Making the decision to (really) go gluten free

I'll start this out by saying that I don't have celiac disease, my husband Dave does. When he was diagnosed, we knew immediately that it would be best to eliminate all the gluten containing foods at home, so we started to clear out our cupboards. Over the last three years, I've only purchased a few things that Dave couldn't eat, there are only the two of us at home, so I didn't want to waste money on something that would get stale before I could eat it. Making the house gluten free never seemed like a hardship to me because I knew I could eat "regular" food when I was at work, or out in a restaurant if I wanted to, and I could tell myself that this was a really good thing for my ongoing struggles with weight control (who needs bread, and cookies, and cake around the house anyway?). Over time, I began to eat gluten less and less often. It was easy to pass up bread in a restaurant by telling myself I didn't really need those extra calories, and as long as I could still have a cookie or a piece of birthday cake at work, I didn't feel deprived. Everything went along just fine. Then in January of this year I had knee surgery and was off work for 11 weeks. We weren't going out to dinner for quite awhile, so I went completely gluten free (without even thinking about it). So far so good, until a trip to Costco where I decided I was a little bored with breakfast and bought some cereal containing wheat. After that, I had some digestive issues. It was nothing drastic, I just felt like I'd eaten something that didn't quite agree with me. I'd eaten the "new" cereal 3 or 4 times before I realized that the cereal was actually the problem. Oh crap! Really?? I actually don't feel quite as good when I eat something with gluten in it? I challenged the idea by eating some chicken noodle soup and had to admit to myself it was true. So, even though I had not been actively avoiding gluten away from home thus far, I made the committment. From now on I will eat no gluten. Done...decision made...easy...no problem! Right? Well, yes and no. The fact that gluten is in just about any kind of processed food you can imagine is really personal now. I have felt a little bit of sadness as I think about some favorite foods I won't eat again unless I can make them at home with gluten free flours. It feels very different now, but it feels right. I cannot knowingly continue to eat gluten when I know it isn't good for my body. When I think about foods I might miss, like say oreo cookies for instance, I think of Elizabeth Barbone and her website Glutenfreebaking.com. I love her site!! I found it pretty early on in my search for gluten free baking information and have made many of her recipes. Her site is a membership site (worth every penny), but there are also free recipes available there. In her recently published cookbook, Easy Gluten Free Baking, she has a whole section of "Taste Alike" recipes including some of my favorites like chocolate graham crackers, and nutter butter cookies. To check out her website, click on this link: www.glutenfreebaking.com