Food Intolerances

It seems that it’s becoming much more common nowadays for people to recognize that they have intolerances to specific foods. It’s been said that Celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disorder when it comes to gluten, affects 1 in 105 people in the US, many of whom are undiagnosed.

I have known that my body does not like lactose very much for a while, but I have recently discovered an intolerance to gluten.

For any readers who are unaware of what gluten is, it’s a protein found in wheat and is responsible for holding baked goods together. Gluten makes bread so soft and springy, and is used in almost all processed foods as well.

Gluten affects every person differently. Intolerances to it can cause anything from ADD, to weight gain or loss, to pain when you eat, and many more symptoms. It also can cause chronic fatigue and dizzy spells.

Gluten is a hard thing to give up! Just this last week, I have decided that I am going to have to cut it out of my diet permanently due to the horrible side effects I’m getting from it. I have been off of it since Monday, and I can honestly say I feel awesome.  

I am trying to build up a database of recipes that I can try or tweak to make gluten and dairy free. My plan is to post recipes I have tried on my blog. Also, if anyone has suggestions for recipes that fit these criteria, please let me know, as I’d love to try them out.

Ballroom Dance

As I have mentioned previously, my husband and I are ballroom dancers. We absolutely love this activity, and practice 4-5 times per week. We also have 2 classes a week.

A lot of people in real life ask me how we got started dancing, as a lot of women want to dance, but their partner does not want to, so I figured I’d explain here.

We were in the position in the beginning where we disagreed on an important matter concerning dance. My husband and I became engaged in 2009, and we knew we wanted to have a nice reception. I am big on traditions, and having a first dance is one of the biggest ones! My husband is a drummer in a rock band, so he understands music perfectly, but did not know how to dance. 

Because he didn’t know, he didn’t want to have a first dance at our wedding.

At that point, I signed us both up for ballroom lessons. Once we began, we both realized how much his drumming helped him to pick out the tempo of the music, and he had a natural ability to dance. We advanced really quickly, and have been pushed ahead to a class several years ahead of us, due to the amount of work we’ve put in.

I highly recommend ballroom dancing to anyone who is even vaguely interested! It is such a good workout, especially faster dances like Quickstep or Cha Cha. Dancing with your spouse is also a guaranteed date night, and it’s a great way to connect with the other person.  It’s become so popular due to Dancing With The Stars, and almost everyone who hears that we do it wants to know more. If anyone has questions about it let me know. I’d be more than happy to answer anything.

Breaking Dawn

We are going to Breaking Dawn, Part 1 tonight!

It’s one of my girlfriends’ birthday, and so we are going together and bringing our husbands. I’m SO excited.

Has anyone seen this yet? What did you think of it?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I am currently wrapping up my classes for the end of the semester, and needless to say, I am so busy it's not even funny. The last day of classes is a week today, and wow are there projects galore due! Next week I have three presentations, as well as three written reports to be handed in! 


At the moment, I have been blessed with the opportunity to focus solely on my school career, and to be able to power through with full time classes in order to graduate June 2012. I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband through it all. I don't know how I would be getting through the next week and the exam period if I was working full time.


One of my classes, an upper level communications class, was largely based on blogging. One of our assignments was to write a blog post every week, which the teacher would grade. I absolutely loved doing that! It feels so great to be able to express your thoughts through writing.


I have completed everything written except for one assignment, which I am taking a break from at the moment to post. I'm so excited to have all of these assignments handed in and off of my plate. 


What has everyone been up to since I last posted? Is anyone else in school,and if so, what all do you have due now?

New Bracelet

Happy Friday everyone!

Here is a picture of the new bracelet I ordered at the Silpada party I recently attended:

I just love this bracelet! It matches so well with my watch and it will be really easy to pair up with other bracelets for a layered look.

My husband's band is having a CD release party tonight, so I am really excited to go to it! I'm just going to wear a maxi dress (with my watch and bracelet) and keep it pretty casual.

Hope you all have a safe and fun weekend!

Eggs

I recently read a post by blogger Amber about how she's incorporating eggs into her diet. I was so inspired by it! I haven't had eggs other than hard boiled in a long time, and this post reminded me of how yummy fried egg sandwiches are. I'm going to try and make one tomorrow for breakfast, and maybe check out some other good egg based recipes. Any suggestions?

Stranded at home...

There's been a terrible accident outside of my house. I live in a very quiet residential neighborhood that doesn't see much action other than dog walkers or people on bikes, and when I heard siren after siren outside my house, I had to check out what was going on. When I looked outside, there were three ambulances, three police cars and a fire truck.

I didn't want to get too close to the scene to snoop, but I looked out off of my balcony and saw that there'd been an accident between a motorcyclist and a truck. I took the photo from my balcony so it's kind of hard to see because of the tree in the way, but like I said I didn't want to get too close and distract the people working on the scene.The ambulences took the people who were in the accident away, so I will be praying that they're all alright.

All roads leading to my subdivision have been closed for about 2 hours now, and they are still closed, so hopefully they can open again soon.