Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Wheat Free Living Helpful Recipe Books


My primary M.D. told me back in November when we saw her for my son's 6 month wellness check about the book, Wheat Belly.  We were discussing my endometriosis and if she thought I should go back to the diet I had been on before ever trying to have a family.  She mentioned two books to me.  Wheat Belly and Endometriosis by a Dr. Shepherdson.  I read the Endometriosis one first but that told me nothing new.  I then picked up Wheat Belly from our local Target.  That proved to be very informative.

Wheat wreaks so much havoc on all of our lives, not just those of us who have endometriosis.  I realized back in February of 2012 how wheat can make me go crazy!  I was pregnant with my son Noah at the time and I failed the first test for gestational diabetes.  So in order to confirm they make you eat 100+ grams of carbs (primary wheat) for 3 days in a row.  I was so cranky, moody, and just out right out of control.  I would get so mad at the littlest things, throwing things, yelling at my husband with no control.  I could see it happening like I was watching from outside of my body and then ding, ding, ding.  It hit me.  This used to happen to me in high school.  I'd go into these fits and I hated them yet I never knew what triggered them.  It was wheat.  In high school I ate a lot of wheat noodles in various dishes, pizza, sandwiches, etc.  I would just sit and cry afterwords.  My mom even sent me to therapy but we never figured out it was wheat.  When I realized this back in Februray I called my mom and said I know why I had all those fits in high school!  What a wake up call!

So they did confirm with me with gestational diabetes.  I learned fast that everything I was used to eating no longer could I eat as it would make my blood sugars spike.  I did a lot of online research.  I came across Elana's Pantry  boy was this a helpful site.  Recipes helped me the most in creating breakfast foods and desserts using almond flour vs wheat flour.  I ate almond flour items as much as I could and was available, so primarily in my kitchen only.

As soon as my son was born I went back to the traditional way of eating until I read Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD.  Again, that ding, ding, ding sounded in my head.  Why in the world did I ever go back to traditional eating, more or less because I was no longer gestational diabetic.  I still weigh more than I did before I got pregnant and eating wheat isn't helping lose the extra weight.  I did pretty good in the month of December not eating wheat, I lost quite a bit of weight.  Then Christmas came with all those scrumptious wheat filled cookies, bars, candies, and I gained it all back.

Christmas morning brought "The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook" by Elana Amsterdam, the wonderful lady who has Elana's Pantry.  And I had been waiting for Christmas Eve to come and go so "The Wheat Belly Cookbook, " would be released.  I just picked up my very own copy last week at Barnes and Noble.  

So what is stopping me from going full on almond flour vs wheat?  I needed to order more almond flour.  Our local whole foods co-op only sells very small quantities for the very same price I can buy large quantities online.  But don't fret, I just purchased 10 lbs from nuts.com today.  

Oh I'm so excited!!!  Between both books I should be able to bake bread, flat bread (sub sandwiches), french toast, pancakes, cookies, etc all while feeling good and losing weight!  I do have some almond flour left though the difference between what I have and what I ordered is that what I ordered is blanched meaning it doesn't have the skin on it and isn't as heavy.  The non-blanched almond flour is great for heavier baking like cookies and cakes.  I want to use the blanched for breads.

Now my only hope is that my son won't be allergic to nuts so he'll never have to be introduced to wheat and its harmful side effects!

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