Food Challenge: Dairy and Gluten Free

One of my big goals for this year was to work on getting my health in check. Along with all the emotional and mental growth, I wanted to make sure I was treating my body right. Like every mom on the planet, I find myself eating and drinking things I shouldn’t in favor of having an extra minute or two every day. Because of my job, I’m often taking clients to lunch/dinner and happy hours, and as well all know, eating out is the worst for your body. On the days I’m not eating out, I tend to work through lunch in order to get home earlier, and when I do dinners with the kids, it’s so harried and insane (I get home from work around 6 p.m. and Tate goes to bed at 7 p.m.) putting together a good meal is pretty much impossible.

I am a person that tends to do better when I go to the extreme, and after I noticed my pants getting tighter despite my trips to the gym, I decided I needed to try something new. I also found myself with horrible allergies, which I’ve never experienced. After talking with a doctor, I decided to opt out of testing and allergy shots, and instead change up my diet to see if that relieved any of my symptoms. I have just finished my third week gluten and dairy free, and I’m feeling pretty fantastic! My goal is to make it to four weeks and then decide what to do from there.

I have to say, while this has been a difficult change for me (oh cheese and bread, I miss you so!), there have been a few things that have helped. I wanted to share them here in case you all are looking to try a gluten or dairy free lifestyle.

– Find a natural grocery store that stocks lots of gluten and dairy free options: We got two Trader Joe’s grocery stores in Kansas City last year, and without them, I have no idea how I’d be dairy and gluten free. They have pretty much everything you could need from gluten free bread and pasta to almond milk ice cream, and it’s all delicious. The best part is they label everything very clearly, so it’s easy to find what works. Their stuff is reasonably priced too, unlike a lot of natural food places.

– Plan meals out at specialty restaurants: Living in a big city has made this transition much easier, since there are so many vegan specialty restaurants. Two of my favorites are Blue Bird Bistro and The Westside Local, where the servers are always sensitive to special requests and it’s easy to find things on the menu that you can order “as is.” Japanese can work too, especially the soups and spring rolls. If I’m stuck at a chain restaurant, I’ve just been going for salads with no cheese. Lame, but it works.

– Breakfast for dinner: Quinoa with scrambled eggs, gluten free pineapple salsa and avocado has become my go-to quick meal. I keep cooked quinoa and brown rice in the fridge in case I need to pull something together quickly. I mix up quick pancakes for the kids to have as well as the eggs, and we make green smoothies to go with everything.

– Green smoothies: We got a BlendTec super blender earlier this year, and we love the thing. It’s great for a quick, healthy meal. Our current favorites are variations on spinach smoothies, usually with oranges, frozen mango, pineapple and peaches. We throw in almonds sometimes as well. If you have kids that won’t drink something green, throw in a few blueberries to make it pink or purple. We used to do that with Lulu, but now she’s okay with the green.

– Soy lattes from Starbucks: I’ve tried every variation of homemade coffee with milk replacements (almond milk, soy milk, etc.), but they always taste like crap. Starbucks has the best soy latte I’ve had so far, so I usually order the biggest one I can get, then refrigerate for up to two days and have a cupful in the morning.

Any of you ever thought of cutting out a favorite food group for your health? I’d love any tips on how to get over my long time cheese addition.

(Photo by Nicole Coleman)