Vanishing act

Over the summer I went for a check-up and mentioned that although I was eating healthily, swimming and doing yoga that I was gaining weight. A simple blood test found both my insulin and blood sugar levels too high, and I was put on a glucofage (a medication that basically eats blood sugar and helps your insulin do what it should...eat insulin), and my doctor suggested trying a low glycemic index diet, and that I might want to read "Wheat Belly" and try going gluten free. I didn't have diabetes, yet, but was on my way without some adjustments.

I think part of the problem was that I was eating WAY too much fruit. I've always loved fruit, and had developed a particularly bad fruit habit. I was making my way through a case of champagne mangoes and three pineapples a week. And yes, I was eating all of that myself. So, so good!

I had heard from friends about their successes doing either gluten free or paleo diets and I was loathe to cut out more foods from my plate. I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for something like 22 years, and cutting out bread and pasta seemed like my version of a nightmare. For years, my version of therapy has been baking. Making challah each Friday of the past year or so was a labor of love. Making cookies, cakes and brownies to share with family, friends and coworkers both filled my home with delicious scents and put me in everyone's good graces.

Thinking back, I probably ate a few too many of those cookies, maybe one or two too many slices of cake, and certainly a few extra squares of brownies. I take full responsibility for those.

I also take responsibility for occasionally becoming a breadandcheesitarian. Rye bread toast and butter was my nightly routine after work. Open-faced melted cheese for breakfast. Cheese sandwich for lunch. Homemade pizza (including dough) once each week. It was just so easy.

I thought that going gluten free was going to be a struggle. Instead, it became a challenge, like the painting assignment I had in college to paint a white egg on a white plate on a white piece of paper. It also brought back my interest in cooking.

Several months later, I have lost nearly 25 lbs. My insulin and blood sugar levels normalized within the first two months, and after that, I noticed that my stomach didn't hurt with each meal anymore. I know, I know, it shouldn't hurt to eat. I'd just been so used to it for so long that it seemed normal. You don't always notice pain until it's missing from your daily life.

The people I see every day are starting to notice the changes to my body. I think that has something to do with my renewed confidence in wearing clothes that fit, rather than baggy, shapeless forms to hide my squishy parts. I don't know that I have had any of the seemingly magical changes that others have touted with their gluten free eating, but I do have more self-confidence. I am excited to find outfits in my closet again. I do not criticize my body as much, and embrace the dropping needle on my scale each morning.

I'm going to try keeping up the gluten free thing for a year and see what happens. Hopefully it's that I lose another 25 lbs and need to go shopping. Maybe I'll learn to embrace that by then, too.