Eating my Wheaties

Not much has been going on around our house lately. Since my last post was about allergies (seriously, how gross were those pictures?) I figured I would post a little update.

To say I was frustrated the first time I went for allergy testing would be an understatement. I remember standing in the grocery store and just sobbing into the phone while I talked to my mom. I felt helpless, and a little like a mutant. How was I allergic to every single food?

Over the past few years I’ve realized that there were still foods I could eat without a reaction mostly because I pushed myself to eat them and really, who wants to live without chocolate? Some stuff still really bugs me—for example, I cannot eat any dried fruit. Makes my throat itch like crazy. Strawberries turn my brother’s ears red. It must be an inexplicable family thing.

I never had a problem avoiding those things. But wheat. Beloved wheat. It is a big smack in the face when you eliminate wheat from your diet. Anything remotely delicious has wheat in it and any gluten-free replacement is laughable. Sure, I lost a ton of weight but no one should willingly choose that lifestyle. Sometimes I still catch myself gazing lovingly at a brownie.

So imagine my elation after my most recent round of testing when the Doc told me I might not be allergic to wheat. I wanted to both kiss and smack him at the same time. 6 YEARS, people. 6 years of overly expensive food. 6 years of reading every label. 6 years of not being able to share a pitcher with friends (and now you know how my love of G&T’s developed.)

He told me that the first puncture test they perform has the most reliable results. I didn’t react to wheat on that one this time around. During the second round (with all the needles in my arms!) I reacted mildly and even then it could be a false positive since so many other things were tested at the same time.

I want to be happy but the truth is I’m pretty pissed. I’ve spent a lot of money and deprived myself of a lot of food unnecessarily. But at least I found out, right?

So commence Project Wheat. I will admit that as soon as I found out I bought a half-pound cookie and ate the whole thing. If I didn’t die then I should be okay. But I will take this process slowly and not overdue it, as I learned from my last experiment with chicken.

But I have 6 years of eating to make up for. Beware bakeries: I’m coming.