Gluten Free: Now what?

So you made the switch to a gluten free, dairy free lifestyle. Lets all make the same face for a second. 

Losing weight and getting healthy doesn't just mean gluten free. It means making dietary changes to ALL aspects in your life, like carbs, sugar, fats. Yea your taste buds just went into shock right now I feel the pain for you. A lot of the questions I get asked on a normal basis are: " What do you eat for breakfast then?" "How can you live without snacks and BREAD, you're Italian right?" 

Yea, I am Italian. And yes I loved bread. 

Carbs: 

I think anyone can vouch for you that if you want to lose weight you not only have to eat less you have to cut out the sugar and carbs. I am happy to say that if you start to eat a gluten free diet then you probably cut out most of the carbs you were eating! YAY! In reality there are only a few other changes to the carbs you eat. If you love potatoes, switch between white and sweet potatoes. Each is almost the same in the amount of carbs. They just have different vitamins. Don't forget, a lot of what makes our waistlines increase is not what we eat, its what ELSE we put in it. So if you are making your sweet potatoes and you decide to add marshmallows and brown sugar, its completely defeating the purpose. Come on, really? There are plenty other yummy ways to eat carbs. In our household we usually bake our sweet and white potatoes in tin foil right in the oven. We also cut them up and throw them around our meat in the pan! Now a lot of people throw on the sour cream, butter, cheese, bacon "all dat" on those potatoes. BAD BAD BAD. pretend I am a nun in catholic school smacking your hand with a ruler. NO NO NO. Throw it out, no more sour cream, no more butter, no more grease. Just stop. Cold turkey that shit. If you can't eat a plain potato use a little bit of butter and salt. NOT a half a stick. 

Now Rice is a different story. Many people will tell you that brown rice is so much better for you. And while yes, there is a crapload more fiber in brown rice, I find its much harder to digest because it contains bran. There is really no difference in rices which is why I eat my white rice. 

                                                                   Because its awesome.

Brown rice is so hard for me to digest,, it gives me heartburn and stomach pain. And for me that's bad because I have a poopy digestive system (no pun intended). White rice is easier to digest for me. Just like before cut out the extra crap you dump onto the rice, Butter, Gravy, Loads of salt. Instead of using all those things, grab some organic chicken, beef, or vegetable broth, and use that instead of water to make your rice, So much more flavor! BAM. 

PASTA! Oh pasta what will we do. EASY. Half the time we use rice pasta in this house and the people that come over and eat it can't even tell the difference. And they end up without heartburn and the “itis” on Sunday nights. So either use corn or rice pasta, but if you want something close to real than use rice. Its yummy. Corn pasta will always taste al dente and it is very hard to digest. (corn in poop yea..)

Bread is hard to copy. It really is. I have only one bread I can eat but it still contains eggs. But not much so it doesn't really bother me. We have tried tons of different ones but the best we found is Udi's products. So many different versions, hot dog buns hamburger rolls, cinnamon raisin, they even make white bread, bagels, and muffins! Yummy =]

Sugar:

Obviously if you haven't cut out the junk food from your diet you might as well keep your fat pants. Still putting syrupy crap in your coffee? Keep your fat pants. Still eating that ice cream? Keep your fat pants. What did you expect me to be nice? Psh =P

In order to go dairy free there are plenty of different ways to make your coffee, yes they do take time to get use to it I won't lie, but now I cannot have my coffee any other way. I used to be a half and half/ equal user. Religiously. About three cups a day. Today I use Coconut Creamer. It comes in regular and french vanilla. Both taste amazing! My best friend and now sister (=]) Lee, Had to switch to a dairy free lifestyle because she couldn't stomach it anymore. She comes over all the time so we obviously make coffee. She can not drink her coffee any other way now. And she is happy she can have her coffee and still enjoy it. We also do not use sugar in our coffee. We use agave nectar. It makes your coffee taste so much more rich. I HATE sugar because it always made my post nasal drip worse. Yuck. You can use agave in everything as a substitute. It's not that its 100 times better than sugar but I like it better. They will tell you that agave has more sugar than sugar itself (lol crazy I know) But you also need to use less of it then you would normally use if using sugar. So it evens out. All in all, if you love sugar in your coffee. Use sugar just don't over do it.

Dairy:

Believe it or not my biggest problem was getting rid of cheese. Whoa is me cheese =[ I still miss cheese. But lets start with milk. I have found amazing substitutes. If you are just starting out, switch to vanilla soy milk. Its the closest consistency to regular cows milk. I don't think soy milk is the best option because it is a huge mucous producer. So keep that short. If we have to have some kind of milk=type product we use vanilla almond milk. Its a little more watery but it won't leave you with that milk stomach feeling. We also use coconut milk religiously. Just go to your local health food store and ask them what the best seller they have is! As far as cheese goes, I hate to say this but I still haven't found a substitute. Nor am I 100% sure if goat cheese is considered dairy. It still contains casien which I can't have so I never really looked into it. Sorry about the cheese =[ There are a few substitutes but being Italian I can't handle the taste. Nothing liker fresh “mutzadel” Now as far as butter is concerned. You can't have butter. Plain and simple. The best organic/ vegan/ dairy free/ healthy substitute is Earth Balance, Natural Buttery Spread. It just sounds fake. But I loved eating “i can't believe its not butter” (because its not, its made with every fake ingredient possible) And it tastes very similar. I like it so much more. Its so yummy!.

Snacks:

If you love your chocolate and you still need to eat it. I do too! The brand “enjoy life” has made the yummiest cookies you can imagine. I cannot stop eating these when I get them. Once I literally ate 7. That’s a lot of cookies to me. I’ve tried them all they all are amazing. If your a granola bar person the brand “bakery on main” makes AMAZING granola bars. Many different flavors. Also If you need a good snack chex makes gluten free cereals that are so good you won't want to put down the box. I usually eat it out of the box with my boyfriend telling me when to stop (lol) I have no self control when it comes to chex. But you can put them in snack bags to make normal portions. And whats better than Dark chocolate? Not much. There is gluten free dark chocolate and not much dairy so enjoy your chocolate! Yum!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the products our house uses on a daily basis! If you have any questions about anything I wrote today email me at LethalHealth@gmail.com

Thanks! <3 -Cassie Lynn