Health-a-licious

In the county town I live in we have 1 and 1/2 endocrinologists. 1 neurologist office and 1 pain specialist. In fact today, I was told that the doctors my PA (Physicians Assistant) tried to refer me to are not accepting new patients. You can imagine the hard time I have had finding doctors I like and who are knowledgeable. I have been looking for a natropath and the only one is one hour away. There are the general chiropractors and asyria specialists that sell vitamins and pills. I have tried those "healing" remedies from age 19-43 without any positive difference in health. To my delight and surprise, I was blessed to find a PA who believes in treating the whole person. Including recommending, natural vitamins and food. Today she confirmed that many people are now having a sensitivity to wheat. She said many people are going to the "clean" eating and are feeling better. She defined clean as "not processed foods". It seems difficult to cook"clean

Since the first day I started gluten-free. I have notice my food is digesting immediately. My system is also making much more noise. LOL. I am a little afraid to eat in public. I thought maybe it was just because I was eating so many grapes. I have found it is after every meal for about a half hour. The neat thing about this immediate digestion is that my stomach area is not bloated all day like it used to be. I do notice tummy bloat if I eat just a little bit of gluten on accident. For example, you would think beef jerky would be gluten free. apparently not. I ate a little. It tasted delicious. I didn't realize it had any gluten. The next morning I woke up with a funny taste in my mouth and a bloated tummy all day long. I didn't put two and two together until I read the back of the beef jerky packaging. Warning: Contains wheat and soy. My PA (Physician's Assistant) says my headaches will often get worse with major nausea. I am hoping the gluten free will help the di

Hey Hey...still testing recipes here. To see what we like and what we don't like. In a month and a half what I have found is that when you say gluten-free, the people closest to you feel they have to adjust their diet with you. It is a minor annoyance or hindrance for them to be mindful of your diet. When I started gluten-free I truly believed it would affect only me and my health. I have found that it effects others around you as well. We have been eating healthier due to being gluten-free, but mainly because I am cooking everything. I am a lazy cook. My biggest pet peeve is spending 3 hours in the kitchen and then eating the results in 15 minutes. I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible with the maximum results. Not that I don't like the kitchen. I love my kitchen. White Corian counter tops that I always wanted with matching cutting boards. Maple cabinets. Side bar at the counter for eating. So cute. Here are a couple of the tips and recipes that I have

I started this blog to find a connection between headaches, health issues and food. My physicians know my headache issues come from a combination of hormone issues and nausea as a major symptom. I was hoping to find a connection between how my stomach digests gluten to see if it affects headache. So far no such luck. For the first month of gluten-free eating I had more energy, was up early going to bed late. 2nd month of gluten-free, I have had a headache for now 11 days in a row. Sporadic sleeping. Up late. Up early. Daily napping. I am noticing my face is very swollen. Last month I thought maybe the swollen face symptom was from gluten and that the gluten digestion symptom created headaches. This month I don't believe it is the problem. So this morning, I thought, 11 days into this headache. I know it is not gluten. These Angry Birds graham cracker cookies look so cute, I will eat a couple. 3 cookies in my stomach started feeling a small shooting pain. Man-o-man. Okay..so

Oh..how I love chips. Not plain potato chips. Doritos. Combos, pretzels, Tostitos, Sunchips. Not the greatest thing to eat on a normal lifestyle diet. Definitely not on the gluten-free diet. Almost every chip has some kind of wheat flour. Cheetos has no wheat flour. Potato chips have no wheat flour. Blue corn chips have no wheat flour. But, those aren't my favs. So instead, I have decided to make my own. Just use real potatoes, a food processor, olive oil and salt. Sooooo yummy. Use a stainless frying pan. Cook to taste. Simple. Have a Happy Healthy Day. Christine Summers

My search for healthy delicious foods had to include juicing, right? I don't do smoothies from juice bars because I am allergic to mango. So, I thought I would try juices from the grocery before I tried juicing at home. I tried Odwalla years ago and a couple other brands. They seemed very sugary and not filling. I saw some newer brands and the ingredients are healthy and filled with foods I love. Spinach and broccoli and green, green green veggies. Thought I would try a couple. Yuck, yuck and yuck. Healthy? Maybe. Definitely not delicious. Evolution: I felt like my dogs in the back yard eating grass on a hot summer day. And not sweet grass. Old dry grass. My husband described it as grass that had been stuck underneath the lawn mower, scraped off and then juiced. Synergy: If I were to put a description to it: Like sipping slimey sand that has no flavor through a straw. I would rather sprinkle the chia seeds on salad or bake with them. Bolthouse: The texture was that of a b

I love to snack. Ha ha ha ha. It's an uphill climb. I love to snack. It makes me a merrier me. (Sing to the tune of "I love to laugh" from the movie Merry Poppins) I also love pretzels. My fav is pretzels dipped in salsa. Yummy. I could almost eat an entire bag at a time. I found these amazing pretzels from Glutino. Gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free, casein-free. Completely delicious. Salty, crunchy. I ate an entire half bag today. I have eaten 3 bags in 3 weeks. One for each week I have been gluten-free. My husband has decided he loves them too and so do my folks. So much so we had to have 3 bags at the house just in case we feel like snacking. There is a new yogurt out that is a dip. My fav is cucumber and dill. So yummy on those amazing Glutino Pretzels. I am also digging grapes. My new fav fruit snack. Here's the kicker. I went to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ft. Wayne is known to be a product and advertising test market because of it's Americana demographic