Human Again

Human Again, the song from Beauty and the Beast, and one of my favorite Disney movies was stuck in my head all day a couple Saturdays ago after a good long run. I finally figured out how to rid myself of the incredibly annoying stomach aches that have been intruding my life for the past few years or so. That little triumph led me to a much happier and energetic self, with a spring in my step, and a Disney song in my head. It's so nice to finally feel human again! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm so excited that I feel normal again! I'd been keeping food journals and experimenting with different things like cutting out dairy, trying to eliminate sugar (trying being the key word there), lowering fiber intake etc. All sorts of things, but I continued to get annoyingly painful stomach aches, almost always at night. I was sick of feeling like crap and I'm pretty sure Scott was sick of hearing me complain, although he was always really nice about it. He just wanted me to feel better.

I had been getting these stomach aches for so long that I kind of accepted them as a fact of life. I tried to ignore them, but in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't normal, and I wanted to get rid of them, I just didn't know how. Finally, I decided to eliminate gluten. I don't know why this didn't occur to me before, especially since my mom is gluten intolerant. Actually, I know why it didn't occur to me before...I didn't want it to be gluten. I'm a runner, and I love my carbs. The appetizer bread at restaurants is usually my favorite part of the whole meal. Pasta, bread, cookies, cupcakes, all the best tasting comfort food, that's why eliminating gluten didn't occur to me before. Yep, I was in denial.

I think the thing that finally pushed me over the edge to figure this stomach thing out was my Tuesday night track workouts. Since I normally run in the mornings before the stomach pain sets in, I didn't have to deal with it during runs, but I've been meeting a group Tuesday nights for interval training at the track to get ready for Boston. I loved the Tuesday night workouts. It felt so good to run outside, change up the regular running routine, and run with other people. The only problem was my dang stomach.

I read up on gluten intolerance on the internet one night and it sounded like me, so the next day I ex-nayed the gluten from my diet. I instantly felt better. I've been eating a gluten free diet for about three weeks now, and so far no more nightly stomach aches. Except for the 3 days that I messed up and gave in to temptation, but after seeing the direct effect those gluten filled goodies had on my stomach's happiness that night I was recommitted to stick to the gluten free stuff. I'm learning that nothing tastes as good as a happy stomach feels! I'm still working on it though. I've also learned it's not as hard as I thought it would be to eliminate gluten from my diet. I just had to read up on what I could eat, and make sure the house was stocked with gluten free food so I wouldn't give in to temptation when I was hungry. Betty Crocker even makes gluten free cake, brownie, and cookie mixes. I haven't tried them yet, so who knows if they're good, but at least I know I won't have to be cakeless on my birthday! There's pretty much a gluten free version of almost any food out there.

Anyway, I know you all didn't want to hear about my stomach issues, but I figured this was life changing enough for me to blog about. Here's a little song to listen to if you want a bit of Disney to brighten up your day.