First, and foremost I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom and birthday buddy!  Mom, I love sharing this day with you! 

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Since today is my birthday, there will be no cooking for me!  We will be going out to dinner, which also means no dishes.  I really don’t mind cooking if I had a built in maid.

Monday – Dinner out

Tuesday – Easy Enchilada Bake, green beans & salad

Wednesday – Burgers on Udi’s gluten-free whole grain buns, parmesan steak fries and salad

Thursday – Bourbon Chicken, coconut baked brown rice, steamed broccoli & salad

Friday – Pizza and salad

Saturday – Cocoa coconut chili and salad

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Weekly Recap

Bakery on Main announces $20,000 in Celiac donations

Tim Horton’s gluten-free choices

Review: Florastor kids

NFCA upcoming webinar: Food as Medicine for Celiac Disease

The Best Gluten-Free to Follow in 2012

Burger King Fries – are they GF?

Peter & Kelli made bagel dogs back in December and I think that Jon will really like them.  Check out the recipe. 

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I hope you all have a great week! 

PS – I also want to give a shout out to Erin over at Gluten-Free Fitness, as she is also celebrating a birthday today!  Happy Birthday, Erin!

Kim

I know you are probably reading the title thinking I am out of my mind.  I can assure you that I didn’t eat gluten willingly, but as a result of cross contamination.  Fortunately I did not get sick.  I am not sure how I got so lucky – maybe not enough gluten present?  Who knows.  Let me back up a little bit and share the story. 

My mom came to town yesterday to celebrate our birthdays.  Many years ago I was her birthday present!  I have always enjoyed sharing our special day together.  The official day isn’t until the 9th, but since that falls on a Monday, we celebrated a few days early.  We chose Cameron’s American Bistro as the restaurant for our feast.  They are part of the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant group and have been offering a gluten-free menu for a few years now.  Within the past year or so they began serving rolls from Holiday Baking Company, which I was thrilled about!  I have never been served gluten-free bread before a meal in a restaurant before.

The rolls were served hot along side fresh, whipped butter and a roasted head of garlic.  Heaven! 

Next up we split the portabella mushroom fries.  These melted in our mouths and the horseradish sauce was divine!

I had a rough time deciding what I wanted to order for my main course, as the gluten-free menu is fairly extensive. 

I had my eyes on the pan roasted scallops, shrimp & grits, filet mignon, steak frites and the salmon.  I settled on the steak frites – the hand cut truffle fries sealed the deal!  The server we had was phenomenal; she was very well-versed in the gluten-free menu, even mentioning how they were investigating how their bleu cheese is processed to ensure that it is gluten-free.  I actually felt very much at ease when ordering, which would come back to bite me in the butt in the end.

The steak was a NY strip that came on a bed of sauteed asparagus and mushrooms and was topped with an herb butter.  The steak was perfectly cooked to medium rare and each bite was bursting with flavor.  The hand cut truffle fries were out of this world….until I reached the bottom and came across a tentacle from fried calamari.  The fried calamari is not on the gluten-free menu because it is breaded.  I immediately freaked out.  Was I just glutened?  All of that amazing food that I had just eaten and thought was safe, but the fries had been contaminated.  Before I let myself get too worked up, I asked to speak with our server and then the manager.  Just as I thought – my suspicions were correct – there is NO dedicated fryer for the fries.  How did I overlook the first question I typically ask the server?   I wanted to rewind & start over, avoiding such a major faux pas. 

As I was waiting for the manager to come over to our table, another thought crossed my mind.  While I have Celiac Disease and gluten makes me sick (as in GI symptoms), I really got concerned when I thought about someone with a true wheat allergy.  That person could have a life threatening reaction if they had the experience that I did.  I calmly explained to the manager that fries cooked in a fryer with foods that contained gluten are NOT gluten-free.  I went on to explain that they needed to remove them from the gluten-free menu immediately before someone had a life threatening reaction or worse, died.  Of course she apologized and took care of our meal, which we appreciated, but I still felt the need & responsibility to the gluten-free community to share this. 

This brings up another major concern – if the staff thought that the fries would be gluten-free when cooked with gluten-containing foods, what other mistakes are being made with the gluten-free menu?  It is possible that everything else is 100% gluten-free and safe to eat.  Of course it is also possible that there are other underlying issues that need to be addressed.  Offering a gluten-free menu is wonderful to those that have to follow the diet, however, if mistakes such as these are being made, it is better to not offer the menu at all and the false sense of security that goes along with it. 

I would like to see the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant group hire an expert to come in and review all of their gluten-free menus & procedures at each of their restaurants that offer a gluten-free menu.  They seem to be serious about offering gluten-free choices; this step would seal the confidence of their gluten-free customers.

(source)

I received some great news this morning…are you ready?  My blog was listed, along with 29 others, on a list of the greatest gluten-free blogs, websites & tweeters of 2012!  Thank you CeliAct, and Max, for including me on this list of great influences in the gluten-free community.  While I already have many of these blogs/websites/tweeters in my Google Reader, I am thrilled to begin reading some that are new to me! 

Click here to check out the complete list. 

Kim

Gluten Freely has made some great additions to their website over the past year.  The newest feature is the new “Ask a Doc” series.  Questions are being accepted now and will be answered by Dr. Stefano Guandalini.  Dr. Guandalini is the founder and director of The University of Chicago Celiac Center.  More about the series:

Gluten Freely^™ is pleased to announce the first installment of our “Ask The Doctor” series.

As part of our ongoing effort to provide the most comprehensive and reliable information to members of the Gluten Freely^™ community, we’re pleased to announce that Dr. Stefano Guandalini will take our members’ questions for a video Q&A session to run on January 20, 2012, at www.glutenfreely.com. All questions must be submitted by January 8, 2012, so visit www.glutenfreely.com/askadoc to submit yours today.

Dr. Guandalini is a world-renowned pediatric gastroenterologist and celiac disease expert. He is also the Founder and Medical Director of The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center. The center’s mission is to raise awareness and diagnosis rates in the quest for a cure.

If you have a question about celiac disease or gluten sensitivity that you’d like Dr. Guandalini to answer, please visit us at www.glutenfreely.com/askadoc to submit yours today. Dr. Guandalini will answer as many questions as he can. The video will be posted on www.glutenfreely.com on January 20, 2012.

We’re very excited to bring you this unique learning experience and we look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

The Gluten Freely™ Team

If you are interested in submitting a question, please make sure to do so by Sunday, January 8, 2012.

While I am chatting about Gluten Freely, make sure to check out their deals on gluten-free products right now.  Many products marked  10% to 15% off.

Kim

It has been going through the blogosphere that Burger King’s French fries are now gluten-free. I thought they had always been gluten-free as far as ingredients go, but they were contaminated due to being fried with the chicken. 

(source: BK Facebook page)

Turns out they have just recently changed their recipe as of December 5, 2011.  The new recipe is gluten-free, as was the old version, as long as they are fried in a dedicated fryer.  A list of foods that don’t contain gluten at Burger King can be found here.  This list was last updated in March 2011, so please exercise caution if you choose to eat at BK. 

While I do love a good French fry, I can’t see myself going out to get these.  I do eat fries on occasion from restaurants, but I usually stick with Red Robin, Chick-fil-a or Five Guys.  I actually prefer to make my own fries at home.  I love a thick, potatoey (is that a word?) steak fry!  Sometimes I go with the sweet potato version, other times I spice up the traditional version. 

Have you had the “new” fries from Burger King?  Do you eat anything else gluten-free at Burger King?

Kim

Since it is a new year, it is time to address goals.  I mentioned the other day that I had a goal to run 5 half marathons this year and several shorter races.  In order to make sure that I am training as safely as I can, I began training last February by heart rate.  At first I was discouraged with HR training because it seemed like I was running a lot slower than I was used to running, which as it turns out, was too hard (fast).  By always running fast, I was causing a lot of unnecessary wear & tear on my body that did result in some annoying injuries.  I stuck with the HR training, though, and I slowly began to see a change.  By running slower, following a schedule and adding in some speed training in moderation, I was able to get faster and finally PR the half marathon I had been trying to PR! 

Today it was time for a follow up to my initial VO2 Max test that I had in February 2011.  The initial VO2 Max test that I had last February defined what zones I should be training in.  Additionally, the doctor laid out a specific plan for me to follow for training and racing. 

The results from February 2011:

• VO2 Max: 46.8
• Max HR: 171
• Weight: 126

Zone 1 – Active Recovery – 106 -133
Zone 2 – LSD (long slow distance/Saturday runs) – 133 – 145
Zone 3 – Tempo – 145 – 153
Zone 4 – Interval #1 – 153 – 163
Zone 5 – Interval #2 – 163 – 171

The results from January 2012:

• VO2 Max : 42.3
• Max HR: 174
• Weight: 130

Zone 1 – Active Recovery – 120-131
Zone 2 – LSD (long slow distance/Saturday runs) – 132 – 146
Zone 3 – Tempo – 147 – 157
Zone 4 – Interval #1 – 158 – 166
Zone 5 – Interval #2 – 166 – 174

What does this all mean?  Well, first, the VO2 Max doesn’t usually go down like that according to Dr. D, but he noted a few factors that may have influenced that number.  First, I am 4 pounds heavier.  This is not a bad thing, but can be enough to influence the end result.  Second, I have been sick recently, so my body may not be functioning at 100%.  Thirdly, my MHR (max heart rate) is different – higher.  That number is not supposed to change.  Dr. D said that it may have been a case of my not pushing myself hard enough last year during the test and today I may have pushed harder.  Additionally, he believes that I could have still pushed harder today during the test, especially after I had told him that my MHR had been in the low 180’s on Sunday during my 5K.  The tests do have a learning curve, but provide data from which to base individual training off of. 

What do I do with this information now that I have it?  Well, if I wanted to raise my VO2 Max, I have to make a fitter version of myself.  Since I am not interested in losing weight (can’t go down that path), that may be tough.  What I can do is continue to strength/resistance train and do yoga on days that I don’t run.  As far as running goes, here is my current plan:

Run 5 days/week

Recovery run – Easy 3-5 miles in Zone 1

Tempo run – Zone 3; alternate time per week.  Start at 25 –30 min one week, then 35-40 min the next week.  Do shorter tempo runs the weeks that I do Zone 5 intervals.

Interval run – Zone 4 one week, Zone 5 the next week and so on

Zone 2 runs – 2 per week.  1 being the long Saturday run. 

Strength/Resistance Training

New Rules of Lifting for Women – complete the program. I am on Stage 5 right now.  There are 7 stages total.

Yoga

Continue yoga at least once a week if not more often.  Dr. D recommended doing yoga the day after intervals. 

Lastly we talked about running form.  Dr. D said my form was great to begin with.  I started out running on the treadmill at a slow speed and he gradually increased it until I was running at an 8:15 pace.  Great form.  Then he started to increase the incline.  First 2%, then 4%.  That is where my form took a hit.  Then he increased it to 6% and I cried “UNCLE!”.   LOL!  Apparently runners typically begin to lose their form gradually as they get tired.  Not me.  Nope.  The change in my form was great one second, horrible the next!  HA!  My arms went from swinging front to back to swinging across the front of my body, almost side to side.  Dr. D said that this was not only using way more energy than I needed to, but doing this repeatedly would cause my hips to twist, too, which can lead to IT band issues (yeah…BTDT).   I really need to focus on my arms when I am running intervals, as this is when I apparently tend to do the funky swing. 

So, there you have it.  I am excited to work on my training plan for the next few months & work towards my goals!  The ultimate goal this year will be to PR the Columbus Half Marathon again.  Last year I ran a 1:57:31 and this year I hope to get under 1:55.  According to Dr. D, I can do it! 

PS – Gluten-free blogging to return tomorrow.  I can’t wait to talk about some of the new stuff we have tried!   

Kim

January 1, 2012 marked my first race of the new year.  Nothing like getting started right off the bat, right?

The race didn’t start until 11 AM, which is perfect for the day after New Year’s Eve.  I made sure to hit the hay early, but did partake in my share of wine before I did so. I arrived at the race about an hour early so that I could get a parking spot.  Walking to get to the starting line isn’t bad but walking back to your car all sweaty & cold is not fun.  This race had the luxury of a warm building to hang out in before & after the race = BONUS, in my opinion.  Not only that, but a huge New Year’s Day feast was served – black eyed peas, pork and all of the fixings!  There was also a large variety of fresh fruit from Green Bean Delivery so there were gluten-free options available.

Since I arrived early, I was able to meet up with some friends from Run DMC – a group of runners that I met on Daily Mile that all live in the Columbus area.  Here are some of us before the race (from L to R: Jessica, Allen, Deb, Me, Brandie, Don & Greg):

(picture courtesy of M3SSports)

Brandie (a fellow MIT 10:30 pace group runner) and me before we realized we were overdressed:

Hadn’t planned on running this for a PR (personal record), but it felt right, so I went with it. I set out to run at a 9 minute pace, but found myself comfortably settling into an 8:30 pace. After my second mile at 8:30, I did some quick calculations and discovered that I could PR this race if I kept this up and picked it up a little.  The sun was just starting to come out in the pictures below.  Definitely could have used my sunglasses at this point.

(photos courtesy of Don Miller)

Little did I know what was coming! Things got tough up a hill towards the end, but I hung in there and PR’d by 7 seconds: 25.33. I’ll take that! Apparently 3 glasses of wine the night before and no speed training is the way to a new PR. Came in 7th in my age group (35-39) and 120th out of 755 total runners.

Splits
1 – 8:30
2 – 8:30
3 -8:11

This race was extremely hard to dress for.  Temps were in the mid-40s, but the wind was strong & gusty.  While I wanted to wear shorts, the wind was making it pretty chilly out.  It was cloudy at the start of the race and the sun came out after the 2nd mile, which made the 3rd mile much harder.  I was definitely overdressed, as I felt like I wanted to take off all of my clothes while running, which we all know would not be good.  Rain would have been glorious at this point!  Turns out it did rain a short time after I finished and went inside.

I will definitely be running this race again in the future!  It was wonderfully organized & operated, especially for the number of people running.

Kim

It was bound to happen, right?  Can’t live in Ohio and go without snow all winter can we?  The thought is sure nice.  However, I can deal with the dustings like this.  I really dislike ice and large amounts of snow that I have to shovel.  I can take a couple of days like this since the temps seem to be headed back up towards the middle to the end of the week. 

I believe that everyone is back to normal (crossing fingers) here, so we should be able to get back to our meal plan.  I really feel like I have been just piecing meals together over the past month and it is getting old.

Sunday – Chipotle made at home – flank steak, chipotle rice and corn in a bowl.

Monday – Spaghetti and marinutta sauce or meatballs, broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Tacos, black beans, corn & salad

Wednesday – Burgers on Udi’s gluten-free buns, parmesan steak fries and salad

Thursday – BBQ pulled pork sammies, coconut baked rice, mixed veggies and salad

Friday – MYOP with Udi’s gluten-free crusts and salad

Saturday – Dinner out with Mom & family

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Check out my post over on Celiac-Disease.com about Katz and their new products! 

Kim