A gluten no-go

I said to myself that I was going to try gluten products again after all the Xmas food had gone. That was a few weeks ago but I didn't get round to it until this last week. I had 3 ryvitas for lunch like I used to do to see what happened. I was OK all that afternoon, so thought I was fine. Then I had dinner. Shortly after that I got stomach pains, which got worse and worse. So, I wasn't fine with rye after all. That meant if I wasn't OK with rye, then I wouldn't be with oats. The following morning, I checked the dates on the oatcakes I had left. It was due to expire 5 days later so I emptied the contents into the bin and recycled the boxes. The remaining pack of ryvitas expires in July so I have kept that to give to my brother when I see him next. I had 6 cartons of Oat milk. I threw all those down the sink and recycled the Tetrapaks. I know it is a lot of food waste, and I normally hate throwing food away, but as it was nearly expired and I couldn't eat it anymore, I had to.

So, from now on, it is going to be gluten-free all the way from me. I shall finding out what I can eat when I go out for meals during the year and posting on here about them.

A gluten free Xmas

I know it's a little late in coming, but my mum and I had a gluten free Xmas. Here are just a few of the food goodies we ate:

We didn't eat all the crisps and potato sticks ourselves. Some of them were put out on Boxing Day when my brother et al came over. We did eat the Turkish Delight though. The peppermint creams were really nice. Will have those again next time. The box on the right at the front is Love More Free From Shortbreads. They were gorgeous and did taste of shortbread. Behind them in the middle are Kallo dark choc rice cakes. They are also v nice and not just at Xmas (lol). At the back are Love More Free From Xmas cake slices with icing on. They were lovely, too. Had a subtle and not too rich taste to them. Nice with soya custard. Under those, and you can't see, were Love More Free From mince pies. They were quite sweet and the juice from the mince was coming through the bottom of the pies. Also nice with custard. I have to say that even though I ate all of that, I didn't have any stomach problems like I have had done in the past.

The Kallo dark choc rice cakes you can get in anyway major supermarket. The Love More Free From foods came from Holland and Barretts. We will buy the cake slices again. The crisps were from Sainsbury's and the potato sticks from Lidl's.

So there you have some of what I ate gluten free at Xmas.

From now on, this blog will be focussing on either gluten and dairy free eating at home and out, and recycling issues. The next post will be about recycling Xmas.

Gluten-free - the fourth week

Well, this is the fourth week so far, and I can easily say it has been the best one. I haven't had any problems with breakfasts this week, that I can remember. I have been fine with eating millet porridge and jam. Yesterday I had cocoa rice, but not as many as the last time and I was fine with those, too. I have decided to try gluten food again until after the 25th, which is my birthday. So I can have a relaxed time. I will be going out on Tuesday, and have already chosen what I will be eating. Something gluten free, of course. I will post the photos of it later next week.

I won't be posting about how the diet is going the next couple of weeks, but what I might do is to take photos of the things I do eat, eg breadsticks and choc spread, and post them on here, so others who might need to go gluten free, can see what there is to choose from out there in the shops.

So, happy gluten-free eating to you all. Be back next week with some pictures.

3rd week of being gluten-free

This is my third week of being gluten-free. Here is how I have gone this week:

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I had toast for breakfast as I went out to places on all three days. I was fine.

Thursday: I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. I was fine, too. I sat quietly for half an hour reading afterwards.

Friday: I had cornflakes with rice milk. Thought I was fine to start with, but after a while I started to get niggly inside, then it turned into a stomach ache.

Saturday: I had cocoa rice with rice milk. I was fine with that, which surprised me because I had the same amount I had the first time when I wasn't all right.

Today: I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. I think because I worked myself into a hurry to eat it up, do things so I can get on with completing a form, that I ended up with stomach pains.

So, here is my summary of what I am going to do. I am sticking to toast whenever I am going out, as that seems to be OK with me. I am not going to have cornflakes for another month, then try them again to see what happens. I have a feeling they will not agree with me then, so will have to forget about eating them. I will continue having the cocoa rice as I like those (my mum doesn't), and might not have so many next time. I need to sit quietly after eating breakfast before I get up to do anything, and I have to not get myself worked up afterwards. I have a sensitive stomach, esp in the morning.

In the meantime, I realise that I rather like the taste of rice milk. It has a nice sweet taste to it, which oat milk doesn't. Gives the porridge a different taste; an interesting and less bland one.

So that is how I am getting on. If you are on a gluten-free diet for health reasons, like me, let me know how you are getting on.

Week 2 of being gluten-free

The second week of being gluten free is now at an end. All was going well until this morning. I had been having millet flakes with hot rice milk and some jam for breakfast on mornings when I wasn't going out and have been fine. Yesterday I had cornflakes with hot milk and I had a couple of slight twinges but nothing drastic that would warrant me dashing to a certain somewhere. Until this morning. Knowing I wasn't going out, I had already been over the road to get the paper, I had millet porridge with rice milk and jam. Half an hour later I got stomach pains and had to dash to that certain room. Now I don't know what to think. Is rice now bothering me too? I shall try it again later in the week, again when I am not going out at all that day. I shall also try cornflakes again later in the week, but not have so many and see what happens. So, I am now extending my gluten-free diet for another two weeks to see what happens next time. I seem to be fine with gluten-free oatcakes, breadsticks and bread and rolls.

I will be back next week reporting on how things are going.

A week of being gluten-free

So, I've now been having a gluten-free diet for a week. How is it going? It has had its ups and downs this week so far. I seem to be OK eating gluten-free toast with sunflower spread and marmite on. I have millet porridge with rice milk. One time I had it this week I was OK the other I had slight stomach pains after it. Yesterday, I went out for lunch, having gone to a writing talk. I had a home-made burger and fries with onions. It could have been the burger or probably the onions, as I can react to onions sometimes, but afterwards whilst I was talking to another author I got stomach pains. I rubbed my stomach and tried to find mints I knew I had in my bag. I found them in the end and had one. My pains seemed to ease after that. This morning I had gluten-free cocoa rice like rice crispies with rice milk. Because I had stomach pains when I had them before I didn't have so many this time. I still got slight stomach pains but haven't had to go to the small room like I did last week. There is one thing that I have found I can't seem to eat now - fruit and nut bars called Nked bars. I had a mint flavoured one and an orange one on different days, and both times I got stomach pains after eating it. So, I now can't eat too much fruit and nuts in one go.

I have one more week to go on this diet. I am out for the day tomorrow so will take my own lunch with me and maybe buy a bag of crisps there. My next thing to try is to have cornflakes again but with rice milk. I will try that next weekend when I am not going out the same day and the day after.

I have found that I rather like the gluten-free bread rolls by Warburton. They are much better made than the ones I had before by Sainsbury's.

Going gluten free

I have decided that for the next two weeks I am going to be gluten free. Why? Things have been happening to my diet that I don't like and I need to find out what I can and can't eat. It all started a few years ago on a last day of being at a conference. I had toast for breakfast, a roll with my lunch and toast again when I got home early evening. All that wheat didn't agree with my stomach and I had to visit a certain room a few times. Then early this year, I went out for a social meeting and had a dinner of pasta. The same thing happened. I realised that I could no longer eat proper wheat. The last month or so other grains have been having an effect on me. First it was corn. Then it was rye (I usually have ryvitas for lunch) and then it was crackers made from wheat, and lastly it was oats. So, I decided to cut out the corn first for this month, then cut out the rye and now the wheat and oats. There are alternatives. We have gluten-free bread anyway because my mum has coeliac, and I bought some gluten-free rolls by Warburton as well. For breakfast, instead of the oat milk I have, I have started to have Mum's rice milk. I have found a major difference. One day I had porridge made with rice milk and I had no stomach ache, but two days later I had it with oat milk and did have a stomach ache. The rolls are really nice so will buy more of those. For supper in the evenings, when I usually have oat cakes or wheat crackers, I have gluten-free breadsticks (which are yummy with dairy free choc spread), or gluten-free oatcakes or rice cakes, which are nice with jam or choc spread on. So I have choices. So far so good.

I shall report back in a week's time to tell you how I've got on.