I am new to the gluten-free scene as of late December 2010. Over a few months of vegetarian dabbling that fall, I started noticing that I was feeling worse in general (and some spots specifically: "intestinal area" as we shall call it and with an increased all over itching that I had been managing with daily allergy medication since 2004). I removed all chemical triggers from my cleaning and beauty products which helped for a while. Then around Thanksgiving, my body must have decided that the "feel good vacation" was over. Boy, was that fun.
The gluten "ah ha!" light bulb came on for me during a massage the week before Christmas. My masseuse happened to also be gluten intolerant and asked me a series of questions about my diet and health history: if there is a bug going around, I am going to catch it; I had my thyroid removed in 2004 due to benign cysts; my doctor suspected Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome due to lack of regular menstruation; in elementary school I had stomach problems that went away with puberty; and I have super-pasty white skin; and so on ad nauseum. When I went home I did some research into gluten intolerance and celiac sprue. To my glee (and then horror) most of the symptoms fit me.
Most of my cooking has always been experimental since I went away to college knowing how to "cook" cereal and order pizza. Many a taste testing dinner party has been held where the only rule is to be brutally honest. If you like it... great, I'll make it again. If not... on to something else. There were quite a few burned meals my poor guinea pigs had to suffer through, but I will say that I have become quite the cook in recent years. It just took a good 10 years-ish of eating what might be good together to figure out what worked.
Hopefully all that experimentation will not be in vain since cooking gluten-free takes more meal planning imagination if I hope to eat more than meat, fruits and veggies. I know I will have cravings for my morning bowl of cereal or pizza or a peanut butter sandwich or... ok, now I am just making myself hungry! Everyday is another chance to think up new ways to look at food, to focus on what I can do instead of what I can't do. Keeping that in mind will hopefully make this life change all the more enjoyable instead of an uphill slog all the way. I can't wait to get started!
:D