Removing gluten from my diet has changed my life
Ever wonder if you have a gluten intolerance and what would happen if you remove it from your diet? I know everyone’s bodies are different and will react differently but I am here to tell you things changed for me after I stopped eating gluten.
Trust me, when I realized I need to give up eating delicious things like donuts, bread, pizza and pasta I wanted to give up before I even started! Then I remembered potatoes were still ok which meant I could still have french fries, chips and mashed potatoes so I felt a little better about trying this whole “no gluten thing”. I was also miserable and knew I needed to change something.
Here is what happened to me after no longer eating gluten:
Joint Pain Nearly Disappeared
You guys, joint pain was a real struggle for me. I was in so much pain all the time. I had to wear a brace for my thumb because moving it was excruciating at times and I was sure it was early signs of rheumatoid arthritis since that ran in my family. I was also not sleeping at night because every part of me hurt and ached. I would get out of bed to just go and stand on the cold tile floors in my bathroom to try to get some relief in the pain that would flow through me as I laid in bed trying to sleep.
For the longest time I believed all this joint pain I was experiencing was my body trying to adjust from giving birth to twins and that my body was just trying to go back to “normal” and my hormones were creating the problem. When I went to my doctor, she told me that I shouldn’t be having this kind of pain from giving birth, especially for this long after the fact. After this doctor visit, I was a little discouraged and chalked up the pain possible an autoimmune response since my mom suffered greatly from an autoimmune disease and figured the pain just might be my new normal.
Fast forward a few months later, I developed more issues and did some research and realized gluten could be my problem. I removed the gluten from diet and suddenly a few weeks later my joint pain was gone. I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t waking in the middle of the night in pain, I wasn’t needing to wear my thumb brace anymore and I was able to exercise without feeling like I was dying! Now, if I accidentally eat gluten at any point my joints will start hurting and I will immediately know that I ate gluten.
Stomach quieted down
When I say my stomach quieted down, I literally mean that. The crazy gurgling sounds that would come out my stomach were ridiculously loud! It would be so embarrassing if I was around anyone that wasn’t family or close friends and my stomach decided to start “talking.” No, I didn’t need to run to bathroom or anything, my stomach would just gurgle an obnoxious amount for hours on end. This issue also made sleeping an issue…. It felt like I was trying to sleep with a tiny velociraptor in my stomach! Once gluten was gone, the gurgling was gone.
I lost weight that I thought I couldn’t lose
Before I cut out gluten, I had gained a mysterious 15 pounds that just wouldn’t budge. I was even training for a half marathon and I didn’t lose a pound. I was confused and frustrated on to what was going on since I was heavier than I ever was and was not able to lose the weight.
After I cut out gluten, I dropped 10 pounds with in like 6 weeks…It was crazy! That extra weight I was carrying around was inflammation, not stubborn fat. I dropped another 5 pounds in the following few months and my face was not nearly as swollen looking as well.
My anxiety decreased
I am pretty sure my anxiety had anxiety when I was eating gluten. If I wasn’t up already from my joint pain, I was up worrying about everything under the sun and having constant panic attacks. It was horrible.
My anxiety is still there even after no longer having gluten, but I don’t constantly feel like something is going to go wrong or have that nagging feeling of worry every second of the day. My panic attacks are now maybe once every 3 months as opposed to once a week. Anxiety is something I have battled with for a long time and gluten was just magnifying my symptoms.
My hair became healthier
Another sign that I knew something needed to change in my life was my hair was falling out like crazy. Sure, the stress of life with twins could be a reason for my hair to fall out. However, having hair falling out along with all the issues I was having, I knew it was more than just stress that was causing it.
A few months after going gluten free, my hair was less brittle and was not excessively falling out anymore. I never have had thick head of hair so I am not saying a miracle occured and my once fine head of hair went to a luscious thick head of hair or anything but my fine hair was shinier and not falling out in heaps and I was able to grow it out!
My skin has a healthy glow
I don’t think I had realized how dull and tired my skin had become until I stopped eating gluten. What was crazy to me was that I actually had a few people coming up and telling me “hey, you look good, like you look healthier now what are you doing differently?” a few months after I started the gluten free life. Of course my knee jerk reaction when initially hearing this was “how terrible did I look before?” and the answer is, I probably did look fairly terrible. I was not well—I was feeding my body food that it couldn’t tolerate.
Get yourself tested for Celiac Disease
If you see yourself having any similar issues or feel like you might have issues with gluten, ask your doctor about getting tested for celiac disease. I made the mistake of not realizing that you need to have gluten in your system for the test for Celiac to be accurate or even show you have Celiac Disease. If you remove gluten from your diet, your body will no longer test positive for the antibodies that show up when being tested. So if you at all suspect you have an intolerance to gluten get yourself tested first and learn from my mistake. For me to find out if I actually have Celiac at this point I would need to eat gluten for about 6 weeks or so and I just can’t imagine making myself sick for that long just for them to say I have Celiac Disease. I am not going to eat gluten whether it be that I actually have Celiac or “just” a gluten intolerance.
Going gluten free has changed my life for the better….if you are suffering and feel like you could be doing something differently, maybe try saying goodbye to gluten for a bit and see how you feel? It takes a bit of time for the gluten to leave your system so don’t get frustrated if feel worse before you feel better!
Have any of you tried switching to a gluten free life? If so, what improvements did you see happen?