So the follow up to my post on Gluten Free Equals Allergy Free is this:
Let's rewind to a couple of nights ago: Tuesday night, summer time, co-ed softball season. What follows a fun softball game? Pizza and beer! Well for me gluten free pizza and water. Being a teacher and getting paid only once a month...it was almost payday, and I didn't have the money to spend on my usual gluten free pizza, it's expensive! So I completely caved! I gave in to the fact that I was hungry, and wanted the dollar slice of pizza that everyone else on the team got on dollar pizza by the slice night at our local Pleasure Point Pizza.
Now let's skip ahead to Wednesday night, Greek Food! What comes better with a delicious plate of chicken at a Greek restaurant?...pita and tzatziki sauce! Neither one are paleo and pita bread certainly is not gluten free...but I indulged. It was probably the best pita bread I've ever had! It was warm, fresh, soft, and full of flavorful spices and garlic. It was delicious! And good thing it was the best pita bread I've ever had because it will most likely be my last. Goodbye pita bread! It's time for us to part ways.
Why? Why you ask? Well, that brings us to yesterday, when I wrote the post called Gluten Free Equals Allergy Free.
Yesterday, after two nights of complete gluten indulgences, I was suffering what seemed like the worst allergies ever! Or maybe it had been so long since I suffered like that because I have been following a paleo diet and making gluten free food alternative choices when I cheat. So here's what happened. Yesterday, I woke up completely plugged up. It was like if I was SpongeBob, I was completely rung dry of any water what so ever! And my symptoms actually became worse throughout the day. And that wasn't it for the morning symptoms either. My nose was plugged up, my throat was itchy, my ears were itchy, and I was tired. Throughout the afternoon, the symptoms remained, although I think the itchy ears and throat subsided, but I became even more plugged up and dried out...my throat felt like it was closing or limited in full breathing capacity, my anxiety was elevated, that wasn't fun. Not fun because I am a sixth grade teacher! I need anxiety like I need 33 eleven and twelve year old students putting glue on each others' chairs. Okay that has never happened, well maybe once...but only with two students, not 33. If there were 33 students doing that, I probably wouldn't be writing this blog post right now because I would be having a glue attack...okay not really. So yeah, plugged up nose, dried out and closing throat, anxiety, headache, congestion! Was it all worth my gluten indulgences? The answer is clearly no.
