Gluten free me

Last year about this time I was eating lots of cheese. The problem is and was ... I'm dreadfully allergic to it. I've been sure of my dairy allergy for at least six years. I saw a doctor but shrugged it off. After all it was cheese. Cheese is my life.

Those days all ended in China. Cheese is not easy to find and when you do pay the eight euros for it there is a huge meh factor. I gave it all up. Now that I've given up dairy I feel so much better. My skin is clearer. My eyes are brighter and I digest everything so much better. The dreaded mucus has gone too. All blessings.

Oh and I lost my paunch, or nearly ten kilos to be exact.

I also stopped eating wheat and any glutens and down I shrunk to the weight I was before having Little S.

My new way of eating is hard to describe. I'm slowly backing out of an old way of eating so I still have old habits. I still eat some meat, one of my few vices. I'd say about 5 percent of my diet is meat based. For some reason giving up meat is not easy. Mostly I eat fish though, steamed or canned.

Another 5 percent of my diet is gluten free grains. I eat corn flakes with no milk for breakfast covered in fresh fruit. I sprinkle it with cinnamon:

"In traditional Chinese medicine, Cassia cinnamon is used for colds, flatulence, nausea, diarrhea, and painful menstrual periods. It's also believed to improve energy, vitality, and circulation and be particularly useful for people who tend to feel hot in their upper body but have cold feet."

And I gave up coffee for green tea. I will still have espresso when visiting Italy though or when I find some great espresso brewing at a friends house. Coffee was a definite vice but being in China is like being in coffee prison so it was easy to give it up. It's much more fun shopping for tea.

For lunch I make raw salads. Raw foods make up about 85 percent of my diet. A typical salad is spinach leaves, courgette, tomato, carrot, ginger, hot peppers, tuna and maybe an egg. I would like to give up the egg but it's another vice. One day at a time. Dessert is always a piece of fruit.

Dinner is much the same. I eat salads. I love my salads so much I look forward to them. I actually think they're better than restaurant salads because they're so fresh.

I still have some lingering vices that don't fit my raw food, vegan goals. The meat of course is one, the eggs, peanuts, chocolate, sometimes even potato chips * gasp*. I am far from being a saint. I love salty snacks. I'd say my vices account for about 5 percent of my diet.

One thing which pleased me was that I found that I could cook Christmas dinner and still enjoy the things I made in moderation. It was even refreshing to not overeat for once. After the holiday I shelved my cookbooks and went back to raw. It was like going home again. It felt normal.

Lately I've taken up juicing. I'm intrigued by juice fasts and I'll be doing my first one here very soon, maybe at the end of the month. I'm really excited about it. To work up to it I'm juicing now at lunch and eating a much smaller salad afterwards. I have heard that juice fasts are easier when friends do it together. If you're interested in joining in I'd be happy to have some company via a facebook group. Even if you've never juiced before you might want to give it a try!