I’m Gluten Free & Happy :)

I’m back after a 2 months hiatus! I’ve revamped my blog a little and have a clearer vision of what I want to post about. So stay tuned and keep coming back. 🙂

Today I want to share how difficult the Christmas holidays have been for me & my health. Last year I made huge changes in my life to be healthier, and this included being gluten free, almost dairy free and cutting on sugar a lot. Although it was a bit difficult at the beginning, I never regretted it, because I felt SO much better!! Just to sum up what my life was before :

– I’d wake up in the morning having stomach pains, feeling bloated & wondering why!
– I’d have stomach pain all day long, would feel bloated all day long and could not digest anything at all.
– I’d go to bed with a stomach ache and would feel bloated.

This was my daily routine. I was sick all the time, I’d go to the doctor often and would stuff my body with tons of medicines. I felt awfully tired & had no energy at all.

Then in early 2013, after I got sick again, I made some research online and read a lot about gluten intolerance. I decided to give it a try & noticed amazing changes on the very first day! My stomach felt “light”, the pain was gone and other symptoms that I had no idea were related to it disappeared, too (i.e. migraines, skin irritation… ). For some people it may mean nothing, but to me it was a huge change to finally spend one day without any pain!

I started to enjoy life again. I gained more energy. I fell in love with food again & started to enjoy cooking!

Unfortunately, many people have a bad reaction when I tell them about my diet changes. Being gluten free appears so difficult & horrible for them. Yes it was a bit difficult for me, too, at the beginning. I had to change completely how I thought about food before, reorganize my kitchen, learn new recipe… It wasn’t easy! But it definitely was worth it!

So then came the Christmas holidays. Although I’m happy to be gluten free, almost dairy free and a lot healthier, I didn’t want to impose anything to my family & friends during the holidays. So I just went with the flow, so to speak, cooking & eating things that I had not touched in months. Of course it was awful… I gained a lot of weight, got bloated again and had this horrible stomach pain all the time. I felt sad that after spending so many months doing efforts & feeling well, I’d actually ruin everything in only 2 weeks!

When 2014 finally came and I went back to my healthy routine, I started to feel better and promised myself to stop feeling guilty about this. Being gluten free is not a shame, it’s not a burden, it’s awesome because I feel so much better! Knowing where my issues came from and be able to heal them is not a punishment : it’s a blessing!!

On January 23rd, I celebrated my birthday. Last Saturday, I had a dinner with friends & family. This time, I had promised myself to have a gluten free dinner, but NOT tell anybody. I didn’t want them to apprehend the food, but wanted to surprise them with that! To be fully honest, the meals were not the healthiest ones out there, but they were all gluten free at least. I bought gluten free appetizers & made a chestnut mousse with some gluten free speculoos biscuits for dessert. Everybody ate everything & everybody seemed to LOVE everything. It’s only at the end that I told them that everything was gluten free! I wanted to show them that being gluten free can be yummy, too. 😉

This was a small victory for me. I’m proud of taking care of my health and want to show that people can enjoy food & life while being healthy at the same time! 😉

For those who are wondering if they have any gluten intolerance symptom, check this short list out on this website :

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7482/10-signs-youre-gluten-intolerant.html

I will soon be posting recipes that are gluten free, too. So stay tuned! 🙂 And a happy new year! 😀

My Zen Spot. I got the bonsai tree for my birthday. 🙂