Personal Diary

I think I'm going to start using this space as a personal diary. Today I've wondered for the first time if I really do have a medical gluten intolerance, or even Celiacs Disease. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I will peruse testing in the future, for now I will just self experiment. I've been gluten free before, back when I was training in the gym and following a paleo diet. I never in my life felt physically and emotionally better than that period of time. But life with a family got in the way and I fell back into the gluten-filled habits that I had grown up with. Recently, I've re-introduced myself to paleo and training. This time the kids came on the paleo ride with me(it has had amazing effects and benefits for Evan, but that's another post for another day). A few days ago, I ran to the store to grab a rotisserie chicken so I could pack some in Evan's lunch the next day. It was late enough at night that the deli had been shut down, so I hit up the pre-cooked, pre-packaged area of the meat aisle...and dum dum dum...I didn't do my job and read through the ingredients list before throwing some sliced, cooked chicken and steak in the cart. Today I opened up the steak for a quick lunch, while heating the meat I flipped the bag over and started reading, and found that it contained yeast, a.k.a. gluten, a.k.a. that evil bastard known to cause inflammation and a plethora of other things. Not wanting to toss a five dollar bill in the trash, I willingly chose to eat it anyway. About thirty to sixty minutes later, I started to feel a somewhat familiar pain that starts in my knees and radiated out through my calves. These symptoms typically show up along with a bizarre, tingling, painful, pins and needle type of numbness in my feet, hands, and elbows. I always assumed that when I felt like this in the past that I was becoming dehydrated. Today, I know that is not the case, as I've consumed nearly 3/4 of a gallon of water. For the first time, I can actually document that I consumed gluten and developed these symptoms shortly after. I will for sure be keeping this in mind for future occurrences. Perhaps it is gluten related, perhaps not. I'm hopeful that time will give me more clues, but for now I'm going to take some ibuprofen to ease my obvious inflammation.