Hey there! My name is Tera and I wanted to start a blog about living a healthy lifestyle while maintaining a G-Free Diet. I have always been very health conscious, so it's super important to me to find good G-Free recipes and foods that are yummie and not loaded with sugar & processed ingredients. Now that I've decided to compete in my first figure show, it's even more important to find "clean" G-Free foods. I had a hard time finding resources for a Gluten Free Show Prep Diet, so I decided to start my own blog telling my journey to becoming a G-Free Figure Competitor and sharing the helpful tips/trick that I have found.
A Little Background on How I Was Diagnosed with Celiac Disease:
When I was in high school, I broke out in small, itchy blisters all over my knees and elbows. My doctors told me that it was psoriasis. So I did the special creams that he prescribed me and never got any relief. So, back to the doctor I went & he sent me home with different meds and creams. After years of this, I decided to just give up and deal with whatever it was that I had. In 1999, the same blistery rash that I had on my knees and elbows showed up on my face literally overnight. Being a girl and a little vain, this was something that I was not going to just live with. I went back to the doctor and he told me that it was acne. Well, I didn't need an MD behind me name to tell me that "acne" like this doesn't just show up over night, so I asked to be referred to a dermatologist. When I saw the dermatologist, he immediately wanted to do a biopsy because he knew what I had on my face as not acne. Again, being a girl, I really didn't want to have my face cut into so he biopsied the blisters on my elbow. 3 days later I got my results. The blisters on my face, knees and elbows was Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH). My derm then started asking me about my stomach. Ummm...hello? I thought dermatologists were skin doctors? When I asked him why he was asking me those questions, he said that the DH could be a symptom of something else called Celiac Disease. My dermatologist recently saw a patient with DH and they also had Celiac Disease (CD). He referred me to see a gastroenterologist. Enter my saving grace - Dr. Hecht. After answering a few questions, Dr. Hecht told me that he was positive that I had CD and we needed to schedule a biopsy to see how much damage was done to my small intestine. When I got the results I found out that I did have CD and, THANK GOD, the damage to my small intestine was minimal. So, long story short - 10 years later I am G-Free and feeling great!
There you go, my G-Free story. I thought it was important to share so you know how I came to living a G-Free Lifestyle. I'm not doing this "diet" because it's a fad or as a means to lose weight (I'll talk about this whole "myth" in a later post), it's to stay alive and healthy! Hopefully through this blog I can help anyone who wants to live the G-Free life in a healthy way.
