Slightly Obsessed

Progress, Basketball, and Sweat

June 14, 2008 at 8:35 am (*) (basketball, Benjamin, GFCF, heat, Jarid, Kaiya)

So, we’ve been doing the gluten/casein free thing for about 5-6 weeks now.  I think?  I really don’t think I can put into words how much of a difference it has made for all of us.  Though Jarid, Kaiya, and myself aren’t strictly gfcf, I cook all of our meals that way because it’s too exhausting to even think about cooking two separate dishes for each meal.  Anyway, for Benjamin, he has so much more clarity of mind, he’s much more confident, he is able to make fewer rash decisions, his behavior has improved immensely, and his comprehension level has shot through the roof.  Suddenly, I have a child who can write his name with almost no help.  He even tried to write the word tornado the other day.  I have a child who went from not wanting to jump into the pool when daddy is right there, to a child who will run and do a cannon ball without his ”floatie”!?!?!  Without having seen the “before”, you can’t even begin to understand what a huge success this is!  Remember, when someone has a gluten/casein intolerance, ingesting those foods is like being on drugs.  There are days where it’s almost like you can literally see the fog clear.  It brings tears to my eyes.

Not only has Benjamin improved, but I can tell you with certainty, that Kaiya’s behavior has improved as a result.  Not because of the gluten/casein, but because of Benjamin’s improvement.  All of that leads to a less stressed mommy.

And, I continue to feel better as I make this change in my life.  (I’m still waiting for the clarity of mind, though!)  If I cheat and have some cheese or a piece of bread, etc…, I will pay for it the next day.  My stomach turns very sour and I get really bad heartburn.  REALLY bad.  I won’t push the topic, but if you have some sort of ailment that has hounded you for a while, you might try going gluten free.  Just try it.  It won’t hurt.

So, we are almost half way through the summer basketball season.  What that really means is we are half way through the tryouts.  Aka: job interviews.  Right now, Jarid is attending a camp where he is vying for a job opening in the JUCO (junior college) league.  This is a really important stepping stone.  All of the camps are important, because this is where he’ll get exposure.  NCAA and NBA officials will be watching.  Assignors for Division I conferences will be watching.

I was able to go watch one of his games yesterday and it was so much fun to see how he has improved just since the season ended in March.  His physical stature has changed since the beginning of the season (he’s put on almost 30 pounds of muscle!!!!), but the biggest change is his confidence.  I have no doubt that he will do extremely well this year….there shouldn’t be any problem getting a few JUCO games.  And who knows what else may come his way.

And finally, it’s hot.  I went running this morning at 5:50 and it was already hot enough that I was sweating just from the heat, not the exercise!  It is actually kind of annoying that I couldn’t gauge the intensity of my workout from how hard I was sweating.  I would guess that it was already 75-80 degrees out.  I think I heard that it is supposed to reach 110 today.

Blech.

But praise the Lord for progress and basketball, yeah?

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