Well, I spoke to my mother-in-law today and one of the first things she asked is "are we going to be able to eat normal when we come up, or are we going to have to eat what you eat?" She made it sound so horrible, even when I told her we'll be doing a lot of grilling out... The cheesecake I'm making is gluten free, and I'm not going to tell them. I'll see if they notice. My husband and I have noticed that we don't like stuff made with brown rice flour, but if there is a combination of flours, including brown rice flour it's fine. I think we like tapioca bases better maybe. We know that I can eat the meat (and the fries as long as I don't eat anything else really greasy the rest of the day) at our favorite barbeque place, so we might take them there. Also, for tacos/fajitas or whatever, we're going to purchase some flour tortillas for them, so they don't have a fit - we'll just make sure that everything is separate... We didn't like the tortillas in the gluten free section, so we have the little corn tortillas(why don't they just make large corn tortillas for gluten-free diets instead of rice based?) I'm going to download that app that you talked about before they come up, just in case. My problem with going out, as I touched on a little bit in an earlier post, is that I'm a super taster, making me kind of picky - and I love GOOD food, so finding something that I actually enjoy when I go out is difficult. I'm usually unhappy with most things when I go out to eat because I can generally make the same dish - only better and for cheaper lol. I'm sure if I have to, I can manage lol.
Also, as an update, I tried out that smoothie that I was talking about. The one with sweet tea as a base, an apple, a banana, and spinach. It did not give me the boost I was looking for. Also, I think it would have been better without the banana, as it did not mesh too well with the taste of the tea. My husband really liked it though, and it was pretty refreshing - just not energy boosting. Also, I tried some coffee today, to see how my body reacted without having much(if any) gluten in my system. No stomach ache, no IBS symptoms, however there was a little bit of uneasiness in my stomach. I think I can have some coffee here and there, providing that I'm following my diet otherwise. The bit of uneasiness could even just be from some leftover gluten in my system from the half cheeseburger I had the other night (by the way, I no longer have any desire to break my diet for another cheeseburger, so I think eating said cheeseburger was the right decision. I think I can stick to it now a lot easier).
Also, since I've been on the diet and broken it once for the half cheeseburger - And since I've taken notice to how my body feels - I think I've figured something out. I think that gluten may be the direct cause of my CFS symptoms, as well as my GI symptoms, and maybe even my extreme migraines. Since I have been on the diet (only about a week now) I have not had a single headache. The only time I've felt overwhelmed with fatigue was the day after breaking my diet.
Sunday (the day I broke my diet, but actually hours and hours before I broke my diet) I was actually really good with it. We went for a visit at my aunt's house. She made baby back ribs, corn, potatoes, barbecued chicken, and cake. I ate some potato and chicken. I did not eat the ribs because I knew they were pre-made and I know any pre-marinated or pre-seasoned meats run high risk of being full of gluten. I also ate some ice cream in lieu of cake, which someone actually went out to the trash for me to get the packaging. Upon checking the ingredients, I was able to eat some ice cream. They were all very supportive of the whole think, which I was really thankful for. I also asked in advance about the chicken to make sure she didn't put flour on it, and to double check the barbecue sauce she was using (sweet baby ray's).
It was actually really easy to eat at their house, now if we went on a past night, I'd say it would be much more difficult, but seeing as I thought going to someone else's home to eat would be the most difficult out of everything, I was really pleased.
My husband is actually really getting on board now, which I'm really happy about. I think when he was being mean, he was just really finally realizing what "gluten-free" really meant. I think he finally felt the way that I had been feeling all of last week. Over the past few days though, he's actually been in the kitchen cooking with me. Normally, the kitchen is all me, but he's actually made me food once and helped me in the kitchen twice. He said that maybe he'll do all of the meats(I don't like handling and cooking chicken really, because I think it's gross before it's cooked and I can't ever get it to cook right, so that's what he's been doing the last couple of days) and then I can do whatever else. I'm happy to see him actually getting involved with our food. He was also productively helping me shop the other night, by picking out some veggies and picking up some more gluten free items to try out.
One more thing that I've noticed is the tools I use most often in the kitchen have changed. My chef's knife, cutting board, and a pan have been the staple items to be used in our kitchen. We're going to invest in a higher quality chef's knife and some better cutting boards also. The blender is definitely something I can see being an every day thing, but like I said, I want to find something that I can have in place of coffee - via smoothie.
Last night, we had a salad with a single chopped romaine heart, a handful of spinach, two celery stalks, half a cucumber, half of a large tomato and some cheese - then topped with dressing (oil and vinegar for me and gluten-free certified ranch for him) followed by some sauteed chicken and red peppers. It was really good and surprisingly really filling. We did not even eat the whole bowl of salad, so we saved some of the chicken (we only cooked up a single breast total) and peppers and took out the cucumbers from the leftover salad. This stuff went with him today for his lunch accompanied by some corn tortillas and some celery for a snack.
Sorry it was so long, I just wanted to give a good update before my long weekend starts tomorrow night (when I doubt I'll be on the computer much with his family here).