Post Game

The first week I stayed close to my juices and veggie soup. We threw in some salad and raw vegetables during dinner, and kept all “bread” products to rice crackers – there are many varieties out there now, and some that are just pressed veggie crackers, that you can use instead of getting back on gluten directly. We also lived it up with the fruits, and no fruit is sweeter than the fruit you didn’t eat for two weeks. Everything tasted marvelous. That weekend we played pick-up soccer and everyone brought food to share. Most of it was incredibly healthy, fruits and veggies, we made hummus, it was spectacular. But seeing all the food laid out, we ate more than we needed. My boyfriend ended up feeling pretty sick and had to sit out some of the game for fear of a bad BM. We also were tempted and won over by a desert: a flourless dark chocolate cake with strawberries and marshmallow topping. We cut a piece. And then cut it in half. Half again. And one more time. A tiny bite…it was amazing. HELLO chocolate. We managed to make that one piece of cake last about three days.

About a week later I had lunch with a friend at a great healthy place—I had a tiny salad and some steamed salmon in rice paper. It was great, and I had not one bad feeling in my body. Fish! You are my friend! Then a couple days later I started in on dairy. At first I just had a few tiny bits of cheese. No biggie. Then I made panna cotta…with strawberry rhubarb compote. Pretty tasty. We ate it late at night, splitting one portion, but that hunk of dairy hung in my body the whole next day. For the first time since starting the cleanse I had gas. My stomach was on the rocks all day from it. Then my boss said I needed to meet with him over lunch. Over sandwiches, which he provided. Goat Cheese on multigrain with avocado and watercress. I dutifully ate half my sandwich during the meeting, but now I was putting MORE dairy and GLUTEN into my body. I felt awful afterward, my stomach pinging and panging all over the place. Was it just the dairy? Was it the gluten? Was it just too much food?

After much dietary experimentation over the next couple days I noticed that too much dairy was, in fact too much. It gave me gas, but it didn’t hit all the symptoms for lactose intolerance. I didn’t swear off it, but I did swear off endless cheese plates. More experimentation is necessary to decide if cow is the worst offender, if goat is fine, and sheep? Only time will tell.

What turned out to be more painful than the dairy, however, was the gluten. Within 20 minutes of consuming even small amounts of gluten, my stomach would feel what amounted to tiny needles in my gut. It would last from a few minutes to hours depending on how much I ate. I also became extrememly lethargic once I added gluten back into my diet, where right after the cleanse I had never felt so rested. Long story short, I’m getting tested for Celiac’s Disease soon, and may find this to be the root of my original complaints with anemia and IBS. I’ll post an update when I get the results.

Moving right along, the next day was also full of fun, it was “Birthday-day” at the office for that month’s birthdays. As it had been mine, I was given the honor of cutting a rich chocolate cake / butter cream icing / vanilla ice cream cake. Clearly I had to take a piece and eat it, all eyes upon me. I got about half of it down, and, though absolutely delicious, my whole body went crazy. Midway through the meeting I ran to the bathroom, my stomach in knots, not knowing what to do. The feeling passed after about 20 mins, but it was terrible. No more cake. Ick. Also that day a friend from home came into town, it was a treat to see her, but friends mean food, and not always the good-for-you kind. After work I met her at a brewery, where I proceeded to drink, very slowly, 1/3 of a beer. If I’d had my druthers I would have had wine over beer, or water, but the only beverage was beer and she was buying. What a sucker I am. Luckily, no harm was done, and I felt fine.

Later that night we stopped for Hot Dogs. I LOVE Hot Dogs. I was a vegetarian for about seven years, but I ate Hot Dogs. Sounds mad, but it’s true. I love them. Love. I was so happy put one of those on my tastebuds, but I had willpower on my side. I managed to split one dog 3-ways, and savored every last tiny morsel. You don’t know how many bites it could take you to finish 1/3^rd of a Hot Dog until you try. A lot. The next day we went to the saddest Mets game ever, and my boyfriend and I split a luscious all-beef Hot Dog. Meat, indeed. I got the same stomach pangs as before, when I ate the bread, but no more, I suppose it’s good-bye to buns. Oh, Hot Dogs without buns, you are now my favorite, my darling. I will eat you bun-less forever. *sigh*

The following day? Mother’s Day. We spent it at my boyfriend’s parent’s place where we tried to eat a little, but ate more than we were used to…and I ate way more dairy and wheat than I had hoped I would (so tasty! Damn!). The pain from the pasta and bread and crackers and pie crust lasted well into the night, and even the next morning I could feel it. Even if the test turns out to be negative, I decided then and there that I would go off gluten regardless. The pain is truly impressive, but the most shocking part is that I NEVER noticed it was out of the ordinary before. I truly felt that my guts were normal—maybe in pain, but what did I know? I don’t know if they had ever NOT been in pain for me to even pick up on it.