Fibro

I have Fibromyalgia as some of you know and I am pretty sure I have had it since I was quite young.  Say grade school or so.  I didn't get diagnosed until my very early 20's and spent a good portion of my teenage years having doctors tell me I was crazy.  It wasn't fun.  Anyway, since I was diagnosed I hardly ever go to the doctor anymore and never for my pain and other symptoms, it's just not worth it.  I mostly just deal with it and try not to over do it and live on ibuprofen when it gets really bad.  This week was a bad week.  I stayed home yesterday and almost stayed home today, but I had a meeting to go to.  I love spring weather but hate what all the ups and downs in pressure do to me.  I was feeling okay by the end of the workday tho, but when I got home I looked at the weather and realized I was only gonna have sunshine today most likely and our backyard HAD to be weed sprayed again, the first round just didn't quite cut it.  I also decided that it really needed to be mowed before I gave it a second dose so it would get to the roots this time.  Needless to say, I am now hurting again.  Oh well, it had to be done and hopefully I will be rewarded with a weed free back yard soon so I can lay grass seed and actually have lawn back there!

Where I was going with this is my boss also has fibro and has been gently pushing me to try a gluten and sugar free diet.  She has also gone vegetarian, but I'm quite sure I will never go that route unless I was going to literally die if I didn't :)  I have practically eliminated sugar already as it was starting to cause me far more problems than it was worth and am doing better for it so I am starting to wonder if going gluten free would help too.  I have also cut way back on greasy/fried foods and have noticed a good improvement from that as well.   My boss mentioned gluten again today so I did some research about gluten and fibro and found lots of accounts of people doing so much better without it.  Apparently about 1 in 7 fibro people have a gluten intolerance (not Celiac) which I found very interesting.  Maybe next time I do go to the doctor I'll see if she can run a test for it.

I talked this new idea over with my husband today and I think I may start trying to work gluten out of my diet.  Maybe.  I really love my breads and have a feeling it will not be fun, but if it helps then it helps and if I have enough of a change happen it will make it easier to stay away from it.  One article I read said to go cold turkey and stay away from gluten for at least two weeks and then try some and see what happens, but I don't know if I can do that.  With sugar I worked it out gradual and then found the more I stayed away the worse the reaction when I gave in and that has made it much easier to say no.  I may try that method with this as well.

I haven't fully committed myself to this idea yet, but I am mulling it over.  I have been trying a lot of gluten free things from my sister and a few from my boss, and they aren't all bad. My sister had to eliminate gluten from her diet as well (and practically everything else) but for much harsher health reasons.

My husband has been making some very wonderful and much healthier dinners lately and they have been wonderful and we have both been feeling better and losing weight.  He's such a great cook, anything he has attempted to make has always turned out and is always tasty with the exception of some of the baked goods he has tried, but he is a chef not a baker and you have to think quite different to do one from the other.  Cooking does not have to be exact and most times tastes much better if you only use the recipe as a guideline, where as baking you must follow the recipe precisely or it turns out like crap.  He is getting better at the baking tho.  Yummy.  But that will not help me if I choose to do this.  :)