Going Gluten-Free
"Why are you gluten-free Chelsea? I used to watch you down a couple of slices of pizza, eat 3 slices of garlic bread with your pasta, and kill those Firehouse meatball Subs...What the hell happened?" What happened was my digestive system finally said, actually it SCREAMED.. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For as long as I can remember I have never been able to tolerate dairy products. This wasn't a huge deal for me because I never liked milk or ice cream all that much but cheese on the other hand. Oh cheese you delectable thing you!!! Honestly I knew I shouldn't be eating cheese throughout my life but I just dealt with the consequences for about a week or so. As long as I was still avoiding ice cream and substituting milk for Lactaid Milk I would be fine right? Maybe I will grow out of this eventually right? UM wrong! You know when your parents used to tell you that things go to shit when you get older well that includes your digestive malfunctions.
Back to the story, so I continued to eat the cheesiest of pizzas, the extra cheesiest of mac n cheese (Would even eat that liquid gold crack velveeta makes), and maybe crush a box of cheese puffs while doing it! I would always enjoy the moments during eating these amazing things but 30 minutes after digesting my food BOOM I'm losing the battle yet again. I can admit I never had the best eating habits and was never really introduced to home cooked meals until later in life. Growing up I was raised by a single Dad (Who did a Hell of an amazing job) he has always been an extremely hard worker and worked very long hours meaning we ate out EVERY SINGLE DAY I'm not kidding or exaggerating every single day. Example: Breakfast @ Hardee's, Lunch @ Wendy's, Dinner @ Five Guys that's pretty much how our dietary routine went for YEARS at the Graham residence. At least until my beautiful Step-Mom came into the picture and introduced us to pots and pans and vegetables, basically foods other than Ramen.
However in 2014 I was diagnosed with a heart condition that they believe was mild Tricuspid Regurgitation and my blood pressure was through the roof. Years of eating processed food doesn't help that out much either. I was told to cut out the processed food, the high sodium foods, and stop eating that Ramen. So as time went by I got a little better and started cooking at home. It wasn't until 2016 that I actually started eating better. My cardiologist put me on the Mediterranean diet so since March of last year I haven't eaten any Pork or red meat. That counts for something right!? I decided to substitute red meat for turkey products which wasn't bad at all and started eating a ton of fish and chicken. Do you think that stopped me from eating chips, candy, tons of carbs, and cheese crack? NO.
I will admit to overly eating a ton of wheat products and I knew in the back of my mind as time went by that I started to feel sick every time I ate it. I started to feel exactly how I felt every time I would eat anything with dairy in it. But I refused to acknowledge it for years. My stomach started to hurt literally every time I ate anything, it would even bloat up to the point where it lookeed like I just downed a 17 pack of beer. Here comes the breaking point, April of this year I started having these pulling like feelings in the pit of my stomach. Felt like I just finished doing a thousand crunches (We all know that wasn't the case) it hurt so bad to even stand up straight. I had no appetite for days, each day that passed I went to the bathroom maybe 10 or more times, and this went on for a week straight. This was probably one of the worst stomach pains I have ever felt nothing was normal about this. I couldn't go into work because I felt so sick and basically had to stay on the toilet. I decided to go to my primary doctor and explained all of my symptoms. At this point I was freaking out ( GI Bleed, ruptured something??, appendicitis, do I need my gallbladder removed?) So many things running through my mind. After MANY MANY numerous tests he celiac and gluten allergen test proved I am unable to break down and digest gluten just like dairy. "No more gluten and dairy for you Mrs.Graham" UM EXCUSE ME WHAT!? So here we are GLUTEN FREE CHELSEA