Gluten Free Gloom

My fibromyalgia has gotten worse and I'm desperate. Desperate enough to try the drastic step of going gluten free. We'll see if it helps or not; I'm also planning to get back in with doctors as well. But in the meantime, I took matters into my own hands.

EVERYTHING I LIKE IS BAD FOR ME! OK, not everything, but pretty close to it. I can still have Dr. Pepper and chocolate. And meat and vegetable, potatoes, rice and corn. And that's about it right there.

And prepackaged gluten free stuff is SUPER expensive. Like $4 - $8 for a cake mix expensive, pasta triple the regular price, bread even higher. Wow.

So why not make my own? I can bake. Yeah. Tried my first gluten free recipe of the year, and it was a HUGE disappointment. "Fudgy Chocolate Brownies" is what they were SUPPOSED to be, but what we got was a salty, vaguely chocolatey bar with a strange taste to it. Universal thumbs down, and we love brownies around here. The recipe was from The Food Allergy Cookbook by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, and maybe if I'm away from wheat long enough to COMPLETELY forget what brownies are supposed to taste like and I cut back on the salt (but seriously, it was only 1/2 tsp. Why the salty taste?), I *might* be able to choke a couple of these down. But I doubt it.

And it's back to the drawing board. I have more cookbooks to try and maybe I'll find one that's decent. I also have some rice flour (I used potato flour in the brownies) and that will probably taste a little milder. If nothing else, I guess I will give up baking and stick to my No Bake Cookies recipe. Those really ARE good.

Calories!

I'm having mixed success with the diet. I took Ellen's to my parents' house and stopped at Cracker Barrel for one of their pecan logs. 400 calories and I ate the whole thing! So yummy though. No change in my weight. So I bought some chocolate soy milk today at the store - 140 calories per cup, and still a treat. Better for me than the pecan roll, but not nearly as yummy.

Weighty Woes

I am back on my diet again. I started at the beginning of the year, trying to lose 20 pounds this year. I immediately gained 10 pounds. Very frustrating! Then I got serious and started counting my calories. And I started losing weight. Then came Dad's illness and death. With all the stuff going on, I just couldn't concentrate on my diet. So I gained it all back.

Now that things have gotten a little more normal, I decided it was time to start the diet again. I'm back to tracking everything I eat and counting calories again. I've lost 5 pounds (again!), and I'm getting used to the whole idea.

My family seems split on the idea. Randy is solidly behind me, whatever I decide. Ellen thinks I'm not eating enough. But I'm doing fine. I have to remember to eat half my calories before dinner, so I don't wind up with a headache, but other than that, I feel like this is just what I need. My goal is to get to 150 lbs, which is not exactly skinny, but it's what I weighed when I got pregnant with Will. I think it's a realistic goal. I'm not sure I'll make it by the end of this year, but I know I can do it. Right now, I'm concentrating mostly on diet, planning on adding exercise later. I can't wait to fit into all my clothes again.

Now what do I do?

I had another visit with the doctor yesterday. It was just my yearly physical, but I had a few things I wanted to talk to him about. I had to go to in fasting so we could do some blood tests.

Most of the news was pretty good. My blood pressure was stable, so my meds are working there. My blood sugar was good, which was a relief. Ears, eyes, nose, throat, heart, lungs, reflexes, all were good.

But I had a few surprises. My cholesterol was a little high.My HDL, the good cholesterol, was just fine. That's the one that is from exercise. So I thought that was funny, because I'm not very consistent about exercise at all! But my total cholesterol was 230, which is too high.

I also talked to him about PCOD, polycystic ovary disorder. I told him that I didn't really want to be on birth control, as that seems to have too many side effects with me. But he gave me a prescription for Metformin, which has helped some of my relatives.

So now I'm not sure exactly what to do! I need to eat better and be more faithful with my exercies. But I was expecting my blood sugar to be high, so I would need to cut out the carbs. Instead, I need to reduce my fat intake. I guess really that if I just concentrate on reducing my calorie intake and watch the junk food, it will still work. Rather frustrating!

Not Motivated

So I got off track on my diet, with Dad being in the hospital, and I can't seem to get back on track now. I was going to get strict again this week, but since the kids have been home for spring break, we've been eating out and I've been HAVING SODA AGAIN. Oops. And of course, I've gained back 5 pounds.

I'm not sure how to get back into the diet. I guess I'll give it another go Monday. Maybe once the weather is nice, I'll get out more. Yeah, right. I won't hold my breath on that one! The snow broke of a big branch on our willow tree. Now we've realized that the whole tree will have to come down, as the wood is rotten in the middle. Another big storm and who knows what will happen? I'm so sad about it too.

Getting serious about this weight thing!

As I've mentioned before, I am trying to lose weight this year. You see the counter down at the bottom of the page? The one designed to keep track of all the pounds I lose this year? Yeah, well, it hasn't moved. And if it had moved, it would have moved the wrong way. All I had to do was decide to lose weight this year and I gained 10 pounds.

So it was time to get serious. I am now counting every calorie (just about) that goes into my mouth. The exception is fruits and veggies, which I figure are good for me and I don't need to worry about them. And sometimes I have to estimate, because it's a mix of things. But I've been pretty good about it. I started on Monday and by today, I have lost 5 pounds!

I'm pretty excited about it. I'm planning to allow myself a treat this weekend when Randy and I go for an overnight trip for our anniversary. I'm trying to stay under 1800 calories a day, and so far, have had no problem at all with that. In fact, yesterday I was around 1100 calories, which might explain the headache I had by bedtime.

I still need to tinker with it a bit, to make sure that I am eating enough. And I've also been tracking my fat grams, sugar, fiber, and protein. I can tell that I am not getting enough fiber, but since I'm not counting fruit and veggies, it might be closer to ideal than I think.

Best of all, today I got my formerly tight jeans on without a muffin top! Still haven't tried my really tight jeans, which fit fine last year. But I think I'm on the right track.