Good morning, everyone. Just wanted to report that I did walk for 40 minutes yesterday. And here's the kicker - I finished my book with almost 10 minutes left to do and I did it without anything to read! Seemed to take 100 years, but I did it. I burned 300 calories and felt okay when I got done. So I'm pretty proud of that - reading and getting into the story helps me get the treadmill time done (even more than music - that's one big reason the treadmill is so much easier for me than walking outside), so kicking out that last 10 minutes without a book (even though it doesn't sound like a big deal or a lot of time) was pretty major stuff for me. I really wanted to hit the 40-minute mark (and then I wanted to hit the 300 calories burned mark, so I went about 10-15 seconds over 40 minutes just for that). I am going to stay at 40 minutes for a few days, I think - because of time constraints, I don't think I can go much beyond 45 minutes anyway (takes too much time to change clothes, walk, shower and re-dress, re-apply makeup, eat lunch and get back to my desk in the time I have if I walk more than 45 minutes). So I'm going to hang at this time for a bit and then go up the 5 more minutes I have available to me. I plan to monitor my heart rate, too, and I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to increase my speed a bit, but for now I'm more concerned with staying in that fat-burning range - after all, I'm not training for an event or anything, I'm just trying to get healthier! I think it's noteworthy that I realized last night how quickly this exercise routine has become a priority for me again. How do I know? Larry kept the car yesterday to second-job hunt (the van uses too much gas to ride around town in), so he picked me up from the park and ride yesterday evening. We had a Bible study meeting last night that starts at 7:30, so I had about an hour to get home, make dinner, eat, change clothes and get to where I had to be. However, the book that I finished that day on the treadmill was my last one, so I had thrown all my books in the car and asked Larry to stop at the library so I could turn them in and check out more. He didn't think I'd have time, but I flew in the library, threw my books in the return bin, raced through my favorite section, grabbed a few books, checked them out and was back in the car in 5 minutes!! (I know, I timed myself.
) I still made the meeting on time, and I felt good knowing I had a new book to bring with me today for my walk. So I think that's pretty cool - planning ahead for something means you value it enough to make sure it happens, and that's the proof that you're serious about getting it accomplished!
Okay, enough patting myself on the back. The rest of this post is going to be addressed primarily to Debra's comments above and the celiac issue, so if you're not interested in that, you have my permission to stop reading now!!
Hi, Debra!
I totally understand where you're coming from. I like to learn about new things, too, so if what I'm about to tell you is more than you wanted to know about my life with celiac, it's your own fault - you asked for it!!
And I have to say, I'm majorly impressed that you remembered all of the stuff I've said about celiac already - I am honored that you care enough to take that much time over my ramblings!
I had never heard of celiac disease until early spring of 2007, when my doctor diagnosed me with it. When I started on this new dietary path, all I knew was that I needed to avoid wheat, barley, rye and oats. It seemed simple enough - little did I know! The internet is a great thing - I learned a tremendous amount by reading about others' experiences. What I didn't learn by reading, I learned through my own personal experience and a lot of trial and error. Everyone is a little different. Some people respond more violently to certain foods than others. For instance, while Tara and I both get sick when we encounter gluten cross contamination and/or sloppy food preparation issues, I respond much more violently than she does. She has diarrhea and nausea for a few hours and then she's okay (not that she or I want that to happen - it's certainly not pleasant no matter what - but it is usually a matter of a few hours for her). I am in the bathroom and bed for at least one whole day, and usually still don't feel well for one more day. If we accidentally eat a gluten-containing food (like the Costco debacle), she is down in bed for one full day and doesn't feel well for another day. I am down in bed for at least two days and don't feel well for another 2-3 days. With the dairy, I have diarrhea and nausea for a few hours, but then I'm okay. She gets violently ill and stays that way for at least 1-2 days. So there's no way to predict the severity of a reaction or how long it will last until it happens. Then you pretty much know what you're in for once you discover an accidental exposure.
Sometimes I get the feeling that there are those who think I go a little overboard with the vigilance for cross contamination issues (not anyone in my family or on the boards, by any means, just casual acquaintances that I might chat with at work or wherever). I don't think they understand how easily contamination can happen and how sick it makes us. The way I explain it (to those who really want to understand the problem) is this: The last time you bought a bag or box of croutons for salad, did you notice what was left at the bottom when you finished them? Yep, lots of "dust" - fine, powdery, gluten-containing dust. And while all gluten-containing foods don't have "dust" you can see, gluten can be transferred from all of them very easily - from a cooking surface (grill or pan), from cooking oil (when a food is fried behind a gluten-containing food), from a food preparation surface (counter, cutting board, mixing bowl), from a TOASTER (remember my toaster story from our last WDW trip??) - lots of ways. So each time Tara or I get sick, we try hard to figure out how it happened so we can avoid the problem in the future. That's the only way to make our food supply as safe as possible for us - trial and error.
So back to my journey with this. As I said above, I started out avoiding the "big four" and thought I was doing fairly well with it pretty quickly. I learned what to look for on food labels (things like malt, which is made from barley - so no malt vinegar, ready-made cereals (since even rice-based cereals have malt in them), candy with malt in it (like Milky Way candy bars), etc.). I also learned that MSG was something we needed to stay away from, since we seem to be fairly sensitive to that, as well. As I cut out items that contained gluten (and eventually dairy), I started to feel better - my doctor calls this "reducing the load." This means that you are reducing the foods that your body doesn't digest normally, and allowing your digestive function to begin slowly returning to normal. As my body began to respond to my new way of eating, it became more apparent to me when I would accidentally ingest something that contained gluten because I started getting sick - really sick. It was like now that my body had experienced being rid of the nasty stuff
it didn't want to have to deal with it ever again. The first time I got sick from gluten exposure after I started eating gluten-free was when we went out for our anniversary - three weeks after the start of my new way of eating. We went to a restaurant that had a gluten-free menu on their website, which I printed and took with me. I didn't know then that I needed to talk to a manager, so I just told the server what I needed and thought that was all I had to do. Well, the kitchen messed up my food somehow (I don't know if it was in the preparation or what - I didn't see a problem with the food itself, but they apparently did not follow proper precautions when making it) and I was sick as a dog the next day. That's when I realized that this gluten-free thing was going to be much harder than I thought when I started with it!
Here are some things that have happened to us that underscore why the cross-contamination thing is so important:
We ordered Chinese food one night several months ago, and when we got it they had included a bag of cheese wontons with it. We did not order them, so we don't know if they put them in the wrong order or if they were a freebie. At any rate, Tara LOVES cheese wontons. She had only been eating gluten free for a short time at that point, and she was so heartbroken that she couldn't eat them. She took one out of the bag and smelled it, looking at it longingly (yes, we love our food at my house!!). She gave me a look like "Would it really hurt to have just one?" I smiled and said, "Your call, sweetie" but she knew she would be sick, so she heaved a deep sigh and put the wonton back in the bag. Larry ate a couple of them and we threw the rest away. Only thing was, she didn't wash her hands before she ate the gluten-free meal we had ordered for she and I - so she got sick anyway. She was so mad! "I didn't eat the stupid wonton and I still got sick - I should have just eaten it!" Of course, I reminded her that if she had realized she should wash her hands before she ate, she wouldn't be sick, but I did understand where she was coming from! So now, we try to avoid even handling gluten-containing food - for instance, if Larry wants a sandwich and I am already standing at the kitchen counter, I would normally make it for him since I'm already there. But now I don't, and he doesn't want me to, because of the danger of handling the bread and then getting my hands near my mouth before I remember to wash them.
She and I have both gotten sick from using mayonnaise and peanut butter that Larry had previously used for sandwiches for himself, where he stuck the knife into the jar after touching the bread (to get more mayonnaise or peanut butter for his sandwich), thus leaving gluten in the jar. Now we have two jars of peanut butter (we like crunchy and he likes creamy, so that's not much of a hardship) and he always remembers to use a spoon for mayonnaise and shake the mayonnaise off the spoon so that it falls onto his bread, then uses a knife to spread it, thus not touching the bread with the spoon in case he needs more.
She and I both got sick after eating a chicken salad with walnuts at Steak 'n Shake, but that wasn't their fault. I did not check out the ingredients list on their website as closely as I should have. The salad had grilled chicken, veggies and walnuts. Should have been fine, right? Wrong! It had CANDIED walnuts, which have flour in the candied coating. Who knew? We know now!
And of course, you already know about the infamous toaster incident alluded to above. So while it does seem overwhelming at first, I just take it one "incident" at a time and once you weave that experience into your life, you know what you're looking for and it just becomes what you do. As for the makeup and personal hygiene stuff, I first learned about that from the internet and it is important, too. Here's why: One person I read about had a reaction from a lipstick. It had wheat germ oil in it as a source of vitamin E. Oatmeal is in some body wash and hair care products, and that can present a problem. That's just two examples I can think of off the top of my head. Now, it's true that gluten has to be ingested to cause us harm - it is not absorbed through the skin. However, think about how easy it would be to have soap or shampoo on your hands and brush your mouth accidentally. An even more likely scenario is this: you use facial cleanser, moisturizer and/or makeup products with gluten in them, and someone who has celiac kisses you on your cheek. Now they potentially have gluten on their lips - not a good thing. And since we are very demonstrative in our family, Tara and I kiss each other on the cheek at least twice a day - sometimes more if we feel like it - so we would be doing ourselves a huge disservice not to address this potential problem.
Whew! That was a lot of information, but it is a glimpse into how we go about this gluten/dairy free business. Thanks again for caring enough to be interested! And as for the gluten free brownie (glad you liked the one you tried!), I use a gluten free/dairy free brownie mix I found at Kroger (Whole Foods also has it) that you make with eggs and vegetable oil. The brownies are very good, but the mix is pretty expensive (and I certainly don't need the extra calories), so we only have them as a treat on rare occasions.
And as for your "nosy" questions, LOL, Tara is doing well, thank you for asking. She is busy with her job, but enjoys the work. It is interesting that she is the youngest one on the staff, but she seems to be the one they depend on when anyone needs help. She works with a few people who have issues with stepping up to the plate when the workload gets heavy, but I guess that's true everywhere. She is slowly learning that, while her patience with these folks wears thin, all she can do is the best job she can do and then leave it behind her when she comes home. She must be doing okay - every time we take our animals in for shots/check-ups, the vet raves and raves about what a great job she is doing. And, of course, Larry and I think she's wonderful anyway, so we eat that up!!
As for taking Boo to the beach, never in a million years! My side of the family are not animal people, and it would not go well if we were to bring any four-legged friends with us. To be honest, I'm not an animal person either, but I've learned to put up with it because the alternative is to get a divorce and start over, and after 24 years together, that for sure ain't happenin'!! So Boo will get boarded with the other animals, and although she won't like it, she will be fine until we get home - her mom will see to it that she gets the best care possible, and with her work contacts, she can do that!
Wow, I wrote another book today. Oh, well, it's not like you didn't see it coming! Hope everyone has a great day - I'll check in again soon.
Susan
I hope you are feeling much better now.
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You've found the patterns that work for you in terms of gear and timing. And you're working at the fat-burning HR (yes, ever so important) and adding time. I believe you've been making quick progress, especially given your work and home schedule challenges (new freelance work, commute, household-relocation projects). So great, great news! 
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while I was over her updating my journal.
