I'm hungry all the time!

No one warned me I'd be starving all the time when I went on my new gluten free diet! I had an insatiable appetite! You could spot me running into the local shop to grab a packet of Smiths chips on my way home to eat in the car - I couldn't even make it the 30 minute drive home!

I mentioned this to a colleague of mine who's Mum is Coeliac, and she told me her Mum was the same for the first 3 months, but felt a bit better after that. 3 months?! I hate feeling hungry!

Anyway, I finally unearthed the reason why (thanks to the wonderful Coeliac Society). Much of a gluten free diet is high GI (fast absorbing foods that do not keep you full for very long) which is why I was feeling so hungry! I've had to re-educate the way I eat - basically really focusing on trying to eat low and medium GI foods (check out www.glycemicindex.com/) but also eating more often. I bought a wonderful book, Low GI gluten-free living - the essential diet and recipe guide by Kate Marsh, Prof. Jennie Brand-Miller and Philippa Sandall. This book is endorsed by the Coeliac Society of Australia and is a great start when understanding how to lower the overall GI value of your diet, but also has some great recipes and a good list at the back of staple foods so you can check on how your going.


I also went to see a Dietitian 6 months after my diagnosis - I wish I had gone earlier! She was fabulous (Sarah Dacres-Manning who I saw at the North Sydney Sports Clinic). Don't be scared off by the fact she's a Sports Dietitian - she was fabulous, and so high energy! I would recommend going to see a Dietitian, even if you think you know what you're doing. She gave me some great tips, checked out my blood tests and gave me the confidence to eat more without worrying about putting on too much weight. I have in fact come down to 62kgs with relatively little effort.

She got me to log what I was eating for a month - that was scary! The amount of chocolate I was eating wasn't too good! And I may have omitted a few of the glasses of wine! But what she helped me to realised was that because I was exercising up to 4 times a week, and on a gluten free diet, I wasn't getting enough carbs, and I was also not eating enough low GI food (thus craving the chocolate, especially in the afternoon).

I now eat about 6 times a day - a vast difference to how I was brought up, and also a big mental shift was needed by me. I was desperate to lose my post baby kgs, and I didn't think this was going to help! But it did. Because I was eating properly, I didn't need the chips or the chocolate anymore, and I had more energy to exercise, so immediately the kgs started to come off.

I will post some menu plans for you to see - but essentially I eat something like the following:

Breakfast (within 30 mins of waking up): Banana smoothie (1 banana, no fat calcium enriched milk, honey, low fat yogurt) plus gluten free toast

Morning tea: Apple

Lunch: Pea and ham soup and gluten free toast with a cheese slice or a salad and another banana

Afternoon tea: slice of home made orange and almond cake or gluten free hot chocolate or glass of fat free milk or 1 orange or gluten free crackers with pate

Dinner: Cottage pie or chicken curry with basmati rice or Thai beef salad or gluten free pasta with chicken, tomato and vegetable sauce

Supper: glass of low fat milk or herbal tea and gluten free biscuit.

Please be aware, I'm not a Dietitian, just a coeliac with a keen interest in the food I eat and the effect it has on me and I exercise at least 3 - 4 times a week. You need to see a proper medical expert to work out what's best for you.