August Gluten Free Challenges

19 Aug

Happy August.  I am amazed at how fast July went, and am actually feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea that it could be cold and snowing in a few months again.  I have been trying to soak in as much of the mild weather and sunshine as possible, and walking to and /or from as many destinations as possible as well.

I have had a few gluten free “mishaps” as of late, and I wonder if that will just always be the case.  Even though I consider myself to be well versed and experienced in being a gluten free shopper and diner, I still continue, on occasion to somehow mess up on the focus I need to apply to my other food intolerances.  I feel like if I had been able to maintain just the necessity of being gluten free, life would be a total piece of gluten free cake right now.  And I even think gluten free + dairy free I could keep up with.  But as my intolerances continue to grow, it just gets overwhelming.

Prime example will be when I find something at a restaurant, or the store, or even something someone has baked for me, and it is something I used to eat and love before going gluten free.  I think that the emotional component and attachment to that particular food will drive me to see what I want to see, and completely forget the rest.  It also happens sometimes when I am faced with that dialogue with the server or chef at a restaurant, too.  Gluten free is always THE most important thing I want to convey.  Dairy free comes next.  But then everything else, depending on the anxiety level of the situation, or the complexity of the dish, can sometimes get forgotten.

I was so excited recently about a dessert at a gluten free bakery that I completely forgot to ask THE most important question before even considering ordering.  WHAT TYPE OF GLUTEN FREE FLOUR DO YOU USE?   Because the thing is,  if it is potato (which is pretty common), I cannot have it due to my reactions to nightshades.

I mainly just wanted to share that while it does get much easier, there are still challenges.  And I feel like I almost need to be carrying around a special laminated card in my wallet to refer to in these situations.

The most important thing, is that I finally have learned to be kind to myself when this happens.  In the past I would beaten myself up over it.  Now I know that I am doing the best I can.  And even in the situations that are not optimal, I almost always realize something, or come out of it with a new perspective.

All of these obstacles and learning experiences are ultimately pushing me towards a new adventure.  I have not quite figured out what that will be.  But the thought of it motivates me to keep pushing forward, and reach out to as many other people in this gluten free community that I can.

I have already learned so much from my involvement thus far in the Daily Dietribe’s Gluten Free Health Challenge.  And with each passing day, someone who I have connected with through the challenge has inspired, comforted, or educated me.  This journey is definitely one that I am thrilled to be on.

Now I am off to mentally devise some future potential travel plans to a city where I can easily eat gluten free !

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The joys of July 2013

23 Jul

So far this month, which also happens to be my birthday month, the Feud with Food crew has managed to accomplish quite a bit of food related activity without going too terribly far from our home base of Kansas City, MO.

We attended a Tiki Thursday Plantation Rum Tasting at The Kill Devil Club in downtown KC.  Soon after that, we attended a handful of birthday outings, where various cocktails and food options were offered.  There was a birthday related food day/night that included two separate visits to the only 100% dedicated gluten free establishment in Kansas City – t.Loft, along with a delicious dinner at Tannin Winebar & Kitchen in the Crossroads area of KC, another gluten free/vegan dessert at Cafe Gratitude, and a custom cocktail at Snow & Co.

We stopped in at Whole Foods post birthday for some groceries, and lucked upon the Farmers & Food Artisans Road tour, where I was delighted to meet Callie England (founder/owner of Rawxies), and Hilary Kass (founder/owner of Ancient Grains Bakery).  This was a really awesome event, and I can only hope that some of the folks shopping that day, who normally aren’t buying local, or paying attention to the source of their food purchases, may have been impacted in some way by the opportunity to meet the representatives who were there sharing their food and knowledge.

Last stop thus far was in Lawrence, Kansas at the Open House for Hilary’s Eat Well.  We had the chance to meet the staff, tour the new facility, and try a variety of products INCLUDING a few new options that will be launching I believe in October.  I am incredibly excited about this particular food related visit because I wholeheartedly believe in Hilary’s product and Hilary. I was previously a devoted customer at the sustainable restaurant she used to own (Local Burger).  And I have been anxiously awaiting the next step in her food movement with the distribution of her products nationwide.  They offered plenty to sample at the event – burger “bites” of all of the different veggie burgers, along with two meat options, kale salad, veggies, dairy free dressing, dessert, wine, beer from Free State Brewing Co, and local kombucha from KANbucha.

They even had samples of the two new flavors – Hemp & Greens and Root Veggie.  I’m pretty much now in total love with the Root Veggie Burger, and cannot WAIT for it to hit the stores.  It was not only delicious.  But it was SAFE for me to eat.

I also now have quite the soft spot for the tasty little tart pie crusts from Ancient Grains that were served at Hilary’s Eat well, too.  If only I had not been so busy chatting, and soaking in the great energy there, I might have eaten the entire platter. They were even good by themselves.

I am so proud of the local business owners, who are blazing the trail in this world of REAL FOOD and sustainability.  I was genuinely inspired by every person I came into contact with at the open house.  We were very impressed with what we saw, and are thrilled that we had the opportunity to attend the event at the new facility.

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Photos: Hilary’s Eat Well Facility in Lawrence, KS

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Feud With Food visits Open House at Hilary’s Eat Well

22 Jul

Feud With Food visits Open House at Hilary's Eat Well

Feud With Food standing outside of the entry to Hilary’s Eat Well in Lawrence, KS.

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Embarking upon The Daily Dietribe Gluten Free Health Challenge

1 Jun

GF Challenge 2013I have signed the following pledge, per my participation in The Daily Dietribe Gluten Free Health Challenge.

“I will challenge myself to love and respect myself and my body. I will challenge myself to treat myself as I would a dear friend, with kindness and support. I will challenge myself to eat healthy because I love myself and because I want to take care of myself.”

All of these words rang true to me over the past few years, as I have faced various health struggles, increasing food intolerances, and new obstacles that seemed to block my path to wellness.  However, the one thing I had NOT done, was to reach out to others, seek support, and share my experiences.  Thanks to the inspiration of Iris Higgins (AKA Your Fairy Angel), http://www.yourfairyangel.com/meet-your-fairy-angel.html, and her blog The Daily Dietribe, http://www.thedailydietribe.com/, I was prompted to enter The Gluten Free Health Challenge.

This is going to be a very interesting adventure for me, as everything I have done thus far, has been between myself and my very patient, loving, and supportive significant other.  There are a handful of folks who know the tip of the iceberg category information.  But the whole story has been too much to share, bear, or even explain in most instances.

Starting today, for the next 6 months, myself & 6 other women will be working with health coaches assigned to each of us.  Every Tuesday I will have something to share via the blog post on The Daily Dietribe.  Each of us participating in the challenge with our coaches, along with all of those who have decided to join along with us, will be sharing, seeking support, learning new recipes, and hopefully learning as much as possible about ourselves, and in relation to how we can each nurture ourselves for the long term. (You can join here:  http://www.thedailydietribe.com/p/why-join.html ).

Please join me for this challenge. I am so very excited to be a part of this, and hope we can all reap the benefits of this opportunity.

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Countdown to Portland, OR

19 May

Portland I miss you.  And from afar, as I longingly read posts from those who are lucky enough to be in you, the grass really does seem greener.  And it was quite green during our last visit.  So green, that I have started comparing everything else TO that visit.

My goal for this upcoming Portland trip is to LEARN some things I can take back to Kansas City with me, and hopefully find inspiration that will allow me to make some positive changes upon returning home.  I’m sure I will still come back home missing many things that so far my city does not offer.  But I hope for this trip to serve more as a launchpad for what I can do going forward.  If not, it might end up simply making me want to move to Portland.  We shall see.

One of the things I have learned since my last visit, is that Portland currently has at least NINE dedicated gluten free bakeries.  And I say AT LEAST, because I suspect there are some I don’t even know about yet. And this is just DEDICATED GLUTEN FREE I am speaking of.  I have not even started my list of places that have a gluten free menu, or offer gluten free options.  Because as I learned the last time I was there, the options were outstanding.  It was hard to find a place that did NOT accommodate for special dietary needs. In addition to the bakeries, I will be visiting Harvester Brewing http://www.harvesterbrewing.com/  – the dedicated gluten free brewery that I am SO excited to finally try.

I look forward to using functional, available public transportation as well.  What a lovely and logical thing for a city to have.  I still encounter people on a regular basis in KC who see no need for it, and actually LIKE driving.   I will never understand the car mentality here.  There are so many things wrong with making that choice to own multiple cars and drive in my opinion.  So the fact that I am surrounded by what feels like a majority of humans who have taken that stance is unsettling.  I AM thrilled that organizations such as Bike Walk KC have been growing in numbers, and are making an impact.  It is going to take time.  But I do sense change.

I’m compiling my list of places I would like to check out.  Here are a few :

http://www.newcascadiatraditional.com/

http://www.tulabaking.com/

http://www.petuniaspiesandpastries.com/

http://www.backtoedenbakery.com/

http://www.cravinraven.com/

http://www.cravebakeshop.com/

http://www.abbys-table.com/

There appear to also be a ton of food stands/trucks that offer gluten free options as well.  This is going to be fun!

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This is why I avoid nightshades

19 May
Nightshade Chin

Nightshade Chin:

Oh my chin.  AND it does not just LOOK bad.  It HURTS.  When the pain sensation starts, I want to rip my skin off.  It feels like things are crawling under my skin, and nothing makes it feel better.  Soon after I FEEL it, I normally SEE it.  This photo was actually from a “potato incident”.  I had a BITE of a gluten free/vegan cookie sample.  Turns out said cookie recipe included potato starch.

The inflammation I am experiencing today (from probably a tiny amount of red pepper in sausage), has even larger raised areas from the neck upwards on the chin.  It actually looks like I have a very large, round shaped chin at the moment because of the swelling.  I had no intention of sharing these types of photos with anyone other than my dermatologist (whose response was to put me on Accutane and and another daily antibiotic).  But now that I’ve taken that first step into the world of internet “TMI” and the divulging of personal information I would rather keep to myself, I feel that sharing the occasional nightshade chin type photo might prove helpful.  If anything, maybe it will prevent someone from taking the advice of a medical professional insisting that they take medications for something that may very well be caused by a food ingredient such as the deadly nightshade.

Sunday ramblings . . .

19 May

Today my mind is not clear enough to produce a clear and entertaining post.  But my mind is active, and it occurred to me that when that does occur, and thoughts are kicking around – the one thing I SHOULD be doing IS posting.  So here it goes.  The last few weeks have included:

* Me, finally posting personal information on the interwebs via one of my favorite blogs, per a “contest” of sorts, in hopes of making the cut for a gluten free challenge that is being conducted by Iris at TheDailyDietribe.Com.  The concept itself is brilliant. And I am grateful to be in the running.  Even if I don’t get enough votes to be part of the challenge, I will still be following it.

* A trip to New Orleans, which caused me to almost miss the deadline of the contest mentioned previously.  I am so glad that I still saw the post for the challenge at the very last minute.  But I am disappointed that I was unable to write something truly compelling and clear (seeing that I was exhausted and on Benadryl at the time).

Said trip was challenging because I was “glutened” (thinking cross contamination) a few days before we left, and was unable to eat any solid food for 5 days.  Luckily we packed a huge cooler, & I made extra smoothies for the road.  I did well the very last day of our trip.  But then I am quite sure I either mis-ordered my sweet potatoes, or dairy was included mistakenly.  Because I have been having ear & respiratory issues ever since that meal.   We missed a few of the events that we were specifically signed up to attend once we got to New Orleans due to being under the weather.

* And just when I thought I might be getting back on track, & feeling back to normal, some of my old skin issues have returned.  My immediate reaction is to track back everything I have eaten in the past 48 hours.  Which actually due to my recent food indiscretions has been very limited.  So the process was not difficult.  But my old frustrations have returned because well, my skin (specifically on my neck and face) started hurting A LOT while I was working today.  I know the feeling.  It stings some, then starts to just ache, almost like a bruise.  But it’s different, & really impossible to describe.  It just HURTS.  So I’m sitting there working on stuff  I absolutely despise while the rest of the world seems to be off because it is Sunday.  And I can barely concentrate on my work because my chin feels like there is something crawling beneath the top layer of skin.  It starts itching and then hurting more.  I finally look in the mirror.  And yep, the hideous inflammation has returned.  I have huge, nickel sized red raised areas that were popping up as I looked at myself.  That was why it was hurting.  I may take & post photos some day.  I actually have taken photos before, from back when I wanted to show the dermatologist WHY I was complaining so much.  Because, of course, when I would go in for my appointment, my face would always look much better miraculously.

So what do I think the culprit is this time?  I do believe we found a sneaky little nightshade in my breakfast.  My sweet darling partner offered to make me some breakfast sausage today. I remember reading the label at the store, an being excited that it was from a grass fed, hormone free source, with very few ingredients.  I didn’t even ask him to read the label because I had picked it out myself.  I guess I should have requested a second pair of eyes.  Because I just checked it, and one of the ingredients is red pepper.  RED PEPPER.  I can’t imagine that there was a significant amount of this red pepper in the sausage. I certainly did not taste it.  But it was enough to trigger a response in my system.

I don’t know what I am more upset about.  The fact that I only ate a few bites, and had wrapped up the rest with the anticipation of eating some tomorrow when 5:00am came around all too soon to clock into work.  OR the fact that my face looks like I am a teenager in the heat of puberty, and just wiped a slice of pepperoni pizza ON my face.  I just know that the minute I saw my face, and read the ingredient list, profanity followed.  I am SO tired of this.  I did this to myself.  How did I not notice red pepper?  Maybe because it was nestled in between black pepper & celery salt?  Or more likely I was just SO excited about finding sausage that was safe MEAT for me to eat ; being grass fed – that I was not noticing the obvious nightshade lurking in the ingredients.

Doesn’t matter now. It’s too late.  My face hurts like hell.  I look horrible.  And I am not at all excited about now going on our next trip to Portland, where I was hoping to take lots of pictures, with my big, fat, swollen and aching CHIN.  I might as well go eat some Mexican or Italian food at this point.  I LOVE nightshade based foods.  I miss tomatoes and peppers more than dairy and gluten.  I used to have salsa every day of my life at one point.  And I crave the very things that are causing this awful reaction.

So those are my ramblings for this afternoon.  I am going to attempt to have an awesome rest of my day despite the nightshade chin.  I am super excited to go to Portland.  We may even hit some of the unofficial VidaVegan Conference events during our stay.  To be continued……..

 

 

 

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Back from another whirlwind travel adventure

9 Jan

Well I have returned home to Kansas City.  The good things about coming home are:

  • Picking up my feathered family members from the avian vet (where they actually have such a great time hanging with new flock members that they seem almost disappointed to see me – with the exception of poor Sunshine, who has separation anxiety, & is at first totally ticked off at me for leaving her there.  But then she slowly warms up, and won’t leave my side for days).
  • Having the comforts of my Vitamix, dehydrator, familiar food sources, and all of the things that make it a little easier to stay on my challenging “diet”, and maintain a healthy routine.
  • More time to devote to this evolving blog, and all of the other networking that I crave online.  I have taken trips where I spend too much time online, posting, sharing, etc.  And then I have taken trips where my dear significant other convinces me to “turn it off” for a while, live in the moment, and document things once we get home.  THAT is what I attempted to do this time.  I took photos, made some detailed notes on Evernote, and then lived in the moment of our adventures.  So NOW that we are home, and I have gotten past the worst part of transitioning back to the grind of the work day, I am super excited to sneak in some time in the coming weeks to blog, share, communicate, and hopefully even get a jump on planning our next adventure out of town.

The not so good feeling things about coming home are:

  • I suffer from serious withdrawal and an overall feeling of being bummed out.  I MISS the places we just went.  I miss the thrill of trying so many new things, having full days of no true obligations – other than the ones I might create for myself – like checking out gluten free businesses, seeing a beautiful sunset over the beach, or having brunch with a friend who I rarely see.
  • I become painfully aware of the things we are missing in this city.  This seems to worsen with each trip because while we absolutely are making strides, and I am so very grateful, other cities are also making strides, and they were already way ahead of us to start with.  So no matter what KC does to make it easier for me to live here, some place else manages to one up it in the biggest way ever.  THAT is something I deal with every time we travel, and I need to focus on how I can learn from what I experience in those other cities, and find a way to incorporate some of it back home.
  • The weather – luckily this time we have had more sun than I am used to January in KC, and I AM LOVING IT.  I felt like the vitamin D and beauty of the sunny days /blue skies we just saw in California were healing me.  I dreaded coming back home to the dead winter scene.  There is still ice on our driveway from before Christmas.

So once I get the rest of our things unpacked, and some laundry done, I will start to document our lovely trip to California right here.  I am hoping as I experience everything a second time through photos and memories, that instead of being sentimental and sad like I sometimes get, I will find inspiration and motivation.  So stay tuned……….

The Jacobson (Kansas City) – Winter Menu updates posted

21 Dec

The Jacobson in Kansas City has been impressing me since the first day I ate there for one of the soft openings.  I was so pleased with that experience, that I believe I went back at least three more times within a week.  I was even fortunate enough to be part of an event where we were able to offer our feedback after dining (which I gladly did).  Each time we have dined there, the server has taken me seriously in regards to my dietary restrictions, and then followed up with the kitchen to ensure what was available right off of the menu, or with modifications.  That was very much appreciated.  But today, I noticed they had posted their winter menu.  And this menu has some great additions (such as the coding – (which is coding I can actually SEE -unlike some places who add a microscopic symbol that I don’t even notice to represent “gluten free”).  THERE IS EVEN A GLUTEN FREE AND VEGAN LASAGNA.

I am excited to head back in, and try some of the winter options.  I am very thankful that this establishment has involved their patrons from the very beginning, and welcomed feedback.  I am also comforted knowing there is yet another new spot in Kansas City where I can dine safely.  Here is the menu.

http://www.thejacobsonkc.com/images/12_12_13dinnermenu.pdf

Article: The gluten made her do it

20 Dec

This piece of reading really strikes a nerve with me since some of my symptoms associated with my own food intolerances most definitely were mental and sensory related.   It always makes me sad when I encounter people who are reaching out to me, maybe venting, but sometimes desperate about either their own issues, or those of their children.  And of course, if I even dare to bring up the slight possibility (I am never rude or assuming about it) that perhaps some of what they are talking about COULD be related to their diet, I am almost always met with a glare, rolling of the eyes, and a change of the subject.

Because, you know, I (being the crazy, imaginary allergy and illness weirdo freak), am determined to convince every other person that they, too , have imaginary food intolerances.  Apparently some people are SO scared of changing their own diets, or listening to someone other than their family doctor, that they have decided that I am about the same as a cult.  I am just making a bunch of crap up, eating a “weird” diet, and then trying to recruit others into my crazy world.  YEAH  – that’s it  – you got me people.  I’m not actually trying to SHARE what I have learned during years of suffering, experimentation, elimination diets, not to mention TONS of wasted money on practitioners.  I don’t want to prevent others from going through what I went through.  No, I must just be doing this because I’m a weirdo.

Yeah.  So my point……is that this article would have come in handy back when I was still in the desperate research phase.  And I would absolutely LOVE to share this article with some people I know who are most likely either going to be murdered by their own children some day, or at best – the poor kids will be put on psychiatric drugs of some sort for mental illnesses that they may not even have.

http://www.anchoragepress.com/news/the-gluten-made-her-do-it-how-going-gluten-free/article_39e2478e-4585-11e2-a80c-0019bb2963f4.html

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