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How to Go Gluten-Free: Gluten-Free for Beginners Ebook

Remove Gluten from Your Life NOW!

Have you or a family member been diagnosed with Celiac Disease or a gluten-sensitivity but don’t know how to answer the question – NOW WHAT?

Take the guess-work out of learning which products may contain hidden gluten, how to travel and dine out if you’re gluten-free, and reduce your risk of cross contamination with the complete guide: Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Meal Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success.

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In the Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Meal Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success eBook you’ll find:

  • 30 Day Gluten-Free Meal Plan including daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes
  • Over 10 brand new gluten-free recipes, plus links to recipes on IowaGirlEats.com
  • Printable shopping lists
  • Gluten-free foods you can eat (and the stuff you can’t!)
  • How to create a well-stocked gluten-free kitchen
  • My favorite gluten-free products
  • Tips for avoiding cross contamination in your home
  • How to find hidden sources of gluten in your home and favorite products
  • How to travel and dine out with Celiac Disease or a gluten sensitivity
  • What to do if you’re not feeling better right away
  • My favorite gluten-free resources
  • And more!

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My Story

Hello! My name is Kristin Porter and I’m the blogger behind the gluten-free eats, travel stories, and more here at Iowa Girl Eats!

I started Iowa Girl Eats in the spring of 2009. As a newlywed with time on my hands that had previously been spent wedding planning, I decided to pour my energy into a blog about food, travel, and fitness. Five years later I was blogging simple, mostly healthy recipes (this girl loves her bacon and cheese!) full time and was expecting my first child with my husband Ben.

Our son, Lincoln, came into the world as I think a lot of babies do – not exactly according to plan.

We’d waited longer than most of our friends to have kids – filling up the years in our mid-late 20s with vacations to Italy, Jamaica, New Orleans, and California, trying new restaurants, and coming and going as we pleased, but were finally ready to welcome a sweet bundle of joy into our lives in the summer of 2013. (Fun fact: Ben hates kayaking.)

Kayaking

Our son, Lincoln, came into the world as I think a lot of babies do – not exactly according to plan. I was open to an epidural and expected a long labor, as is common with many first-time moms, but was completely unprepared for a medically-induced labor that ended in an emergency C-section 12 hours later. I will never forget my whole body uncontrollably shaking on the operating table, so terribly sad that the birth of my first son had come to this, before finally passing out after being awake for over 24 hours. 12 of them spent having contractions every minute and a half.

But, as any Mom will tell you, it was all worth it. We had Lincoln. The sweetest baby of all time!

Lincoln

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Entering the Fog

Lincoln was as close to a perfect baby as we figured we could get. No colic, no cries we couldn’t figure out how to soothe within minutes. There was a pesky pacifier addiction that led me to take it away cold turkey (that was fun! #sarcasm) and a bout of silent reflux that had us scratching our sleepy heads when he’d wake up over and over and over, every night, before we figured out what was going on.

Six months of sheer exhaustion, sinking weight, stabbing pains in my stomach, and horrible GI issues could no longer be chalked up to side effects of being a new Mom.

But eventually, the boy slept. All through the night. The same night we started feeding him solid foods, in fact. Go figure! Ben and I were finally getting 8+ hours of sleep per night, but I was still waking up feeling as though I’d slept for a measly hour or two.

I had splitting headaches at wakeup.

I felt exhausted all day.

Brain fog left me feeling forgetful and fuzzy.

Worse yet, my weight, which had been slipping away steadily since I gave birth, was at an all time low despite the fact that my appetite was at an all time high from nursing. I still remember my Mom asking me, Honey, are you OK? when I was two months post-partum. Your face is so thin. It was clear I wasn’t. Later my sister-in-law would confide in me that she and my brother knew something was wrong – that I wasn’t “all there”. I didn’t have a clue what was going on but six months of sheer exhaustion, sinking weight, stabbing pains in my stomach, and horrible GI issues could no longer be chalked up to side effects of being a new Mom.

(This picture was taken when Lincoln was just a few weeks old. I remember looking at my face in the photo and feeling shocked. Despite my elation over being a new Mom, I was so, so sick.)

KristinandLincoln

I have no idea what it was (thanks, brain fog!) but something made me start thinking that gluten might be the cause of my problems. At that point I knew next to nothing about what it meant to eat gluten-free but still, I couldn’t get it off my mind. Desperate for any relief, I did some research then cut gluten out of my diet the best I could (gluten, I quickly learned, is in a lot of foods,) for a week to see what, if anything, would happen. By day three I felt a literal clearing of the fog. My stomach pains lessened substantially, I had more energy than I had in over a year (pregnancy is hard work!) and was feeling more “present”. I couldn’t BELIEVE it!

There was no arguing with the results. Normal levels of gluten antibodies in a person’s body should be between 1 and 19. Mine was 174.

I immediately made an appointment with my doctor to tell him my suspicions. By this point I’d Googled every document known to man on Celiac Disease – an autoimmune disorder in which the ingestion of gluten by way of wheat, barley, rye, and sometimes oats (you’ll find a full list of all the names gluten can go by in my eBook!) causes damage to the small intestine, resulting in malnourishment at best, Type-1 Diabetes, anemia, infertility, and cancer at worst – and insisted on being tested for gluten antibodies in my blood which, if high, could indicate the presence of the disease.

There was no arguing with the results. Normal levels of gluten antibodies in a person’s body should be between 1 and 19.

Mine was 174.

The good news is that I had a lead as to why I’d been feeling so miserable for six months. The bad news was that I likely had Celiac Disease which can lay dormant in a person’s body only to be triggered by a traumatic event such as a car crash, bacterial infection, conk of the head after slipping in the shower, or a really bad labor and delivery like the one I’d just gone through.

My next stop was to see a specialist who performed an endoscopy and colonoscopy to confirm what we all knew was probably true. I barely remember the post-op conversation with the doctor except for the fact that yep, I had Celiac Disease! I felt elated and crushed at the same time. Knowing what had been causing me to feel the way I had for six months was the best feeling, but knowing what had to come next was the WORST.

LincolnKisses

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The Aftermath

I had to start eating gluten-free. The doctor told me so! In fact, that’s pretty much all he told me. I had my diagnosis, but no direction. No resources nor support to help me answer the question, NOW WHAT?

I did my very best to eat gluten-free after my diagnosis, but going from a person who couldn’t remember the last time she’d read a food label, to having to inspect every. single. element. on a can or box or carton of food felt like an impossible feat. I was getting accidentely glutened all the time and continually felt like I’d take one step forward, then ten steps back.

Cooking healthy, gluten-free meals at home is NOT hard.

It got to a point where I was scared to eat because getting glutened made me feel that bad. I felt hopeless, defeated, and even started drinking a little more than I should have after Lincoln went to bed to dull the stomach pains after getting glutened, and frankly because I was absolutely miserable over my diagnosis. I was truly mourning the foods I’d never eat again, and the lifestyle I was leaving behind.

But slowly, things got better. I learned the many names gluten can go by, how to eat at restaurants, which products were safe (and which were not,) how to avoid cross contamination, and that cooking healthy, gluten-free meals at home is NOT hard, nor does it require trips to specialty grocery stores for weird and expensive ingredients. Most importantly, I accepted the fact that Celiac Disease was my new reality and I could either continue sinking, or swim like heck.

Thankfully, I chose the latter.

All that said, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned about how to successfully go gluten-free in my Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Meal Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success eBook. If you or a family member has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease or non-Celiac gluten sensitivity, or you just want to try going gluten-free, don’t waste time slipping up, Googling for hours each night, or feeling hopeless.

I’ve got you covered!

Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success | iowagirleats.com

 

In the Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Meal Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success ebook you’ll find:

  • 30 Day Gluten-Free Meal Plan including daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes
  • Over 10 brand new gluten-free recipes, plus links to recipes on IowaGirlEats.com
  • Printable shopping lists
  • Gluten-free foods you can eat (and the stuff you can’t!)
  • How to create a well-stocked gluten-free kitchen
  • My favorite gluten-free products
  • Tips for avoiding cross contamination in your home
  • How to find hidden sources of gluten in your home and favorite products
  • How to travel and dine out with Celiac Disease or a gluten sensitivity
  • What to do if you’re not feeling better right away
  • My favorite gluten-free resources

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Highlights

One of my favorite parts of the eBook is having printable pages like the “Eat This, Not That” list, plus shopping lists, and lists to help create a well stocked gluten-free kitchen. I am a list fiend, and very visual too, so these pages are especially handy for me.

EatThisNotThat

To help transition you into cooking and eating gluten-free at home, I’ve created four weekly meal plans with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes visually laid out in an easy to follow calendar format. There should be NO confusion over what’s next to eat!

MealPlan

While the heart of the eBook is being a resource to those who want or need to learn what it means to eat and live gluten-free, of course there’s tasty new recipes in there too! Like my mouthwatering Beef and Broccoli. Ben ate one bite then immediately asked if we could make it for his parents the next time they come into town. Totally company-worthy, but also great when you’re just craving trashy take-out made much healthier at home.

BroccoliBeef

There’s also a snack recipe in the eBook that I had to make three times before I got a chance to photograph it. They are so good I couldn’t keep a batch around in the house longer than a few hours! I can’t wait for you to try this delicious recipe.

EnergyBalls

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The Present!

It’s been years now since my Celiac Disease diagnosis, and we’ve since welcomed another son AND daughter into our family! Truly life feels “normal” again. “Normal” because, unless you live in a bubble, accidental ingestion of gluten is bound to happen, plus my diagnosis seems to have come with a side of chronic fatigue. But, I have zero stomach pains, am at a healthy weight again, and most importantly, am not scared to eat.

Bring on the (gluten-free) bacon!

I’ve heard horror stories of people feeling unwell or being misdiagnosed for years – decades, even – before getting tested and diagnosed with Celiac Disease or a gluten-sensitivity.

Whether my story sparks you to get tested (again, it starts with a simple blood draw at your doctor’s office,) or provides you with direction after a Celiac Disease or gluten-sensitivity diagnosis, I want to help you go gluten-free NOW!

 

Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success | iowagirleats.comRemove Gluten From Your Life!

Have you or a family member been diagnosed with Celiac Disease or a gluten-sensitivity but don’t know how to answer the question – NOW WHAT?

Take the guess-work out of learning which products may contain hidden gluten, how to travel and dine out if you’re gluten-free, and reduce your risk of cross contamination with the complete guide:

Gluten-Free for Beginners: 30 Day Meal Plan and Guide for Gluten-Free Success.

Add to Cart