To gluten or not to gluten?

As most if not all of may know, I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (If you want to learn more about it you can check my previous posts My sickness revealed and PCOS...How I found out...and the journey since, and of course with that for most of us comes weight gain, ESPECIALLY around the mid section. It is times like this that I am truly thankful to God for blessing in the boob department so that I don't look pregnant (yeah, my stomach is that big, but my twins hide it lol). 

Bye bye you evil gluten!!!!!!

Anyway, so I made a promise some time ago to take better care of myself. Last November I started kick boxing at the Purple Dragon Dojo and in January I took the task of learning belly dancing. So I got the exercise part in check. Now for the diet part. This is where the trouble begins...
I have a really weird relationship food. I have to be in the mood to eat, meaning that even if I'm hungry, if I'm not in the mood, I'm not going to eat. I know it sounds weird and up to this day I haven't gotten the slightest clue as to why this happens. I would barely eat or drink anything while I'm at work because I'm focused on work, but then when I'm pretty much about to go to bed, I end up with the appetite of a bear and the sudden mood swing/urge to eat and I'd get up and rummage through the refrigerator/cupboard till I found something to appease my stomach. Most of the time, whatever I'd end up eating would include either a full plate of food or something with bread, crix, bake (I was never a light eater in the night). So getting my food issue under control was definetely going to be a problem.

I started researching the type of diet that would help in managing PCOS, I realised that quite a few of the PCOS sites I'm subscribed to such as PCOS Diva talk about how gluten (which is that sticky protein in wheat that holds bread together and makes it rise) may be an underlying cause for some PCOS symptoms. Gluten is also found in barley, rye and spelt, kamut, and triticale and some of these are found in the commercial baked goods and pastas that we consume daily. After talking with my girlfriend Orchid aka Gluten-free Island Girl, I got the encouragement to try the gluten free lifestyle and see how it works. It's awesome knowing that I can talk to  her about these things because the girl knows her stuff.
So as today (April 25th, 2013), I am almost two weeks into this gluten free challenge. Have I fallen off the bandwagon? Yes...yes I have...Easter weekend was tough lol. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I just have to get back up and continue trying. It was good to see that the grocery I shop at does have one or two gluten free options for pastas and flour (God knows I love my pasta, so if I didn't get any gluten free options I would have passed out lol). Am I expecting any major changes to happen? Honestly I don't know. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but hey, I don't have anything to lose, other than my mother's macaroni pie on a Sunday lol. 

WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!!! 


Regards,
Tshenelle aka Nelly B.