Gluten Withdrawal

Fields of Wheat by victorgeere - Flickr

It’s been a few weeks now since I tried to cut gluten out of my diet – spurred on by learning that undiagnosed gluten intolerance can cause miscarriage and hoping to cure my migraines as a happy side effect. It has been anything but easy and like sugar, it’s only when you try to cut something out that you realise how prevalent it is in your diet. Bread, pasta, cereal, gravy, yorkshire puddings, fish fingers, Quorn products…. It felt like everything I ate contained gluten.

Gluten free? Sugar free? Food free?

Story so far… I had a miscarriage, it was my second one, I came across an article on line about a fertility diet that allegedly helps reduce your chances of miscarriage (no sugar, organic diary, no soy, no tuna, organic fruit and veg), so I went sugar free and started following the rest as best I could.

It's a high fertile day

I’ve purchased one of those ovulation testing kits, something I didn’t really want to do; I wanted to fall pregnant quickly and naturally, without any help from the world of science, don’t we all? But it hasn’t happened straight away, and damn right I’m impatient, so if there’s anything more I can be doing, then it’s time to swallow my pride and just do it.

Alright, alright, I AM counting

I just came on.

I’d hoped by some sheer stroke of good luck I’d get pregnant this month, without putting in much effort, without really thinking about it, it could have crept in under the radar and I might even have been able to ignore it for a few weeks – because let’s face it, if I do get pregnant again it’s going to be scary. To be able to ignore it for as many weeks as possible would be a blessing.

Sugar Free Success!

Something really surprising has happened. After months of attempting to quit sugar, I suddenly realised this morning that I no longer crave it. Previously when it came to sugar, resistance was futile, I loved it, I couldn’t get enough of it and I have been this way my entire life. At work there is a tradition of bringing in cakes on your birthday and I work in a pretty busy office so it’s often someone’s birthday. And every time those collections of cakes appeared my sugar free plan went out of the window. I genuinely couldn’t resist. My will power was rubbish!

Until now.

A colleague just turned 30 and a huge collection of cakes has appeared in the office, and you know what? I’m just not bothered. While others are sitting happily munching away, I don’t feel tempted at all. This is so bloody weird! Never in my life have I had a “take it or leave it” attitude to sweet things.

Suddenly being sugar free is no longer hard.

To move or not to move?

Sugar Free Baking – Attempt 2

Mmmmn, lumpy......

Yes, following the disaster that was my sugar free gingerbread men, I picked myself up and decided to try my hand at sugar free buns instead. Once again honey was my sugar-alternative of choice, and once again the results were, well, not all that I would hope for. The mixture itself looked more like greasy porridge and whereas with normal buns part of the joy is helping yourself to left over mixture, I just couldn’t bring myself to even try it!

Midlife crisis

Fertility Diet

The fertility diet continues although so far my attempts at baking sugar free gingerbread men were really rather disastrous. Firstly the mixture wouldn’t bind together to make a dough, despite following the recipe to the letter, and then when they came out of the oven they tasted oddly salty, a little bit burnt, vaguely gingery but not particularly nice. Needless to say I’m not likely to start posting pictures of my wonderful creations just yet! I’m hoping for better results with the buns later in the week. But I desperately need some kind of sweet alternative before I raid Taters' stash of Easter eggs! Perhaps honey just isn’t going to cut it?

The Latent Hippy Returns?

To bring us up to date...

Work

I’m struggling to get back into work, finding it hard to be interested in anything that goes on in the world of business, politics and the economy (all of which are my job to know about). It’s not helping that before the miscarriage I moved teams and all my new team mates are younger than me, not to mention child free, so while they’re really passionate about their jobs and work all the hours they can, then head to the pub to wind down; I'm struggling to give a shit about work and leave on the dot so I can see my son before his bedtime. I just don't have much in common with them and I’m feeling kinda isolated.