Today is the first day of my new blog, and the first day of my gluten-free living. Let me back up and tell you how I got here.
About a month and a half ago I attended a game night at a friend's house. We were merely acquaintances at that point, in fact I had only met her two other times at church. While playing board games with several women from the church, the topic of food addiction and other faith roadblocks came up. This led one woman to tell us about the book Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. Long story short, I have started a bible study group focusing on food addiction for the women of our church. Today marks the beginning of our third week.
Through this journey, I have learned to trust God with things I thought were too small for Him in the past, including my food struggles. I asked God to help me have the strength to give up Diet Coke (well soda in general but all I really drank was Diet Coke). Now I have a serious addiction to Diet Coke. I've been drinking it for as long as I can remember. Granted, I've given it up one other time, Lent a few years ago. I went right back to my delicious drink the day after Easter. This time, I want to eliminate things that are causing health concerns for me. Diet Coke with your artificial ingredients, you don't make the cut. To ensure my success, I've called on God. Maybe to you this seems silly, (honestly it did to me too, until I tried it) but I have faith that God will help me with my struggles. Seeing the small success with beverage choice has given me the faith that He will help me with the bigger things.
So now the big change. I am going gluten-free. No, I am not following a fad, I have discovered that I feel HORRIBLE when I eat breads, pastas, and more. Honestly, dairy is a problem too, but I'm not willing to give it up again (I was severely lactose intolerant as a child). When I started researching symptoms I've had - eczema (for the first time in 24 years!), easy bruising, migraines, joint pain, and stomach and intestinal issues, I realized each one can be attributed to gluten intolerance.
So this is the beginning of my journey. I hope you will follow along.
