Vacation Weight Gain? Hahahahaha!

I lose weight on vacation; said no one ever...

Except maybe the Celiac. 

Just got back from two weeks in Florida and I'm down 5 lbs. We stayed in a condo in John's Pass, a quaint little area just below Clearwater. I lost five pounds. Every vacation, because I fear eating out, I lose a little bit. It seems everyone's idea of a vacation is eating out all the time. 

Don't get me wrong, I have a very understanding family. One daughter (in her twenties) is also Celiac and just as sensitive as I am. She takes more risks in eating out than makes me comfortable. 

In John's Pass we ate at Bubba Gumps and Hooters. It was limited but we did okay. I'm also vegetarian so it's more limiting for me. Most places serve a chicken or fish dish that's gluten free. If you're GF (Gluten Free) Bubba Gumps got a pretty good menu here. 

Hooters can do great salads for vegetarians. I couldn't access their GF menu online but found this from the Urban Tastebuds site; http://glutenfreeguidehq.com/hooters-gluten-free-menu/

We stopped at the Frog Pond for Breakfast and I had tea and fruit. My reasoning here was they didn't have a GF menu and the place is fairly small. I've worked in kitchens/waitressing and believe a small kitchen has limited ability to guard against cross contamination. However the Frog Pond serves massive breakfasts. The plates were piled high with six egg omelets filled with all kinds of goodies. My daughter ate a mushroom cheese omelet and was fine. 

We always stay in a place with a microwave or kitchen due to the Celiac issue. Sometimes I wish I could just relax my guard but I've gotten sick before and it takes 3 days to recover. So my choice is be ooooober careful or take a chance and get sick on vacation. I enjoy my vacations in other ways than eating. I enjoy the sightseeing, trying new things, shopping, spending time with the ones I love. Food isn't everything and if I want something and I have a kitchen, I'll make it myself and know that my vacation won't be ruined by a Celiac-attack. 

Celiac and Weight Gain...

When first confronted with a doctor who said to me, "Could be Celiac Disease but those people are really thin, so it's not that." I believed him. What did I know? What did anyone know about Celiac Disease ten years ago?

So I began going gluten free to see if it helped and it did. Long story short, the doc now thinks I'm Celiac but to get an accurate test I'd have to go back to eating gluten which makes me sick for days.

One thing I noticed when I went gluten free was that I felt deprived. There were now so many things I couldn't eat. No cookies off the shelf, no crusty Italian bread with dinner, no Life cereal. :(

Sucks.

When I found cookies or breads on the health food store shelf I bought them all up and ate to my hearts content. After all, everyone else had so much to choose from and what did I have? An expensive trip to the Health food store and limited choices. Why shouldn't I get to have some enjoyment with food?

Oh the humanity! Oh the pounds!

Most GF food is not low cal. In fact its more high in fat than its glutenous counter parts. And it all lands on the hips and thighs. Before realizing why my pants were getting tighter I'd simply buy another size. After all, I'm Celiac; weigh is good, right?  And I deserve to enjoy food no matter what!

Wrong. A healthy weight is good....we know that, but using this disease to eat to excess was a good excuse.

It took time but gradually I came to realize that GF food needed portion control just like everything else. More salads and meat, less breads, pastas and cookies. It was a learning curve that gave me more curves but I'm fighting my way back down.
Lesson learned. GF food has calories too. Sometimes too many.