Changing your diet is a challenge on its own, but changing diet in changing environments is a whole other challenge. I head back to school tomorrow and it’ll be back on track with the gluten free foods and lots of fruits and veggies!

So this is really hard, guys. EVERYTHING has gluten in it. Everything. One of my favourite things to have for lunch at home is some good old Kraft dinner with ketchup. Guess which one I can’t eat anymore? Oh, that’s right! I can’t eat either of them. I can’t believe I did this to myself.

In all seriousness, this is actually quite hard in the beginning. I started to slowly eliminate gluten from my diet at the beginning of the semester, and once I finished the proposal for this, I told myself no more cheat days. I’ll be honest, I’ve had one cheat day, but it was pancake Tuesday and I couldn’t say no to pancakes, and I have yet to find a good recipe for gluten free pancakes. If it makes anyone feel better, I felt like garbage after because my body is not used to the gluten anymore. Usually my body is like, “YAYY pancakes!” but this time it was saying, “Please get these stupid things out of me!” So, looks like I won’t be eating those any time soon.

I think you would be shocked to know how many foods actually have gluten in them. As I mentioned above, Kraft dinner and ketchup both have gluten. KD, obviously because of the pasta, and the pasta is made of wheat flour. That means that anything and everything with wheat flour is off limits. Which include pasta, cakes, bread, cookies, basically any baked good. Also, anything containing a “hydrolyzed” ingredient is off limits as well, which surprisingly is a lot of things. So all you people who enjoy sushi and dunk your spicy crispy California rolls in soy sauce, enjoy it – soy sauce contains wheat. A lot of sauces as well contain wheat to thicken it up, or a hydrolyzed ingredient. So I am pretty limited there. I guess it’s a good thing I like butter chicken, because it’s basically one of the only ones I’ve found that I can have. Why am I doing this again?

I might be crazy for attempting this. Eliminating every type of food I love from my diet. Not even any moderation, like having a smaller piece of cake, or 2 cookies instead of 5, or actually measuring the amount of pasta I consume (the amount I actually consume could probably impress an Italian). But I want a challenge. And so far, this has been quite the challenge.

First of all, let me clarify. I will be attempting to go gluten free. It’s a personal choice, it’s not because I’m celiac or because I have a gluten allergy. I recently read a book called Wheat Belly, and it goes into detail about how wheat and gluten have changed over the last century. The author, William Davis MD, goes into detail about the effect gluten has on our bodies. He alludes to the fact that wheat has been incredibly modified, and so quickly that our bodies haven’t evolved enough to be able to digest the newer versions of processed wheat that are used today. The tagline of the book is “Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight” and that’s what I’m attempting to do. In later posts I will be explaining more about what the book talks about.

Second, I want to explain the title of the blog. It is basically means that this is going to be a challenge. I love cookies and cakes and muffins and pasta, and all things that are bad for me. Of course I do, who doesn’t! However, trying this gluten free diet, I won’t be able to eat any of it. None. Unless I find gluten free recipes. Which I have, and so far it’s been alright; a few disasters, but mostly everything has turned out alright. This blog is going to be a documentation of the challenges that I’m going to face: wanting “normal” food, going to restaurants, and trying to do this on a student budget.

Hopefully I’ll be able to stick to this and see some improvement in my health!