Yes, I Am ...

Kevin on Mother's Day 2010

Yes, I am going Gluten Free with Kevin. This is something I have thought about doing for such a long time, now.  I really fought myself on this, too.  There are so many things I will miss, but I really need to try this for not just Kevin, but for myself.  You see I've always had a problem with concentration and retaining things that I read.  But, lately it's getting worse for me.  The other day I went on my Facebook page to find a web site that I had posted on there last month. While I was scanning my home page I saw this one post and I just looked at it in amazement. I had no idea what I was trying to write there. The sentence made no sense at all.  There was no subject, so I couldn't even figure out what it was pertaining to.  I deleted it and thought wow I am really having more of a difficult time with focusing then I thought.  Granted last month was stressful for me, because it was my last month working part time out of the house. I was trying to make sure everything was in order for my boss when he took over my job.  The thing is I don't think it's just that alone that is effecting my concentration.  The day before yesterday I felt so foggy brained and I couldn't shake it.  I've had that feeling more than once, too.  I can't tell you how many times I've read about people with gluten intolerance & celiac disease feeling foggy and once they have removed the gluten it's like the fog has lifted for them. I have a friend and her brother who has celiac actually described it that way.  He had ADHD and found out by accident (a car accident in truth) while in the ER that he has celiac disease.  He said that after going gluten free it was like the fog had lifted for him and he didn't have any of the problems with the ADHD anymore.  Let me remind you that it takes months for you to heal from the damage that gluten can do to you, so if it's not working in a week remind yourself of that.  I'll be reminding myself, too.  Plus you have to stick to it. You can't do a little gluten here and a little gluten there. This is different than Kevin's addiction to gluten.  I had to wean him off of the gluten to help him to deal with the withdrawals. So, I'm going to be telling myself "stick to it girl."

In Kevin's case I think this will be great for him.  I've been wanting to get back to baking for him and if I'm eating what he is eating then I will know for sure how something actually tastes.  Yesterday I made Pizza and for the first time in a long while I made the pizza crust myself.  I want to work on the recipe a little more, but it really did taste good.  On my half I want cheese less.  Yeah, I know what is pizza without cheese!  It's good that's what it is. LOL  Truth is I'm use to cheese and Kevin is use to dairy free cheese. The taste is different and I haven't been able to adjust to it myself. Garrett, my youngest, says he really likes the dairy free cheese himself. Go figure.  Garrett will eat almost anything.  I do remember reading that if you are going to change to a dairy free cheese that you shouldn't eat any cheese for a while.  This way you don't really remember the taste of cheese. Huh, truthfully I think this works best with little children, because I think I'd remember the taste of cheese after all these years.  I don't plan on going dairy free myself or at least I hope I don't have to do it.  Anyway, back to going gluten free for myself. I was just sitting here making my grocery list and started to write down this soup that Garrett really likes and it's my favorite, too.  That's when it hit me!  I can't eat that soup anymore.  Well, I'll just have to make a gluten free version of it then.  Yes, a lot will change for me, but I think it will all be helpful to Kevin. Going to a restaurant will be interesting for me, but in the end I'll have a better picture in my mind of what I can order for Kevin if I should decide to take him there later.  Honestly, we don't do a lot of eating out with Kevin.  I'm too afraid of cross contamination issues even if I give him some GlutenEase during dinner, but there will be times when we will eat out such as vacations or to Biltmore Estates.  Oh boy, this will be interesting.