I'm very happily married, and love my husband very much. We have cats that I spoil, and my husband is raising rabbits. I'm still a beginner gardener trying to grow vegetables. I'm not working right now; if we get an automatic vehicle I probably will try for at least part-time though (my shifting knee is somewhat bad from a work-related injury).
I recently self-diagnosed myself with celiac disease -- unable to tolerate gluten -- after doing an elimination diet (because the pelvic ultrasound, colonoscopy, CT, and bloodwork all came back negative for the more common GI complaints).
I ate meat, vegetables, fruit, and a little cheese for the longest time, then I finally started adding non-gluten foods that I made from scratch. It worked for a while, but as I added more scratch foods, I started getting severely painful episodes again.
More searching, found IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and the differences between soluble and insoluble fibers, and how IBS sufferers are supposed to eat INsoluble only AFTER eating some soluble fiber first. Yea, it sounded weird to me too, but severe pain will convince people to try unusual things, and what could re-ordering my fiber consumption hurt anyway?
I'm VERY happy to report that other than one episode, I've gone months without pain! The episode a few months ago happened after eating a cruciferous veggie mix, and although I did eat rice prior to the cruciferious veggie mix, the veggies weren't finely diced as recommended (duh).
My guess on why I thought I reacted to wheat was because back then I was eating whole wheat (contains a lot of INsoluble fiber). After a few weeks following the IBS diet, I slowly experimented with finely ground processed wheat (the bad kind, ha ha) and had no episodes with white bread or basic pasta (no whole grain).
But having all those gut episodes prevented me from planting my garden, grrr! By the time I started feeling better, it was too late to plant because by the time they would have started producing, our temperatures would have been too high. I'm waiting for September to plant our second season with cold tolerant veggies, lettuces, greens, and fast growing veggies -- we occasionally get freezes anywhere between December-February, but usually after January if at all. I've had tomato plants survive winter a few times, and got a few early spring tomatoes! But don't be too jealous, we also get numerous 100+F heat spells and hurricanes too.
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