Skinny Gluten Free Girl

Confessions of a Skinny Gluten Free Girl

I was a skinny kid. Actually it is not uncommon for people with gluten issues, who should be gluten free, to be skinny, especially those with Celiac Disease. We have issues with digestion and do not properly obtain nutrients from our food. But I was a seemingly healthy kid, so it was not too much of an issue.  Occasionally some doctor would tell my mother that she needed to fatten me up and so she would feed me extra bananas and make me down milkshakes packed with ice cream for awhile. Not such a bad deal!  I loved bananas, but the shakes were a little harder to handle – I always preferred food lower in fat – I would pick ice milk over ice cream any day, preferred non-fat milk to regular and wanted all visible fat removed from meat (on second thought maybe there was something wrong with me!). But I ate like a race horse so at the end of the day everyone left me alone and just chalked my boniness up to genetics.

I never minded being called skinny; it was just a part of who I was – “The Skinny Girl.” I was a skinny teenager and a skinny young woman, even after birthing two children. As time went by the girls and women we admired became skinnier and I went from being considered skinny to “normal.”

And then I got diagnosed as gluten intolerant and probably for the first time in my life was actually digesting the food I consumed in such great quantities. Combined with hormonal and metabolism changes I gained more weight than I was comfortable with.

I was in my thirties and had never dieted in my life; I had no clue what to do so I just cut down what I ate to next to nothing  and lost the weight. At the time I thought I was so clever but in truth, nothing was further from the truth. Not eating is not the way to properly loose weight if you want to keep it off. And so the craziness began.

After a few years of trying to recapture what I thought of as my identity – The Skinny Girl – I smartened up. I am now happy to be The Healthy Gluten Free Girl.

Eighty percent or so of my diet is really good – tons of organic vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, fresh fruit, some seeds and nuts.   I do eat desserts, I put cream in my coffee (organic cream, organic coffee) and I will even have a little bit of (GASP!) sugar now and again. But I believe nothing thrives in deprivation, so I never deprive myself.

I look at my body like a bank account and I try not to write checks I can’t cover. I keep my body fueled so it will keep going for me. If I indulge a little more than I should then I eat salad for the next meal or I will exercise a bit more. It is all about checks and balances.

I will admit this bank account point of view is a new concept for me. Previously I had been known to occasionally get real busy and forget to eat until late at night and then eat everything in sight and collapse into bed. (Seriously? I am a food blogger – how do I forget to eat?) In essence I was overdrawing my “bank account” and being assessed overdraft fees in the form of extra pounds around the middle.

Nowadays I try to keep my blood sugar even and so I eat often through out the day. I am still busy so I rely on some conveniences. I carry SOYJOY bars in my purse, have some stashed in my glove box and desk drawer and in my gym bag.Gluten Free Nutrition Bars Banana Flavored

Before I was approached by SOYJOY to try their bars I stayed away from nutrition bars either because they contained gluten, tasted nasty or were made with soy isolate. SOYJOY bars are made from real, whole soy (not soy isolate) and real, whole fruit.

One of my favorite flavors is banana – ironic huh? My mom used to feed me bananas to try and fatten me up and now I eat banana SOYJOY bars to keep from getting fat!

I am grateful to SOYJOY for their commitment to making gluten free nutrition bars which are free from soy isolate, providing me a way to keep my body bank account balanced and be a healthy gluten free girl.

Disclaimer: All nutrition facts on Gluten Free & More are meant only as a guide and may differ depending on product brands used or ingredient substitutions. Some errors may occur, so you are encouraged to confirm the recipe’s ingredient and nutrition suitability for your own diet.
Have you tried this recipe? Give it a star rating and let us know your thoughts in the Ratings & Reviews section below.
Tags: Bars Celiac Soyjoy Weight
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  1. August 8, 2011

    My mum used to feed me liquid malt and raw egg-flips. Bananas are a lot tastier!

    1. August 8, 2011

      Oh man! Gross. Yes, I will take the bananas any day. Plus ironically the malt had gluten.

  2. Joy
    August 8, 2011

    I love that line about writing checks your body can’t cash! So true.

    1. August 8, 2011

      Thanks Joy!

  3. Julie
    August 8, 2011

    I need to remember that not eating is not the way to loose weight, thanks!

    1. August 8, 2011

      Yep, that is a hard one for me but I am getting a handle on it!

  4. Donna
    August 8, 2011

    I was a skinny kid too! They used to say I had hollow legs, oh to have that problem now!

    1. August 8, 2011

      Seriously! I understand. :)

  5. I think the best thing that you said, (out of the many gems of wisdom) was “Nothing thrives in deprivation.” We need to shout this one from the mountain tops. From one Healthy Gluten-Free Girl to another, cheers!!

    1. August 10, 2011

      Thanks Heather!

  6. August 16, 2011

    Reading this post has come at the perfect time for me. Being the middle of winter here in Australia naturally means putting on a little extra weight. I’m never that stoked to find my pants fitting me a little more snugly than before, but I’m with you. If I have a “bad” day, or if I bake a cake. I simply eat less or a salad for the next meal too. I also like to do 1-2 days a month only eating raw foods, with plenty of juices. Roll on summer I say…

  7. Great post! It is an interesting concept gaining weight after going gluten-free becuase you’re finally absorbing nutrients. I had never thought of it from that angle. I just recently (so recently I still haven’t shared it on my blog) discovered my own gluten intolerance and went gluten free. It has only been about 6 weeks and so far, I have experienced weight loss, but I will be watchful not to overindulge!

    1. August 22, 2011

      Good luck Chelsey, let me know if you need any help with your transition to a gluten free diet.
      xo,
      carol

  8. September 1, 2011

    This is an interesting take on being GF. I’ve gained some weight since going GF as well as my body couldn’t use most of what I used to eat either! This is a different perspective from those who call GF just a fake diet fad.

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