Gluten Free? Tips and Advice!

If you are noticing that certain foods are starting to make you feel bloated, nauseous, crampy, and such, then you may be one of many who are GLUTEN INTOLERANT!

I am! And I went on a roller coaster of emotions when finding out and through having to deal with it. At first, I was honestly happy! I was trying to be healthy and be a better cleanse coach but fast food, burgers, fries, onion rings, delicious breads, noodles, pizza, quick fix foods, and other foods kept calling my name and they kept me from reaching my goal and my fitness and health potential. The gluten intolerance seemed to be my answer. But then I was mad. Gluten free foods like bread for sandwiches was gross! I just wanted a pizza! Burgers, I got over. But I wanted a pizza! Thanksgiving was rough. Christmas was easier. And then the most awful news ever!! Soy sauce has gluten in it! I love love love Chinese take-out more than any other food in the world! I did discover that there are brands of soy sauce and top-dog soy sauce companies are now producing and selling gluten free soy sauce, but I am still scared to chance eating Chinese take-out. Soy sauce is in everything! And it is still cheaper for restaurants to buy the regular soy sauces.

But I am fine being gluten intolerant for now. It has helped me make better choices. It requires me to think a lot more about what I eat and what I buy at the store. I'm writing this all now because maybe you are gluten intolerant or maybe you know someone who is and want to share this with them or maybe you just want to try living gluten free for health reasons. I gathered some information together for a friend this week and I want to share it with everyone!

"So you wanted to learn more about gluten and a gluten intolerance. Gluten is found in wheat, it is a binder, and wheat is a type grain like barley and rye. When I eat wheat I get a head ache, sometimes my stomach feels cold, and I feel like my insides are twisting, which is actually what really is happening. Having a gluten intolerance isn't just an annoying thing to have to deal with, or an annoying pain to have to deal with, but it actually hurts your body. Apparently it can damage your intestines. Other symptoms are totally wide range. You should look them up because they are so wide spread. But just because you may have some symptoms doesn't mean you have an intolerance. I knew what was wrong with me because I tested it. I went without gluten for a week, then I at a lot of things with gluten on day 8 and I felt horrible! But if you want to know for sure go to the doctor and they can test you, BUT make sure you have gluten in your system when you get tested or else it won't show up that you are intolerant.

Ok, now, if you are gluten intolerant here are some things to know. Gluten is everywhere. But be grateful that if you do have this intolerance that you have it now in 2012 and not 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. There are so many gluten free options now. They are more expensive because they can't just use cheap flower to make them. They also have to make them and process gluten free products in a gluten free facility which costs companies money.

Soy sauce and Asian type sauces. Like I mentioned earlier, soy sauce has wheat in it. Most stores don't sell gluten free soy sauce, but just look on the label. I drive 45mins to a Good Earth store where they have tons of gluten free foods when I want to get soy sauce! They brand that I know that is gluten free is San-J. I'm sure they will be selling it in most stores eventually. They best gluten free bread in my opinion is Udi's.

Food Labels. On any food label it will tell you of all food allergies. Not the nutrient label, but the full list of ingredients. It will tell you below the ingredient label "Food Allergies." It will say things like, "Contains wheat." "May contain flour." "May contain wheat." "Processed on equipment or in a facility that also handles wheat." I avoid products that say any of these things because I have gotten more sensitive to gluten.

Macey's, a grocery store in Utah where I live, has a pretty wide selection of gluten free foods. One in the back corner near the milk and another in the freezer section that has the Udi's bread and the frozen pizzas and the frozen desserts. Also, since gluten free foods are more expensive, Macey's has a card that you can get by going up to the customer service desk and asking for their gluten free card. This card will get you $5 off your purchase every time you spend $25 on gluten free items. And that is really easy to do. A lot of products now say "gluten free" when they are so people don't have to search the label so hard. And it will most of the time be written in bold.

Soups. Campbells soups have gluten, a lot of Progresso soups are gluten free and they say on the front and on the back of the label.

Italian sauces. Classico is a good brand and I think all of them are gluten free.

Most of you know I use Isagenix products. And Isagenix has really helped me a lot! It's so annoying that I can't just eat something fast anymore. And that I have to buy special things now. But, Isagenix has made it easier for me to not have to worry about making so many meals. I can quickly make a shake or grab a bar and I am good to go. I don't have to think about whether it's gluten free or not. Well, two of the four Isagenix bars are gluten free and it happens to be my two favorite flavors! :) And I know I am getting the nutrients and vitamins and the energy I need everyday. Especially now since you are going to be eliminating a lot of things from your diet since you are living gluten free, Isagenix would be good to look at. It will do so much good for you!

http://isamovie.com/AreYouToxic.html

Call me if you have any other questions about gluten or Isagenix!

Kimberly Cozzens
435-938-8540

Gardening & Graves, Quilting & Gilmore.

Well... I have been quite the lucky girl these days. Everything I love can be summed up into the title of this post, gardening, graves, quilting, and Gilmore. Ok, I love a few more things than that. Such as this little baby growing in my tummy and my wonderful husband and my wonderful career, BUT! I talk about those loves of mine a lot. And today I want to chat about some other loves!

Gardening! I don't know if I love gardening because I get to play in the dirt, or if it's because it reminds me of my grandparents, or being in the sun, or what but I love it! It has its ups and downs of course. Finding a new weed that looks easy to pull out and so incredibly innocent only to find out it is obnoxious and terribly prickly is a down. Eating a salad that consists of lettuce you grew, a definite up!

 I blame the love for graves on my mom... and Corey... and myself. I don't just love grave sites and cemeteries, I actually really love family history and the word "graves" is just more catchy than family history. I have been doing a lot of organizing of files, searching for ancestors, and reading to get to know my heritage and by background. Here's the update: I'm a Mexican, Canadian, Scottish, English, Irish, 6 generation Mormon, with a long family history of baptist on the other side of the family, who's ancestor's kicked my other ancestor's butts out of Missouri. I've learned a lot more than that too! Like I have family buried in the town and all over the county that I am living in now! And! One of my ancestors had 29 kids! And about 20 lived to adulthood! See! Family history is exciting! :) And graves are exciting too! Especially when your mom drags you along with her on Halloween night to sneak into a locked cemetery to look at all the pretty graves... when you're like 10!

Quilting and Gilmore are two loves that go hand in hand. Whenever I quilt, I must watch Gilmore, Gilmore Girls that is. It is a must. The only bad part about quilting for me is I get distracted and obsessed. I can spend hours watching Gilmore Girls and quilting and get a lot done and still want to keep going, completely disregarding the fact that I need to eat, or pee, or clean, or pack (since we move in less than 3 weeks). But, this quilter now has a baby in her tummy and not eating or peeing is a big no-no so this go-a-round with quilting has been a very different on for me. But very good! However, this 4th of July quilt has been hanging over my head for years now and I am happy to finally be working on it so I can use it this year instead of just looking at the fabric, but the distractedness in me has now changed focus to other quilt ideas, such as an autumn quilt, a girly cute quilt with scraps from aprons I made, a country Victorian quilt, a Halloween quilt, and a room themed quilts, like a kitchen quilt. Focus woman! Focus! I will get this one done, and then once I am moved in to my new house in 3 weeks I can decided which quilt I want to work one next!

Let's Drive.

For some reason when I am driving in the car is when I realize how blessed I am. Every day that I leave the valley and drive through Sardine Canyon I can't believe how pretty it is. On a rainy day is gorgeous, on a sunny day it's remarkable, in summer, in fall, winter, and spring it's a unique, unmatchable beauty.

Today Corey and I drove to Wellsville, something we do often! And we just can't believe that we are about to move to Wellsville! It is so pretty! Perfect little town! It's green, small-town feel, friendly, pretty homes, and just the perfect place to settle down and start our little family. I just love where our life is right now.

Corey and I got overwhelmed, in a good way,  today. That's an understatement actually! We went to the doctor for the first ultrasound, the week 10-12 one. I thought I was at the start of week 12 today, turns out I was 10 weeks and 6 days and week 11 starts tomorrow... I gotta do week 11 all over again! Not a big deal though :) The important part of the doctors appointment was when all the sudden the monitor went from hovering over the bladder to this little gummy bear shaped thing... MY BABY! It has a head, a body, two arms, and two legs!! Looking back at the pictures we got from today, I realized the baby even waved! I got teary-eyed. And Corey did too! I cried, but he didn't. I am going to be a bawl-baby this whole pregnancy! (Side note: We went and watched What to Expect When You Are Expecting, HILARIOUS, but I cried so much! I then realized that I was watching actors have babies and I then knew that I was going to be a bawling mess my whole pregnancy!) And then he said it was time to hear the heart beat... Holy Moly! It has one strong heart beat! He had it turned up all the way on accident and it was so loud! Way to go baby! You are growing strong!!! Ugh! We are just so excited! I was distracted the rest of the day! All I could think of today was BABY!

When we were driving to Wellsville, we all the sudden realized where life had lead us and we love it! Beautiful area we live in, beautiful baby with a strong heartbeat, we have each other, we have helpful loving families, and we have the gospel.

This is where we live:

Baby Cozzens!

Corey and I are having a lil' one!! And we are so dang excited!!! I am 9 weeks along which is 3 months!! And the morning sickness has been intense, probably because for the last two weeks I mixed in travel and trips in with my now sensitive tummy haha! We are so so so happy! We are so ready for this little one to be part of our family.

We sat down together and looked at our family lines and came up with some fun baby names! It was so fun to put first names and middle names together! Except we have about 15 sets of names! Haha! I guess we have some narrowing down to do! :)

We told our parents with baby balloons! Surprised mine and Corey's parents, everyone thought we were joking! Haha! :) Nope, not joking! Baby Cozzens is on its way to us!

I made this video, below, to win a contest to win tickets for my mom and I to attend an awesome event that we have been planning to attend for over a WHOLE YEAR! I tried making this video a couple weeks before the deadline and it took me like 17 takes! I couldn't get my words out correctly, I kept stumbling over my words, and when I finally got it out, it took hours and hours and hours to get it computer ready. And then it had a watermark on it! I was driving one day and all the sudden had a new idea for my short 45sec. video! I got home, got the camera out, sat down and took take one, I stumbled over my words, thought for a second and decided I wanted to change my words from "I will be the mom...," to "I AM going to be the mom..." Turns out I was 3-4 weeks pregnant and I didn't know it yet! I got the video done in that second take and it only took like 45mins to get it ready to submit! Watch the video in YouTube and "Like" in YouTube, not only Facebook. Thank you!

How Bad Do You Want It Contest Video!

We are so excited for our little baby to come December 24th 2012!!!

Namaste. Shoes. Home. Babies.

My goodness it has been a while! I always want to blog, but then I always decide to work instead. But today was my day to catch-up on things and also spend time with my awesome husband! He finally had a day off!

Namaste.

I have come to really love this phrase and this salutation and the whole movement. Honestly when I did yoga for the first time years ago I thought it was weird, everyone saying Namaste. But since doing Piyo more and putting more meaning into connecting my mind to my heart, I can feel a serious connection and overwhelming peace come over me each time. I love the stretch and then connecting my hands together over my head, bringing it down to my heart and bowing. It's a powerful connection.





Shoes.

Since Corey had the day off he wanted to go get new running shoes. And since he was still home when I got back from the gym I decided to go along! I desperately needed new shoes! And it's just not something I pay much attention to, I don't realize how much a good shoe really can help your workouts and your runs I guess. So since he was going I decided to go to. We both picked out super fun shoes! I tried these ones that looked like bubble gum, cotton candy shoes! So flippin cute! But I went with these instead for the added support because my feet are weird!! And I love purple! We are both so excited about our new shoes!! :) He's getting up at 5:00am tomorrow just so he can run to work! Crazy man!


Home.

We are house hunting! We are ready to start looking for a home to buy! We know we want to stay in the valley for awhile and we are just ready and excited to possibly have our own home soon! More on this topic later! :)









Babies.

I have baby on the mind! Big time! We are just fine with having a baby whenever the Lord sees fit to bless us with a baby, but it seems like everything I have been focusing on these days is baby! Baby names, fun things to do with babies and little kids, baby clothes, movies with babies like "Life as We Know It," baby, baby, baby. And! I had a dream several months ago about three little brunette triplet girls! In that dream I was dang shocked and just couldn't believe I had triplet girls! That's a lot! Then, a couple nights ago, Corey had a dream about three little red-headed girls! I guess we are going to be having lots of girls! Pretty sure we are going to have lots of kids because Corey says we aren't stopping with only one boy, he must have at least two! Haha! I just love lil' ones! But we are perfectly happy to let it be in the Lord's hands! :)