The Panacea

The potatoes are liking their home in the re-purposed stock tank

Since cutting gluten out of my diet 3 months ago I've experienced some remarkable changes. I lost the 10 pounds I've been wanting to lose for years. My wrinkles have smoothed out. My gray hairs have been replaced by brown. My singing voice has become amazing and I am thinking about joining a band.

No, not really.

Okay, now for real, these are the changes I have noticed: I've lost 5 of the 10 pounds I've been wanting to lose for years. My back feels better. My gums which were a bit inflamed aren't anymore. My gut feels good. My skin seems clearer. My lifelong affinity for sweets has abated (but hasn't disappeared). So that's pretty good, even without the singing voice.

More on my back.... My mid-back has been giving me problems for years. There seems to be just one activity that aggravates it: doing the dishes. I think our sink is too low for my 5'9" stature. I actually enjoy washing dishes so its not psychosomatic. (I enjoy washing dishes so much that although we have a dishwasher I have never used it. I've actually never used a dishwasher in my life and truth be told, I am a bit intimidated by them. I always feel like there is some secret to loading them and that I should have a dishwasher training session before I can be trusted to do it correctly.) A few dishes didn't bother it but every time I finished a whole sink-load, I would have to ask my husband for a crack. This meant he would stand facing me and embrace me with both arms around my mid-back and squeeze. This invariably produced several loud cracks that immediately relieved my discomfort. I even trained my 6 year old son to crack it by walking on it. As I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes, I would need cracking anywhere from 1 to 3 times a day, every day! I knew it wasn't a good situation but I really didn't know to rectify it.

Well, a couple months into the gluten-free experiment, I realized that I hadn't felt the need for a crack in a long time. Now another month has passed without a request for a crack! So it appears that something about eating gluten was causing inflammation in my joints, gums, skin, and belly. 

I went ahead and had a blood test done to test for celiac disease indicators recently, but from what I understand those mostly come back negative. I haven't received the results yet. It would only be interesting to me if it were positive, which I doubt. I just think I am one of the growing number of people who develop an issue with it and/or realize how much better their body feels and functions without it.

So, for now life continues......gluten-free and happy.
Enjoy!

*Update*
December 1, 2012: Now approximately 8 months gluten-free. I have lost 15 of the 10 pounds I had vaguely wanted to lose for years. I feel lean and strong and clear-headed. I still have not once asked to have my back cracked after doing the dishes! My eye-glass prescription has stabilized (coincidence?) and gum inflammation has been reversed.