Morgan Karen - Gluten-free in lizard lick : 100 gluten-free recipes for finger-licking food for your soul

Contents

If I was a betting woman, I would bet you second-guessed what you were seeing when you saw this book just now. I bet you did a double take. I bet you said, Amy Shirley is gluten-free? so loud the person next to you asked what you were talking about. Most people dont know Im gluten-free, but you can butter my butt and call me a gluten-free biscuit. I am as gluten-free as they come.

Around here in North Carolina, we just shell the corn down and you know, tell it like it is. So Im gonna tell you like it is. Before this book, before me going away from the gluten, I was a gluten lover just like the rest of you all. I ate gluten morning, noon, and night, except when I was training for my next power-lifting competition. I ate gluten on the set of Lizard Lick Towing, and I ate it with every slice of pizza and free sample they handed to me when I was running errands at Costco with my kids. Lets face it, yall, we all go to Costco to make a lunch of those samples.

Before I left the gluten, I was just living my Lizard Licking life the way Ronnie and I always did, until one day everything started to change. I didnt know what it was, but all the sudden, I got sick. Real sick. So sick, I thought I was going to die. My doctors told me I had all the symptoms for blood cancer (leukemia): I lost twenty pounds in a little over a month, which is a big deal for me because I dont lose weight easy; I love to eat! I couldnt go to the bathroom to save my life (yes, number two), my hands swelled up, and my joints, from my ankles to my shoulders, screamed in pain. And the night sweats? Oh, sweet lord of mercy, those night sweats were the worst! I would sweat in the night so bad I would wake up with gallons of water all over my body. Worst of all, though, I started bruising like a peach. If Ronnie hugged me too hard, Id have a bruise on my arm the next day. It was absolutely the worst Id ever felt in my life.

This went on for a couple of months, and then it got worse. No matter what, after wed eat dinner, even if it was something simple like my , I would spend the night doubled over in pain, sweating on my bathroom floor. Id never been in so much pain, even when I was in labor with my children! Only the Lord knows how much pain I was in. I became desperate to figure out what the heck was going on, so I started asking my doctor questions, and lots of them. It was tough going.

I remember one night I was lying on my hardwood floor. I had taken my shirt off because the inside of my body felt like it was on fire. My stomach was bloated, so I looked like I was about three months pregnant. It was about 30 degrees outside and I had the door wide open just so that I could feel like I could breathe. My husband was looking at me, asking, Do you want me to call 911? And I said, If I pass out in the next thirty seconds, call.

I was so upset, I nearly moved into my doctors office just so we could get to the bottom of what the deal was a little faster. My doctor, thank goodness, was real patient with me, because even he couldnt figure out what was happening. So he drew my blood and tested it, and he drew more blood and tested that. He went on like this until finally one day he said, You know what, Amy? Im going to send you to a gastroenterologist because all the tests Ive done on you are coming back negative, so I think you might have some food allergies.

So I followed my doctors orders and went to the gastro guy. He drew some more blood from me. Then he looked me square in the eye and said, I dont know how to tell you, so Ill just say it. You are allergic to sulfides, gluten, and cocoa, and you are sensitive to sugar.

After my face melted off and I scooped it up off the floor, he told me my body now hated gluten with a passion and attacks it every time I eat it, and it was gonna keep on attacking until my day is done. So I had two options: Give up the gluten and live without the pain, without the swelling, without the night sweats, without the easy bruising, and at my normal healthy weight, or keep eating the gluten and endure all the pain and suffering that goes with it. It was right then and there that my days with the gluten were done. I knew I didnt really have any other choice, but I gotta say, I was upset because I ate so much gluten and I really didnt know what all it was in. Long story short, I was scared worse than a deer in the headlights. So I took a big deep breath and held it in for a moment, and as I held that breath, I sat with his words. By the time I let that breath out, my gut agreed that there was a war going on inside me and all I wanted was for it to stop.

Now, Doc, let me see if I got this straight. Are you meaning to tell me that what has made me this sick is food? Are you sure? I mean, I just dont understand how food could be doing this to me. Its food Ive eaten my whole life. How in the heck is this possible?

Well, Amy, this is something we see a lot of these days, but most people dont want to hear that the food they are eating is killing them, he said. Of course, this went over like Madea trying to do yoga.

Then I stared at him with my mouth open just enough that he could tell I was in shock. Doc, are you telling me that I pretty much have to relearn how to eat?

Yes, Amy, that is exactly what I am saying. You are going to need to take a few things to get your insides back on track, but other than that, you are going to heal yourself with the food you eat.

Doc, didnt a famous philosopher say that? I asked.

Yes, it was a real, real old guy named Hippocrates, and he said, Let food be thy medicine. He smiled. And I know he was smiling because he would have never guessed I knew that one.

Anyhow, that is how I came to leave the gluten behind, but actually leaving it on the curb wasnt easy at all. Heck, repo-ing a car is way easier than giving up the gluten. But even after I knew it was bad, I had to teach myself how to look for the red flags everywhere I went. I spent hourshoursat the grocery store and Target just standing in the aisles reading labels. I mean, I read everything and started seeing words like xanthan gum and modified food starch and didnt know what the heck it meant. It was frustrating because not only am I a working mother of four that happens to have a TV show, I also travel all the time, meaning I dont have a lot of extra time to stand there reading whats in this or that. I had to talk to someone who knew a thing or two about gluten so I could spend less time at the store obsessing about every little thing I put in my basket and could get home to my family.

I put in a call to my lawyer, who called his lady friend, Karen Morgan. Talking to her was like having the heavens open up, and for the first time in months, I started to feel like there was light at the end of the tunnel. Seeing the world through her eyes was like putting on glasses. I told her how crazy I felt and how my life was basically in an uproar since I had to give up gluten and I didnt know what to do.

Not only was I aggravated about doing simple things like grocery shopping, but I told her I didnt know why my skin was breaking out worse than when I was a teenager.

Oh, the same thing happened to me when I went gluten-free, she said. Its because there is gluten in your makeup and it makes your face break out like a pepperoni pizza. You have to change everything, from the lotion that you use to the soap you wash your hands with.