Gluten Free Life

After a life of digestive issues a resident physician from our hospital decided he thought I should try to cut gluten out of my diet. He suggested studies and what not but at the point I was talking to him I was so fed up with tests and exams that I refused. He was great with me really. I was at the point of tears at work and was asking around for a naturalist who could help me. As we were talking he was suggesting all the normal stuff that Iv had over and over throughout the years. When I said to him, "look I'm not trying to be rude and I appreciate your help but Iv had IBS since I was like 8 years old, as a kid the doctors all said I was faking it or that it was PMS and as an adult they enjoyed sticking tubes in me and finding nothing. I'm pretty much done with you guys at this point." He took it in stride and reminded me of a very important medical point. IBS is caused by stress and children at the age of 8 usually dont have the amount of stress to cause it. He said, "I can tell your fed up so I suggest you investigate Crones and gluten allergies and change your diet. See what happens." He also gave me a medication that basically lays a coat over your entire digestive track in order to help the healing process.

That was almost three months ago. Almost immediately I had more energy, could think clearer, and NO DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS. I was very surprised to find that the brain fog and extreme sleepiness had nothing to do with stress or my history of being a not so great teenager. These are things I have delt with since I was a kid. One of my sisters recently joked about how I could fall asleep at any time and any place. Now I realize in reality it was from having a life of malnutrition. Basically if you are constantly irritating your digestive system with something that damages it you can not receive the nutrients your need from your food. If you struggle with digestive issues please look into different diet and eating styles and not just medication. I cant express enough how much this has changed my life. I feel like a new person. Mind you I'm still a klutz and forgetful as all get out but I don't have to drag myself up the stairs to my house each day after work (I skip up them) and I don't HAVE TO take a nap each day, now its only if I want to and more of a power nap and I actually feel good afterwards and not worse. Oh and I also droped 5kilos in the first couple weeks of the diet and didnt really even feel like I was dieting. I recently lost 2 more and again dont feel like Im dieting. Im currently at my highschool size.... crazy!!!!

 Well Iv had a couple mishaps and am learning and experimenting with my level of sensitivity. For example there is a preservative that has gluten in it, some foods have more than others and because the Ingredients on foods don't have amounts sometimes its a coin toss. Of course its a good idea to avoid it all together but I'm trying to figure out my sensitivity. For example chicken broth and Zuco both make me sick but eating Frijoles chips doesn't. Although here in Mexico you can live quite happy with things made of corn I missed bread. So I started looking for gluten free recipes. There are a ton out ther but if you are in Mexico and are broke buying all the glutten free flour is not an option. All of this to say after many trials with different bread recipes I have finally found one that works in my bread machine. Let me warn you I had to do a lot of tweaking and if you are not in Mexico you may need to tweak this also. Altitude makes a huge difference in recipes.  Also one problem we have found is the storage of the bread. I use to make home made yeast bread with regular flour and never had this issue. The oatmeal breat always perfect the first day but would start breaking down and getting gooey in just one day if we put it in a plastic bag for storage. If we leave it out completely it gets stale. Right now we just make sure we eat it within a couple days while we find the best method. My most recent effort was to slice it right away and put it back into the bread machine. This worked pretty good. It went three days and on the fourth it started breaking down a bit. I decided the next trial will be wrapping it in a tortilla napkin and putting it in the fridge. Ill let you know how it goes and if you have any suggestions or experience with this let me know. Here it is folks, in this pic it looks a little dry but actually it sticks together nicely and I can even make sandwiches with it.

1 lg egg

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1 tsp honey (sometimes I add a little more)

1 Tbs butter

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups oatmeal flour (all i do is grind up oats in our coffee grinder)

1/2 cup whole oats

1 tsp instant yeast

Using the bread machine you always put the liquid in first and make sure its at least room temp. You then pile up all the dry material and make a little hole in the top so it look like a volcano. Last you put the yeast in the volcano.

In a couple hours Enjoy! Ok now I gotta go make another loaf. Iv been making at least 2 a week. lol