Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Gluten-free almost a year


Well, I've been on my gluten-free diet bout ten months now. It proved to be quite challenging to actually get started on. I had to learn to read the labels on every singe food item and decipher each manufacturer and the way they listed their ingrediants. I continue to have moments of childish woe when I realize I can't eat everything I want, but those moments pass. My kitchen pantry and fridge are now in full accordance with my diet and I have a good sized list of edibles. Figuring out what is gluten-free was arguably the toughest part. There was lots of research and google searching involved. I am now a regular at our local health food store and it's gf free section.
My digestive system is sooo much happier with me. No longer do I have the once typical bloating, cramps and sluggishness from eating all those wheat/ flour products. I think my moods are actually more stable, if that's even possible. I never feel hungry or deprived because in a sense I can eat as much and as often as I want from my list.
I did quickly drop twenty pounds within the first month and have kept it off save for an aberrant five pounds that seems to come and go, like, whenever.
The items I can snack on was drastically reduced. I had no idea that I used to snack so very often. Currently, my snack choices are Lays Sour Cream and Onion Potatoe Chips, gf free chocolate cookies, plain corn chips and Snickers. I love Snickers! Them being GF is one the happiest things about my diet. If they weren't...omg, I hate to think of the state I would be in. (I'm pretty sure that five pounds that comes and goes is related to Snickers self-control...or not:)
My family is pretty used to me eating and cooking separate meals now also. I continue to cook regular meals for them a few times a week.
It's interesting in the past ear, how many food products have taken to blatantly label their product Gluten Free. Even local fast food establishments like our little homespun pizza place has its own Gluten Free menu! Progress.
Overall, I am very glad that I survived the early turbulence of switching over. It does get easier as one goes along. I plan on continuing it for quite sometime. My body heartily thanks me!