My Gluten Story

I’ve Decided! It’s Time!
We’re doing the Gluten-Free, Sugar Cleanse.

I grew up on the typical children’s American diet of Mac & cheese, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and whatever latest Kellogg’s healthy cereal was being promoted at the time (Cheerios, Corn Flakes or Rice Puffs). My sister and I always had a good breakfast of one Graham Cracker with a spoonful of cream cheese and a dab of jelly on top. Off to school we went, not thinking anything of it. All seemed fine until.

The night the crisis hit. At age 11, I was struck down by an uncontrollable urge to eat and not stop until I was so stuffed I was rolling around on the floor unable to move. Why this night was different than the Friday night’s before it? I’ll never know. But this I do know, I would never be the same with food again.

An eating disorder of magnitude took over my life. For 20 years I binged uncontrollably, starved myself, binged and purged, dieted and finally gave up. The foods that were most targeted for these gouging episodes were items such as doughnuts, loaves of bread, and packages of cheese, ice cream, and sandwiches.

Notice the tendency to go for dairy, gluten and sugary products.

It wasn’t until I found myself in Overeaters Anonymous (twenty years after that first fateful night) and clean of sugar, wheat and dairy that I began to feel safe again and good in my body.

In the meantime, 20 years had been lost from a life that could have been well-lived.

After a year of clean eating I was inner guided to leave OA. I wanted to become a “normal” eater which meant no more weighing, measuring and food planning. I wanted to be free to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to eat. That intention set me on a course of healing that resulted in success. I took my trigger foods back, discovered I could eat them in moderation and still feel great and in control.

I accomplished what I set out to do and have had over 30 years of sanity with food. I eat what I want, when I want, and never ever experience cravings, feel out of control or engage in obsessive thinking or compulsive behaviors. I created the Body Way program to teach other women the skills to accomplish what I did and discovered that what I taught had a profound impact on others as well as myself.

BUT THERE IS MORE.

As I grew older, my body began to change. I noticed that I wasn’t able to exercise as much as I used to and I also noticed that every few days, if I hadn’t exercised enough to work up a good sweat, my body would feel toxic. I began to wonder if this was normal. (Just for the record, this wasn’t about body image; it was about the feeling of discomfort and toxicity I felt in my body that didn’t seem right.)

As I grew older still, I noticed that my tolerance for certain foods began to decrease. After menopause, I began to experience arthritic inflammatory hip pain and stiffness. I made a special trip to John of God seeking help for the hip pain and got it! (More at my John of God Blog). When I came home I felt great for a couple of months. Then the inflammation slowly started to return. I noticed a correlation between increased dairy and inflammation. I eliminated dairy and immediately felt better again. The final shock occurred when I experimented with bagels 3 mornings in a row. After the 3rd day of bagel breakfasts my body went into severe cramping. Although my nutritionist warned me to stay off gluten, even in small amounts, I had to find out myself.

As I get older, stronger and healthier, I’m excited to explore what else is possible. What might the hidden quantities of sugar I consume be doing to my body? How great can I really allow myself to feel?

If you choose to join me for the gluten-free sugar cleanse, we can share our experiences. If it’s not right for you at this time, you can watch how I do with it here at my blog.