It is a great time of year to make resolutions. I have several for this year, but they do not involve food. They don’t involve changing my diet in any way, shape or form other than to include two vegetables at dinner every night. Let’s discuss.

Some people are 100% people – they have to make radical changes to their lives in order to feel like they’ve made a change and can stick to it. If you are on of these people, I admire you. You are able to draw a line in the sand and stick to it. My husband is this way. I’m always proud of him when he sets his mind to making a change.

Me, I’m more of a gradual change kind of gal. I want to change over time. I feel like radical change is too much for me and I feel constrained and want to rebel. Whatever, I’ve decided not to eat now becomes my obsession and I only want to eat that thing or things that are forbidden.

Everyone wants to do a radical diet change (whether you do it over time or immediately) – vegan, Whole 30, AIP, SCD, Paleo, Caveman, Plant paradox, vegetarian, whatever – at the beginning of the new year. I’m not on board. I think the gluten free diet is hard enough and especially if you are within the first year of diagnosis.

If you are within the first year of being gluten free, I think you will make things exponentially more difficult on yourself by trying to add in other dietary restrictions. Getting the gluten free diet is hard in both eating at home and eating out. The whole world is covered in gluten and learning what you can and cannot eat is incredibly difficult. Please, make it easy on yourself and stick to getting gluten free right. Next year might be a better year for crazy diets!

If you are past the first year, I think you can do whatever you want. The best diet strategies I’ve seen are from Michael Pollan, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” and Greg Glassman “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.” For more specific recommendations, here is what CNN says about the best and worst diets for 2020.

Exercise is good. Exercise is really good for those of us with celiac, even when we feel bad. Jumping into a new routine is great and I’ve done them all – even CrossFit. My Level 1 Crossfit certification will expire in May this year – so I drank that Kool Aid! But over time, my body broke down. I am hoping to be able to get back to it this year but for now, tennis is my jam!

For those trying to adjust their microbiome, exercise might be much less expensive than those expensive prebiotics. Here is a study talking about how exercise modifies the microbiome.

For me, my goals are to be more understanding and less “yell-y” with my kids. Put out an online class for those that have been recently diagnosed with celiac disease. I want to put out scientifically accurate content with social posts along the way. I want to put two veggies on the table at dinner every night.

Over the next few days, I have posts planned about cross reactive foods, gluten degrading pills, latigultenase treatment, and leaky gut. All interesting things coming soon!

I’m sorry, today’s post isn’t specifically about celiac disease or any of its issues. I have just being seeing lots and lots of posts in the facebook groups about radical diet changes and people offering their “gut healing” protocols. They are all bunk in my opinion. If you have to take a bunch of supplements or restrict your food intake unnaturally, there is a problem with the diet philosophy. Just eat whole foods and you will be fine – which is why Glassman and Pollan speak to my eating philosophy. I also worked really hard to make this this post much less judgy than it was 20 minutes ago. 😉

Sorry – tomorrow will be much more celiac focused.