RyanX
The Living Force
These come from the book The Gluten-Free Bible by Jax Peters Lowell. I've condensed these down somewhat. I thought it was generally good advise for those trying to stick to a strict diet and trying to get over cravings or withdrawal symptoms. I think the advise could apply to other diets besides just "gluten free", although the book is mostly addressed to those with Celiacs disease.
She also doesn't have the best food advise outside of non-gluten foods and she does take a few cracks at smokers (of which she claimed to be one herself at one point). Some of these tips won't apply to everyone. She does have a fun, witty style about her writing though which I thought made this excerpt interesting to read.
Also note that there is reference to a "cheat sheet" on strategy No. 10, which I did not include. Basically it is just a chart that allows you to journal what you ate and when throughout the day and then note any "cheating" patterns. One could probably come up with their own version of this if they were so inclined.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 1
No matter how much you might regret it later, tell your traveling companions about your diet.
The world can be a dangerous place for people like us, and it is very hard to resist seeing travel as a suspension of the rules. No one knows you, so who will know? You will. Before the urge to cheat hits, in the airport while you're waiting to board the plane, tell your companions you're a celiac. (You did order a gluten-free airline meal, didn't you?) Carry nibbles for your room or on the road; pack something sweet of your own for dessert. Offer your companions any bread or muffins that come with your meals. If you are traveling alone, break all the rules of etiquette (this is an emergency), and tell total strangers more than they want to known about your diet - the flight attendant, the person sitting next to you, the waiter at your hotel, the manager of room service. Who cares what they think? You'll never see them again.
When it comes to vacations, the danger is not restricted to staying in hotels, getting to and from a place, or even attempting to order new and odd-looking foods in foreign countries. Any holiday from routine and the responsibilities of work for more than a long weekend qualifies as a potential trouble spot, even if that means sitting on your own front porch with a pile of books or sleeping in your backyard hammock for a week.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 2
Pick your own gluten-free cookies, cakes, pics, and pizza, the gooier the better, eat too much of them and come home as fat and guilty as everyone else.
Vacations are extremely tricky. We work hard, save our money, fly to Disney World, book a cruise, or rent a cottage in the woods. We drive, fly, hike, bike, sail, or swim off and forget all our worries and restrictions for a few weeks. We overspend, overeat, overplay, overindulge ourselves, our kids, our spouses, our friends; even the dog comes home with a T-shirt he'll never wear. We overdo it all, vainly trying to squeeze out two weeks of pleasure among fifty weeks of pain.
Restrain doesn't seem to have much of a say on vacation because the word no never seems to make it into the suitcase. I think this is because holidays are so tied up with feelings of deserving.
How often have you overheard one vacationer say to another about an ice-cream sundae, a mai-tai, or a Rolex, "oh, go ahead, you deserve it"? How often have you said this yourself? My point exactly. Trouble is, what you deserve is not necessarily what is good for you. Tell yourself, while you may be on vacation, your CD (Celiac Disease) is not.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 3
See how many gluten-free festive desserts you can invent. (Anniversary rice pudding, the "I-Can't-Believe-I'm-Fifty" hot fudge sundae, bon voyage banana boat, retirement bombe, rehearsal dinner torte, and the divine wedding dacquose just to get you started.)
Life's Big Moments are fraught with every emotional opportunity to cheat, Phrases like, "hey, it's my birthday" and "It isn't every day you get married, turn forty, retire, celebrate a century in the armed forces, get divorced, have a baby, join a convent, get arrested, win the lottery, land a part in a movie" are dead giveaways that there is trouble ahead.
To make matters worse, it is virtually impossible to attend or be the guest of honor at any of these occasions without prolonging exposure to cake. Even worse, if you happen to be the bride or the groom and have let your in-laws talk you into a wedding cake you can't eat. I don't even want to think about the lifetime of concessions in store for the person who can't or won't make demands on his or her wedding day.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 4
Don't bother the bereaved or similarly preoccupied person with your problems. Just bring a nice gluten-free covered dish, keep your hands out of the bagel chips, and say something nice about the deceased.
This may sound odd, but funerals are dicey for cheating potential. I think it's because the enormity of death makes all of our petty concerns seem trivial and food is so central to the process of grieving. Custom dictates that each mourner contribute to the mountain of food, thus ensuring enough leftovers to help the family get through the first difficult days without having to worry about cooking.
How do you explain your gluten problem to a person who has just lost a loved one? You don't. You put something on your plate for appearances and before you know it. . . it's gone.
The only way to be sure this doesn't happen is to bring something you can eat.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 5
Tell the boss about your gluten intolerance and just happen to mention how important strict adherence to your regimen could be to the containment of health insurance costs for the company.
Job pressure is another big obstacle to self-control, especially the insidious variety found at the average downsized and outsourced corporation. Everyone is paranoid about everyone else. The boss says, "Let's go for burgers" and before you know it, you're tucking into a double cheeseburger on a sesame seed bun. You tell yourself you're doing it in the name of job security (only the healthy survive).
Tell yourself this: No one has ever been fired for refusing to eat bread. If you are, you probably have a landmark lawsuit, which will be waged on CNN.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 6
Figure out how many hours are lost to the company while your coworkers are you having pizza or huddled in front of the building puffing cigarettes. Contrast this with the cost of a refrigerator, a set of safety seal storage containers, and a toaster for your office.
Working late with nothing but a vending machine, a few takeout menus, and a hole as big as Cleveland in your stomach is not conducive to staying on the straight and narrow. Keep a box of cereal, crackers, and something that packs a big protein wallop, such as peanut butter or a box of gluten-free energy bars in your desk. Make sure you wash your utensils carefully, wipe jars, reseal packages and close lids tightly. It won't be good for your career to be seen spraying Raid into your drawers or listing "desk extermination" among your business expenses.
If you're lucky enough to have a private office, I would strongly advise investing in a small refrigerator and keeping it stocked with bottled water, fruit, and your favorite gluten-free snacks. Otherwise, using the one in the employee lounge or cafeteria will do, as long as you label your food with as much guilt producing poignancy as possible. "please don't steal this. It's the only food I can eat!" is always effective.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 7
Understand that the way to your cheating heart is through your stomach. Keep it reasonably full at all times, but not so full that you get fat and acquire other problems. Eat enough to keep your brain from sounding the eating alarm.
If you are truly hungry, the sight of any food, including off-limits food, will trigger an uncontrollable urge to consume. Sadly, there are many people in the world and right here in the United States who experience this kind of hunger every day. And every day, the rest of us get up and go to our refrigerators because we only think we're experiencing it.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 8
Forget: "You are what you eat." Remember: "You eat what you feel."
There are as many behavioral cues in one's life as there are breaths in each day, and it would be impossible to discuss the derivation of every impulse. The following chart may help you clarify your own personal list of emotional land mines. When a truck hits you, it's very important to get the license plate and a good description of the driver. It's just as critical to know what's driving your behavior and to understand the difference between what's felt and what's real. While these interpretations may no always apply to you, they should offer some serious food for thought.
Feeling: My life is empty
Reality: My stomach is empty
Feeling: I can't have anything
Reality: I can't have this corn muffin.
Feeling: I want to crunch a pretzel.
Reality: I want to bite your head off.
Feeling: I'm so angry, I could eat everything in the house.
Reality: I have trouble expressing my anger, so I eat bread instead.
Feeling: I need pasta
Reality: I need comforting
Feeling: I want to hurt you
Reality: I am hurting me
Feeling: Others try to control me.
Reality: I see assistance as control.
Feeling: I need to eat this pie.
Reality: I need attention.
Feeling: You don't care if I eat this cookie.
Reality: I need to talk about why I want to eat this cookie.
Feeling: If I get sick and die, then you'll love me.
Reality: If I get sick and die, no one will love me.
Feeling: Why me?
Reality: Why not?
On closer inspection, you may find that the various feeling behind the urge to cheat express themselves in the need for different foods. If you watch and listen carefully, you may be able to match the food craving with the feelings. It's different for everyone, but the list below may strike a familiar chord. Make sure you have the gluten-free equivalents on hand for those cravings that ring true.
Pretzels, chips, bread sticks = Anger
Pasta, noodles = Sadness
Cocktail mix nibbles = Denial
Ice cream, anything frozen = Pain
Muffins, toast, cereal = Romantic Love
Gravy, stuffing, sandwiches = Mother Love
Anything with butter fat = Unrequited love
Bite-sized cookies, nuts, M&M's or other miniature foods = Anxiety
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 9
Suffer
I know a rather unusual therapist who holds the revolutionary view that the only trouble with most people is that they've never learned how to suffer. He says that, as a culture, we have dedicated ourselves to the notion that psychic pain is preventable. An entire self-help industry has sprung up around the misguided belief that if we try harder, we can deflect or postpone or even wipe out suffering altogether.
Building on that hypothesis, one could say that most self-destructive behavior is a subconscious unwillingness to acknowledge what is really going on, and that it is a repetitive and futile attempt to avoid the unfamiliar territory of our own feelings and be enlightened by the lessons of experiencing them deeply.
If you doubt this, all you have to do is watch someone dating the same type he or she just divorced to see what great and destructive lengths people will go to avoid learning something about themselves through their angst. Still unconvinced? Watch an angry ex-smoker light up after a fender bender in the parking lot.
A friend of mine is fond of saying about life "No one gets out of it alive." Isn't it easier to stop spending enormous amounts of energy on the struggle to remain unaffected by our suffering? Why not surrender to it, feel the pain and move past it, maybe even learn something in the process?
The next time you experience sadness or hopelessness or anger about your gluten-free lot in life (or anything, for that matter), and you feel like crying, slamming a wall, whining, or hollering your head off, find a private place and do it. Let your feelings happen, instead of keeping them under a tight lid. If you're unaccustomed to doing this, you will become extremely uncomfortable during the first few minutes of this exercise. Resist the impulse to push your feelings away. The whole process shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes. My guess is that when you find out what's really going on, you will forget about the unsafe food.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 10
Make a stack of photocopies of the "cheat sheet" on the next page and fill in every day for two weeks.
Patterns will emerge. Associations will be made. A particular time of day may reveal itself to be more fraught with temptation than another. The results may surprise you.
Be specific and do whatever it takes to tell the truth. If you are standing up, say so. The more specific you are, the more insight you will gain. You will begin to take control over those times you are most susceptible to going off your diet.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 11
Acknowledge your cheating with forgiveness. And start fresh.
Whenever you being to lose touch with the emotions that drive your cheating behavior, make some fresh copies of your cheat sheet and start over, and don't fall into the oldest trap of all. You know how this goes: "I've already had half a pie, so why not be a total idiot and finish it off?" This, of course, is followed by: "I feel sick now because I'm bad, so why don't I eat something really bad and make it worthwhile getting sick over?" Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about pounds, as in "I'm never going to be thing, so why don't I eat this?" or talking about gluten: "I'm already miserable; why not finish off the pizza?" It all comes down to being able to stop the downward cycle by acknowledging that you are human and forgive yourself and start over. When viewed this way, weakness itself can become a strength.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 12
Find a really terrible photograph of yourself taken while you were sick. The next time you are tempted to eat pasta in order to lose weight, make note of your rib cage pushing through your shirt, your sunken eyes, your lackluster skin. Remember how sitting at your desk bruised the "buttons" of you spine, how sick you felt. Understand there is such a thing as being too thin.
[...]
Forget Jenny Craig or Nutri-Systems or L.A. Weight Loss, or any of the programs that require you to buy food at franchised centers, Food labeling laws to not apply to products that are sold privately. Not only will it be difficult for you to find something you can eat, you will have no idea how many calories, carbs, and grams of fat each meal contains for when you're ready to go it alone.
Many of these companies count on your regaining the weight. When your bottom line expands, so does theirs. Enough said?
Programs like Weight Watchers are a bit better. While it's true that you can't eat most of the packaged products pitched at these weekly meetings, the plan is not dependent on them. The language changes frequently to make the program sound new, but the old-fashioned support group approach teaches moderation and portion control through the use of daily points. Members learn very quickly how to effectively "eat their points." It's quite possible to fashion a healthy gluten-free diet using this method. Not to mention the weekly public weighing to keep you honest.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 13
A yo-yo is a toy, not a word to describe your eating habits
Losing and gaining, then losing and gaining is terrible for your body, not to mention that many people lose their gallbladders because of yo-yo dieting. And hasn't your body been through enough lately?
Remember this: The faster you lose the weight, the fast it comes back. The more you starve yourself, the more efficiently your body stores calories as fat against the day it finds itself starving once again. Basically, your body knows what you're going to do to it and behaves like a squirrel in the Antarctic. Failure is a breeding ground for cheating and you don't want to go there.
Besides you're already on a diet for life. Who needs another one?
If you have recovered so well that you now have a weight problem, my advise is to lay off the gluten-free desserts for a while, ditto for the muffins and the high-fat cookies. Eat enough high-quality, lean protein and fiber and lots of fruits and vegetables in small meals spread throughout the day, so you never end up standing at the sink and eating everything in the refrigerator. Cut down on the calories, watch the fat and sugar, and start a moderate exercise program. Before you embark on any exercise plan, though, see your family doctor or you gastroenterologist.
I would strongly advise newly diagnosed celiacs not to go it alone when starting a gluten-free diet and/or a reducing diet, but to seek professional nutritional counseling in the person of a registered dietitian to help you make changes you can live with long term. A professional will help you design your diet with an eye toward health and balance, as well as recovery and achieving an ideal weight.
The same goes for those of you who need to put some more meat on your bones. Forget those high-calorie shakes, quick fixes, and power powders with labels that read like the Oxford Unabridged. Even if you find a shake that's gluten-free, they're full of chemicals and things best left in the lab. It may be boring, but eating well-balanced meals with enough of the nutrients you need and taking vitamin mineral supplements is going to get the job done in the long run. Again, seek professional help to ensure you're doing the right thing.
The only way to stop the yo-yo is to cut the string.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 14
Get rid of every no-no in the house.
Forget what your grandmother taught you about wasting food. Be merciless. Serve only gluten-free meals. Send the family out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if necessary. So what if you blow your budget, you're worth it.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 15
Never try to tough it out alone
Tell everyone around you what you are giving up and why, and ask for their support and understanding before you start. Join a support group or start an informal one of your own. Find a like-minded friend and do it on the buddy system. Confess that you might want to cheat on your gluten-free diet and ask to be saved ahead of time.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 16
Take up needlepoint. Or weaving. Or painting. Or juggling.
This may sound silly, but you can't cheat if you're hands are busy with something you really enjoy. It is impossible to eat gluten while doing these things. I don't count years when I speak of my own success staying off cigarettes, nor do I tell horror stories of eating English muffins while caught in the throes of gluten withdrawal. I count needlepoint pillows and chair covers and beach bag and eyeglass cases.
Whether you have told yourself there is no flour in a certain dish you simply had to have, just nibbled the edges of a cookie, or walked into an Italian restaurant in broad daylight and brazenly ordered a heaping bowl of linguine and clam sauce, there is one final strategy that may help. . .
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 17
Remember that success is getting up one more time than you fall down.
You're only cheating yourself.
She also doesn't have the best food advise outside of non-gluten foods and she does take a few cracks at smokers (of which she claimed to be one herself at one point). Some of these tips won't apply to everyone. She does have a fun, witty style about her writing though which I thought made this excerpt interesting to read.
Also note that there is reference to a "cheat sheet" on strategy No. 10, which I did not include. Basically it is just a chart that allows you to journal what you ate and when throughout the day and then note any "cheating" patterns. One could probably come up with their own version of this if they were so inclined.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 1
No matter how much you might regret it later, tell your traveling companions about your diet.
The world can be a dangerous place for people like us, and it is very hard to resist seeing travel as a suspension of the rules. No one knows you, so who will know? You will. Before the urge to cheat hits, in the airport while you're waiting to board the plane, tell your companions you're a celiac. (You did order a gluten-free airline meal, didn't you?) Carry nibbles for your room or on the road; pack something sweet of your own for dessert. Offer your companions any bread or muffins that come with your meals. If you are traveling alone, break all the rules of etiquette (this is an emergency), and tell total strangers more than they want to known about your diet - the flight attendant, the person sitting next to you, the waiter at your hotel, the manager of room service. Who cares what they think? You'll never see them again.
When it comes to vacations, the danger is not restricted to staying in hotels, getting to and from a place, or even attempting to order new and odd-looking foods in foreign countries. Any holiday from routine and the responsibilities of work for more than a long weekend qualifies as a potential trouble spot, even if that means sitting on your own front porch with a pile of books or sleeping in your backyard hammock for a week.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 2
Pick your own gluten-free cookies, cakes, pics, and pizza, the gooier the better, eat too much of them and come home as fat and guilty as everyone else.
Vacations are extremely tricky. We work hard, save our money, fly to Disney World, book a cruise, or rent a cottage in the woods. We drive, fly, hike, bike, sail, or swim off and forget all our worries and restrictions for a few weeks. We overspend, overeat, overplay, overindulge ourselves, our kids, our spouses, our friends; even the dog comes home with a T-shirt he'll never wear. We overdo it all, vainly trying to squeeze out two weeks of pleasure among fifty weeks of pain.
Restrain doesn't seem to have much of a say on vacation because the word no never seems to make it into the suitcase. I think this is because holidays are so tied up with feelings of deserving.
How often have you overheard one vacationer say to another about an ice-cream sundae, a mai-tai, or a Rolex, "oh, go ahead, you deserve it"? How often have you said this yourself? My point exactly. Trouble is, what you deserve is not necessarily what is good for you. Tell yourself, while you may be on vacation, your CD (Celiac Disease) is not.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 3
See how many gluten-free festive desserts you can invent. (Anniversary rice pudding, the "I-Can't-Believe-I'm-Fifty" hot fudge sundae, bon voyage banana boat, retirement bombe, rehearsal dinner torte, and the divine wedding dacquose just to get you started.)
Life's Big Moments are fraught with every emotional opportunity to cheat, Phrases like, "hey, it's my birthday" and "It isn't every day you get married, turn forty, retire, celebrate a century in the armed forces, get divorced, have a baby, join a convent, get arrested, win the lottery, land a part in a movie" are dead giveaways that there is trouble ahead.
To make matters worse, it is virtually impossible to attend or be the guest of honor at any of these occasions without prolonging exposure to cake. Even worse, if you happen to be the bride or the groom and have let your in-laws talk you into a wedding cake you can't eat. I don't even want to think about the lifetime of concessions in store for the person who can't or won't make demands on his or her wedding day.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 4
Don't bother the bereaved or similarly preoccupied person with your problems. Just bring a nice gluten-free covered dish, keep your hands out of the bagel chips, and say something nice about the deceased.
This may sound odd, but funerals are dicey for cheating potential. I think it's because the enormity of death makes all of our petty concerns seem trivial and food is so central to the process of grieving. Custom dictates that each mourner contribute to the mountain of food, thus ensuring enough leftovers to help the family get through the first difficult days without having to worry about cooking.
How do you explain your gluten problem to a person who has just lost a loved one? You don't. You put something on your plate for appearances and before you know it. . . it's gone.
The only way to be sure this doesn't happen is to bring something you can eat.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 5
Tell the boss about your gluten intolerance and just happen to mention how important strict adherence to your regimen could be to the containment of health insurance costs for the company.
Job pressure is another big obstacle to self-control, especially the insidious variety found at the average downsized and outsourced corporation. Everyone is paranoid about everyone else. The boss says, "Let's go for burgers" and before you know it, you're tucking into a double cheeseburger on a sesame seed bun. You tell yourself you're doing it in the name of job security (only the healthy survive).
Tell yourself this: No one has ever been fired for refusing to eat bread. If you are, you probably have a landmark lawsuit, which will be waged on CNN.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 6
Figure out how many hours are lost to the company while your coworkers are you having pizza or huddled in front of the building puffing cigarettes. Contrast this with the cost of a refrigerator, a set of safety seal storage containers, and a toaster for your office.
Working late with nothing but a vending machine, a few takeout menus, and a hole as big as Cleveland in your stomach is not conducive to staying on the straight and narrow. Keep a box of cereal, crackers, and something that packs a big protein wallop, such as peanut butter or a box of gluten-free energy bars in your desk. Make sure you wash your utensils carefully, wipe jars, reseal packages and close lids tightly. It won't be good for your career to be seen spraying Raid into your drawers or listing "desk extermination" among your business expenses.
If you're lucky enough to have a private office, I would strongly advise investing in a small refrigerator and keeping it stocked with bottled water, fruit, and your favorite gluten-free snacks. Otherwise, using the one in the employee lounge or cafeteria will do, as long as you label your food with as much guilt producing poignancy as possible. "please don't steal this. It's the only food I can eat!" is always effective.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 7
Understand that the way to your cheating heart is through your stomach. Keep it reasonably full at all times, but not so full that you get fat and acquire other problems. Eat enough to keep your brain from sounding the eating alarm.
If you are truly hungry, the sight of any food, including off-limits food, will trigger an uncontrollable urge to consume. Sadly, there are many people in the world and right here in the United States who experience this kind of hunger every day. And every day, the rest of us get up and go to our refrigerators because we only think we're experiencing it.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 8
Forget: "You are what you eat." Remember: "You eat what you feel."
There are as many behavioral cues in one's life as there are breaths in each day, and it would be impossible to discuss the derivation of every impulse. The following chart may help you clarify your own personal list of emotional land mines. When a truck hits you, it's very important to get the license plate and a good description of the driver. It's just as critical to know what's driving your behavior and to understand the difference between what's felt and what's real. While these interpretations may no always apply to you, they should offer some serious food for thought.
Feeling: My life is empty
Reality: My stomach is empty
Feeling: I can't have anything
Reality: I can't have this corn muffin.
Feeling: I want to crunch a pretzel.
Reality: I want to bite your head off.
Feeling: I'm so angry, I could eat everything in the house.
Reality: I have trouble expressing my anger, so I eat bread instead.
Feeling: I need pasta
Reality: I need comforting
Feeling: I want to hurt you
Reality: I am hurting me
Feeling: Others try to control me.
Reality: I see assistance as control.
Feeling: I need to eat this pie.
Reality: I need attention.
Feeling: You don't care if I eat this cookie.
Reality: I need to talk about why I want to eat this cookie.
Feeling: If I get sick and die, then you'll love me.
Reality: If I get sick and die, no one will love me.
Feeling: Why me?
Reality: Why not?
On closer inspection, you may find that the various feeling behind the urge to cheat express themselves in the need for different foods. If you watch and listen carefully, you may be able to match the food craving with the feelings. It's different for everyone, but the list below may strike a familiar chord. Make sure you have the gluten-free equivalents on hand for those cravings that ring true.
Pretzels, chips, bread sticks = Anger
Pasta, noodles = Sadness
Cocktail mix nibbles = Denial
Ice cream, anything frozen = Pain
Muffins, toast, cereal = Romantic Love
Gravy, stuffing, sandwiches = Mother Love
Anything with butter fat = Unrequited love
Bite-sized cookies, nuts, M&M's or other miniature foods = Anxiety
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 9
Suffer
I know a rather unusual therapist who holds the revolutionary view that the only trouble with most people is that they've never learned how to suffer. He says that, as a culture, we have dedicated ourselves to the notion that psychic pain is preventable. An entire self-help industry has sprung up around the misguided belief that if we try harder, we can deflect or postpone or even wipe out suffering altogether.
Building on that hypothesis, one could say that most self-destructive behavior is a subconscious unwillingness to acknowledge what is really going on, and that it is a repetitive and futile attempt to avoid the unfamiliar territory of our own feelings and be enlightened by the lessons of experiencing them deeply.
If you doubt this, all you have to do is watch someone dating the same type he or she just divorced to see what great and destructive lengths people will go to avoid learning something about themselves through their angst. Still unconvinced? Watch an angry ex-smoker light up after a fender bender in the parking lot.
A friend of mine is fond of saying about life "No one gets out of it alive." Isn't it easier to stop spending enormous amounts of energy on the struggle to remain unaffected by our suffering? Why not surrender to it, feel the pain and move past it, maybe even learn something in the process?
The next time you experience sadness or hopelessness or anger about your gluten-free lot in life (or anything, for that matter), and you feel like crying, slamming a wall, whining, or hollering your head off, find a private place and do it. Let your feelings happen, instead of keeping them under a tight lid. If you're unaccustomed to doing this, you will become extremely uncomfortable during the first few minutes of this exercise. Resist the impulse to push your feelings away. The whole process shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes. My guess is that when you find out what's really going on, you will forget about the unsafe food.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 10
Make a stack of photocopies of the "cheat sheet" on the next page and fill in every day for two weeks.
Patterns will emerge. Associations will be made. A particular time of day may reveal itself to be more fraught with temptation than another. The results may surprise you.
Be specific and do whatever it takes to tell the truth. If you are standing up, say so. The more specific you are, the more insight you will gain. You will begin to take control over those times you are most susceptible to going off your diet.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 11
Acknowledge your cheating with forgiveness. And start fresh.
Whenever you being to lose touch with the emotions that drive your cheating behavior, make some fresh copies of your cheat sheet and start over, and don't fall into the oldest trap of all. You know how this goes: "I've already had half a pie, so why not be a total idiot and finish it off?" This, of course, is followed by: "I feel sick now because I'm bad, so why don't I eat something really bad and make it worthwhile getting sick over?" Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about pounds, as in "I'm never going to be thing, so why don't I eat this?" or talking about gluten: "I'm already miserable; why not finish off the pizza?" It all comes down to being able to stop the downward cycle by acknowledging that you are human and forgive yourself and start over. When viewed this way, weakness itself can become a strength.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 12
Find a really terrible photograph of yourself taken while you were sick. The next time you are tempted to eat pasta in order to lose weight, make note of your rib cage pushing through your shirt, your sunken eyes, your lackluster skin. Remember how sitting at your desk bruised the "buttons" of you spine, how sick you felt. Understand there is such a thing as being too thin.
[...]
Forget Jenny Craig or Nutri-Systems or L.A. Weight Loss, or any of the programs that require you to buy food at franchised centers, Food labeling laws to not apply to products that are sold privately. Not only will it be difficult for you to find something you can eat, you will have no idea how many calories, carbs, and grams of fat each meal contains for when you're ready to go it alone.
Many of these companies count on your regaining the weight. When your bottom line expands, so does theirs. Enough said?
Programs like Weight Watchers are a bit better. While it's true that you can't eat most of the packaged products pitched at these weekly meetings, the plan is not dependent on them. The language changes frequently to make the program sound new, but the old-fashioned support group approach teaches moderation and portion control through the use of daily points. Members learn very quickly how to effectively "eat their points." It's quite possible to fashion a healthy gluten-free diet using this method. Not to mention the weekly public weighing to keep you honest.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 13
A yo-yo is a toy, not a word to describe your eating habits
Losing and gaining, then losing and gaining is terrible for your body, not to mention that many people lose their gallbladders because of yo-yo dieting. And hasn't your body been through enough lately?
Remember this: The faster you lose the weight, the fast it comes back. The more you starve yourself, the more efficiently your body stores calories as fat against the day it finds itself starving once again. Basically, your body knows what you're going to do to it and behaves like a squirrel in the Antarctic. Failure is a breeding ground for cheating and you don't want to go there.
Besides you're already on a diet for life. Who needs another one?
If you have recovered so well that you now have a weight problem, my advise is to lay off the gluten-free desserts for a while, ditto for the muffins and the high-fat cookies. Eat enough high-quality, lean protein and fiber and lots of fruits and vegetables in small meals spread throughout the day, so you never end up standing at the sink and eating everything in the refrigerator. Cut down on the calories, watch the fat and sugar, and start a moderate exercise program. Before you embark on any exercise plan, though, see your family doctor or you gastroenterologist.
I would strongly advise newly diagnosed celiacs not to go it alone when starting a gluten-free diet and/or a reducing diet, but to seek professional nutritional counseling in the person of a registered dietitian to help you make changes you can live with long term. A professional will help you design your diet with an eye toward health and balance, as well as recovery and achieving an ideal weight.
The same goes for those of you who need to put some more meat on your bones. Forget those high-calorie shakes, quick fixes, and power powders with labels that read like the Oxford Unabridged. Even if you find a shake that's gluten-free, they're full of chemicals and things best left in the lab. It may be boring, but eating well-balanced meals with enough of the nutrients you need and taking vitamin mineral supplements is going to get the job done in the long run. Again, seek professional help to ensure you're doing the right thing.
The only way to stop the yo-yo is to cut the string.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 14
Get rid of every no-no in the house.
Forget what your grandmother taught you about wasting food. Be merciless. Serve only gluten-free meals. Send the family out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if necessary. So what if you blow your budget, you're worth it.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 15
Never try to tough it out alone
Tell everyone around you what you are giving up and why, and ask for their support and understanding before you start. Join a support group or start an informal one of your own. Find a like-minded friend and do it on the buddy system. Confess that you might want to cheat on your gluten-free diet and ask to be saved ahead of time.
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 16
Take up needlepoint. Or weaving. Or painting. Or juggling.
This may sound silly, but you can't cheat if you're hands are busy with something you really enjoy. It is impossible to eat gluten while doing these things. I don't count years when I speak of my own success staying off cigarettes, nor do I tell horror stories of eating English muffins while caught in the throes of gluten withdrawal. I count needlepoint pillows and chair covers and beach bag and eyeglass cases.
Whether you have told yourself there is no flour in a certain dish you simply had to have, just nibbled the edges of a cookie, or walked into an Italian restaurant in broad daylight and brazenly ordered a heaping bowl of linguine and clam sauce, there is one final strategy that may help. . .
Anti-Cheating Strategy No. 17
Remember that success is getting up one more time than you fall down.
You're only cheating yourself.
