Gluten Free Hell - Next Exit

We have to whaaaat?

April 10, 2017 - In my latest post I talked about how we were preparing for a new adventure, well that adventure is approaching rather quickly. Our son is all set to go with the Brain Balance Achievement Center and we are excited and looking forward to the positive changes Maikel will be making, in order for us to succeed in this 6 month program we have to make several changes as a family and they aren't very happy about it; we have to see the bigger picture and the benefits these changes it will have on our lives.

The program is like a Basic Training Brain Camp, it's intensive and will require complete dedication and full commitment. In addition to our son's physical and sensory exercises, we have to change our diets as well as our everyday routine. Starting now we have to transition into a gluten-free/Dairy-free/Sugar-free diet (aka household prison sentence) and also reduce the amount of screen time the kids are getting. If any of you have a little boy, you know they love their video games! Although excited, Maikel is not liking the fact he can't play his video games, build his Legos or play on his phone... I'm realizing now that this is sooo not going to be easy, lord help us.

So, What now?

I have to credit Pinterest and Google for making this diet seem like less of a death sentence, however, I am still overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to put in to this. I love cooking, the electric skillet and Crock Pot have always been so good to me; as a matter of fact I have board after board dedicated to yummy meals and meal planning ideas that just never made it past the pinning stage... So after a few days of surfing I was finally able to put together just a few ideas and create a shopping list centered around our new diet and am making it a point this weekend to not only tackle my household chores but packaging freezer meals for the next couple weeks.

Through the few days of browsing I was able to find a few recipes that I hope our family might enjoy but struggled to find variety. Most of our meals will consist of chicken which is fine because the kids all love chicken, what they won't be liking is that a lot of them are curry based or include Kale; tough shit people - just suck it up! I am confident we will survive and the kids will be happy to know we will be drinking a lot of smoothies and we get to make our own fruit snacks so not all is lost!

Prepare Phase I

We divided up our diet into 3 phases to help us prepare for the real deal. We have begun switching everything to gluten/Dairy free and are cleansing the house of all the junk. Our teenagers don't seem to understand the concept of addiction, they are currently fighting for a secret stash of junk food which I have rejected each time explaining that there is no single place in the house they could hide it and the others not find it. Of course, children think as though they can outsmart everyone but they fail to realize we were children once too and we always found the stash. When someone has an addiction they will always find a way to get what they need and we have to break ourselves of that by getting rid of everything we now can't have. After the weekend is over we will be prepared for our evening meals via the Crock Pot and on our way to phase 2.

Our final welcome meeting is in a few days and we have already begun doing our exercises at home, which Maikel and I love doing. We will keep you updated on his progress and the status of our diet, I would love any recommendations anyone has on the Gluten Free/Dairy Free/Sugar Free diet... I'll be sure to let you know how the new dishes turn out as well.

Until next time,