It’s Monday. My brain is a little tired from the weekend so I’m not going to get too deep on ya! I just thought I’d talk about what’s been on my mind lately, and that’s the challenge I’ve given myself to eat gluten free. My disclaimer would be this: I’m not making any promises!! 
During our 7 Day Juice Fast (you can read about it in previous blog posts) I felt incredible! That was a little odd to me being that most fasts cause you to feel bad the first few days. I never felt bad. In fact, I felt better than usual. After we broke the fast my system had a hard time returning to normal. That’s when I decided that maybe I shouldn’t go back to normal. I’ve always struggled with minor digestive issues so maybe I should try to doing something different. That’s when I thought about trying out eating gluten free. There are quite a few ladies in our church that eat this way so I started asking a few questions. This is what I’ve learned so far:
- Eating gluten free can be a little more expensive, especially if you are a carb eater.
- Use gluten free ready flour mixes for baking. Don’t try to make your own mix of flours if you’re not knowledgeable of what each flour does (which I am not!). I bought a pancake/waffle mix and absolutely LOVE it. So do my kids which is a big winner for me! I also bought a muffin mix. I made banana/choc. chip and banana/blueberry muffins already. The texture was more like a mixture between a normal muffin and corn bread but the taste was pretty good. My kids liked those too.
- Jason’s Deli has a gluten free menu. The bread is surprisingly pretty good.
-Walmart has a small section devoted to all gluten free products (cookies, pastas, flour, cereal, etc.).
- The clothing store, Altered State, has a cookbook called “Baby Cakes” that I hear is great for gluten free sweets recipes. I plan to get that.
I have no idea how long I will keep this up, but I’d like to see if it helps! I will let you know!
I welcome any advice or ideas if you’ve gone the gluten free route.
Until next time…. XO
So want to chat about this with you. I have tried it off and on and am actually just going back on it. Would love any more advice you have gained. I try to be dairy free too.
That’s great, Laurel! So far, I’m new at it. My knowledge is limited so it’s a bit trial and error for me. The recipe book I mentioned has a section in the front that lists gluten free type flours and what they do. I’m just trying to stay off breads, etc. and use these mixes because they are “almost” fail proof!
FYI: the muffins don’t rise as well, but I can deal with that. I’ll tell you who is pretty knowledgeable, Genessa Newberry. You should also probe her brain a bit!
HI!
I have actually eaten gluten free for over two years now because of an intolerance. It DOES make you feel much better but isn’t always easy to stick to, especially when friends seem to always order pizza! I must confess, I do cheat occasionally, but there are so many alternatives now that it’s really not too difficult to be a faithful non-gluten eater.
I’m one of your faithful blog readers
Here are some tricks of the trade that I’ve learned over the years:
Did you know that gluten intollerance often causes dairy intollerance? So if that bothers your digestion too, cut them both out for a few weeks then add dairy back and you’ll probably find it doesn’t bother you at all anymore!
I eat lots of cereal as a snack when I’m craving something sweet or grainy. Rice krispies, kix, chex… Pretty much anything that is rice or corn based is pretty safe. I’m not as strict as some people about it having to say ‘gluten free’ but just check the ingredients. There may be little glutens snuck in there but it won’t kill us, right?!
One thing to be careful with. Often when we replace wheat with rice and corn products we miss out on the whole grain factor. If you are not intollerant of gluten, remember that the nutrition in whole grain breads is often higher than in gluten free products. It may be a good idea to make sure you’re taking a multi-vitamin to compensate for the lack in whole grains while you’re going gluten free.
Also, skittles, starburst and most chocolate is gluten free! Thank you Jesus
Good luck! It definitely gets easier, and you’ll be amazed by how much better you feel!
Love Rebecca
Wow Rebecca! I love all your information. That’s exciting about the cereal. I love it as a snack as well. I will be sure to occasionally update how it’s going. Thx for the encouragement & thx for reading!! Xo