Eating Gluten Cost Me an Additional 30 pounds, Joint Issues, $4000, an Apartment Move and My Freedom

I have talked about my gluten-free lifestyle briefly on my website, but I wanted to really dive deeper into my story in order to really talk about the severity of my gluten-intolerance. I want to share my story because I think it could help others to start to think about following their gut, literally.

4 years ago in the middle of a hot summer I was packing one night for my upcoming study abroad trip and felt sharp pains all over my stomach. I thought it was strange and googled what could cause this, and of course found nothing useful. I decided to eat a sandwich to help get something healthy in my body (I used whole-wheat bread) and hoped that it was a one-off situation. Hours later I felt worse and started sweating profusely, I decided to go to the ER. At the ER they did x-rays, blood tests and an ultrasound with the wonderful news that I was perfectly healthy. It seemed strange to me that this visit cost almost 3,000 and nothing was found. I started to think about if there were other times I experienced a similar pain and panic feeling. I grew up my whole life with a very troubled stomach that doctors could identify a real issue with. When I started to think about that summer, I realized that I had more stomach pain than usual and I seemed to be a lot more tired.

After the ER visit I just dismissed everything given the doctors told me I was great. That month I gained 30 pounds without any change in my diet and activity level...I felt so strange about the whole situation. I also noticed that my stomach was bloated and seemed to hold most of the weight. I went to doctors again and took a pregnancy test that was the only thing they thought it could be. Of course I wasn't pregnant and felt discouraged that I was gaining so much weight and the doctors weren't concerned. 1 month later I headed out to the UK for my study abroad trip and decided to just workout more once I settled in.

My study abroad group took a trip to Ireland that September and to save money we decided to have a spaghetti night where we cooked spaghetti in order to have more money for beer. That night I had 2 plates and felt great, until 2 hours later when I was laying on the bathroom floor. I won't go into the details, but I spent the night in the bathroom having a ton of issues while everyone else felt fine. How could I be the only one so sick? When this happened one of my friends that I met in the program mentioned agluten intolerance. I told her that was impossible, I ate bread with every meal and grew up eating bread. She suggested I was intolerant and maybe I should give it up. My grandmother also had mentioned something like this a month before, but I dismissed it..I was tested for celiac..and I wasn't!

Even though the idea seemed stupid I decided to give it up for a week to see if anything felt different, and it did. I wasn't as sleepy..I wasn't rushing to the bathroom after every meal, and I wasn't so moody. I gave it up for 2 weeks with even better results. I still ate gluten occasionally while I was abroad, I mean I went to Italy after all, but limited it. This seemed to work fabulously for me and my digestive symptoms went away.

Fast forward a year and I was eating gluten once a week or so without any issue except slight discomfort. My 30 pounds was lost and my energy was high but my knees started aching excessively just from walking. I gave up squatting and decided to not workout. My knees got worse. I went to the doctor and got an anti-inflammatory and x-rays, nothing unusual except inflammation. It got to the point where I couldn't walk down our stairs anymore though at our apartment that didn't have an elevator. I was under house arrest for 2 weeks where I couldn't leave really. We decided to break our lease (for about 1000) and move to an apartment with an elevator. My knees got better but still would ache randomly.

On my honeymoon I decided to "let loose" and eat gluten every day because after all it was a vacation. The entire time we were on our honeymoon my stomach hurt every moment. I was bloated and couldn't go to the bathroom for a whole week. I thought to myself, "What will one week of misery do anyway?"

4 months later my wrists started hurting just picking up my purse. I wore a wrist brace to work, and struggled to use them in daily activity. Again I gave up the gym hoping it would help, but it didn't. I went to the best hand specialist in Houston hoping for some solution. We did x-rays and he said my wrists were highly inflamed but couldn't pin point why, I was sent to a rheumatologist. After hundreds of dollars of tests nothing came back, only the fact that I had inflammation in my joints. Then he started asking me if my gums were swollen, I said yes; he asked if I experienced lower back pain, I said yes; he asked if I got mouth sores often, I said yes; he asked if I was sensitive to gluten, I said yes. He said he saw patients that were sensitive to gluten has inflammation all over their body even though they weren't celiac. He said chronic inflammation could cause permanent damage to parts of my body and suggested giving gluten up for real, meaning not eating any of it ever.

I cried because I loved gluten, my favorite foods were gluten; my favorite hobby was baking cupcakes and eating them all by myself. I also realized (with my husband's support) that gluten was taking away my freedom to live a happy life. What if I couldn't use my wrists to type anymore? What kind of job could I get where I don't have any wrist movement or use of my knees? What kind of life would I live if I never got to rock climb, or run around outside, or get under the squat rack? What kind of life was I living eating gluten and being sick and depressed. Gluten had taken away my freedom in every way I could think of.

I have been gluten-free for over a year now where I don't eat it at all, unless it's a complete accident. My wrists are much better, and I still struggle with my left wrist, but we suspect there is permanent damage to the tissue. I could pay another 3000 to have an MRI to confirm it, but I would rather travel. My knees never hurt and my stomach is so happy, I can feel it. My gums don't bleed when I brush my teeth anymore and I don't feel randomly depressed.

Choosing to give up gluten changed my life. I started eating all natural foods and focusing on preserving my body so I could do the things I enjoy. I started to look at life differently; that our daily choices affect the quality of our lives and sometimes the effects can't be reversed.

The great thing is that gluten-free products and awareness are increasing rapidly. 3 years ago I couldn't find much gluten-free food, but now it is getting increasingly common that I can actually eat pasta again (made with rice of course)! Travelling was a huge concern of mine, but it turns out Europe has gluten-free bakeries popping up in Paris, Rome, London and Greece.

I am going to Chicago next week and will have my own Chicago Deep Dish pizza experience.

I wrote this not to encourage everyone to give up gluten, because unless you are intolerant you shouldn't, instead I wrote this to share my story. Don't let poor diet choices take away your freedom! Eating cake made me feel so happy in the moment, but I felt like I was paying for that decision the rest of that entire day. Choose to live a FREE healthy life where you make decisions that will keep your body in good shape well into your 80s.

If you have doubts about what your body doesn't like, just go with your gut...literally.

xoxoxo

#glutenfree