Giving it up

Today on facebook I posted a question asking for advice, tips, tricks, and favorite recipes for going gluten free.  While I received mostly helpful comments, I received a few "why are you doing this?" responses. Don't worry if you were one of them who said it in your mind or out-loud on facebook, my own mother was one of them (i love you mom!).  But to be honest, it shouldn't matter to you why I'm doing it, unless you're looking at going gluten free too and are also looking for good suggestions. 
Up until last week I have been the kind of person who says "I will NEVER go gluten free unless medically needed!" or "I'm on a gluten ONLY diet" (which definitely has never been true, but I have jokingly made that comment).  Well, after researching gluten intolerance, I have found enough evidence that has given me a change of heart and a desire to give it a go.
After a personal message from a friend who shared her experience with clean eating after experiencing infertility, I sent her a response and figured I could share it here too for any who feel they need an explanation for my personal health choices.  So here ya go:
I am going gluten free for a couple different reasons. I ran into a friend the other day who has hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's to be exact) and infertility, and is now happy-healthy-baby pregnant.  I asked her how they found success and she shared her story with me about going gluten free. The only change they made after multiple failed IUI's and a previous miscarriage was their diet.  Gluten can have a strong connection with hypothyroidism, and she is now off her meds. You can read a brief article on the connection here.  She knows that I also have hypothyroidism and infertility, and recommended that I look into it as well.
So of course I started researching everything about going gluten free, and I noticed that I have a lot of the symptoms associated with a gluten intolerance: Itchy, scratchy rash, Foggy Brain and trouble focusing, Depression, Anxiety, and Irritability, slight dysfunctional digestion (I get random episodes of burps after eating- yep, TMI, but hey, you asked why I'm doing this!), and of course, unexplained infertility and miscarriages.  Go ahead and google "gluten free and infertility" and you will find many articles that address this issue. 
While I'm not sure my symptoms are necessarily from gluten, I figured I could try it for 6 months (that's what my friend recommended as was recommended to her) and see how I feel. The only way to know if you have a gluten intolerance is to cut it out 100%. We aren't trying any other fertility treatments right now and if this does happen to work, it will be a whole lot cheaper than seeing a specialist again.  If it can work to treat hypothyroidism, that will also save the expense of medication and doctor appointments to retest every six months.
The more I look into eating gluten free, the easier I see it becoming. Knowing that corn, potatoes, and quinoa are okay (I've been clueless about what all gluten is in, I always hear how it's in everything), it makes it easy for me to give up pastas and breads. The things I'm worried about the most are baked goods. I have a huge sweet tooth.  I know that a "no sugar diet" would also help with any systemic inflammation, but I'm not ready to give up sugar.  I've already tried out a gluten free peanut butter cookie from Our Best Bites here and I loved it.  I hope to be able to ease out sugar gradually though as we start eating cleaner. 
I have no idea if eating gluten free will help my infertility--that's one of the big problems with unexplained infertility AND miscarriages, we have no idea what's causing them-- but I think it's a worth a shot.  Don't you?

What's the plan Phil?

2014 is well underway and we are almost able to start officially counting down to the end of school, but we're not quite there yet.  6 more months to go!  The past two years have flown by, so I'm sure the next 6 months will too!
Many people (myself included) have been asking "What are you going to do after graduation? Where are you going to end up?" 
Guess what.  I have no idea.  The plan changes every few weeks too.  We were hoping that we would be able to move to Utah in July and spend Dustin's last quarter in a preceptorship (like an unpaid apprenticeship).  Then Snowmaggedon happened and the clinic was closed for a few days, which made it nearly impossible for Dustin to get all his clinic requirements in a quarter early.  So we're sticking it out in Portland until the end of September. 
We've known for a while now that we would like to end up in Utah, and lately we've really wanted to be in St. George.  But it really depends on where Dustin can get a job.  We don't want to start our own practice out the gate, but would like to join a practice as an associate and hopefully be able to start working with a team. 
We will be going to Utah the first week in April to get the registration for the car we are borrowing from my parents taken care of, and we are hoping to shadow a few docs and get to know them.  We have a few leads we are looking forward to meeting and hope one of them will lead to a job offer! 
It would be so nice to know now where we'll be the end of the year.  I am so envious of my brother and sister in law that have job offers for after law school graduation this year and can start looking for apartments and planning their life. 
Hopefully in a month I will know more!  Hopefully we will have a job offer and will know where we are going to end up so I can start planning the next step!  I'll keep you posted.

December Date of the Month

Honesty moment: I totally dropped the ball on our date of the month in December.  The date card was

Dustin,

Let's light up the night

Love,

Brianne

The intention was to go to the Portland Zoo for Zoolights, check out the Christmas boat lights parade, and have dinner at Skyline Burgers.
It didn't happen.  Bad weather, busy month, too tired, [insert excuse here].  It just didn't happen.

Luckily, I married a winner who planned a great date for our engagement anniversary and he said it could count for the date of the month.  It was definitely date of the month worthy!
So new date card:

Brianne,

This may be CHEESY, but I'm NUTS for you!

Love,

Dustin

No, he did not give me a date card, but it would have said that. :)  Dustin planned and bought (all on his own!) tickets to see The Nutcracker Ballet at the Keller Auditorium.  I was impressed.  I haven't seen The Nutcracker for a long time and watching it made me want to come home and bust out a copy of when I was in the Nutcracker in like 5th or 6th grade.
He also told me we were going to a restaurant downtown that we've been meaning to go to, but instead he surprised me by taking me to the Melting Pot for a crave combo (cheese and chocolate). We splurged by getting a fancy drink and they made us a "happy anniversary" plate of chocolate.

 

Have I ever mentioned how much I love that man?  Cuz I do.  He's pretty much amazing.  Thanks for saving December's Date babe!

For the love

This year's Valentine's Day was the best one. EVER.  Usually Valentine's isn't a big deal for us and our first Valentine's when we were dating was a disaster.  So glad that good memories are replacing bad ones! :)

Dustin spoiled me with the trifecta of Valentine's gifts:
Jewelry (ShaneCo pearl necklace and bracelet), chocolate (See's Truffles), and flowers (long stem red roses and lilies- my favorite!)

Valentines Day new jewelry selfie? you betcha!

I gave Dustin a nice new watch that I had him pick out, and then I decorated his car with a basket of goodies while he was in clinic.  They had cutesy sayings.  Thanks Pinterest :)

 

Once upon a time we decided that we would have candle lit pizza dinners for Valentine's Day and then go out on the weekend, but that was when we thought we'd have kids some time soon and would want to spend the night with all our loves.  Seeing as we still don't have kids and VDay was on a Friday, we figured we might as well go out.

We enjoyed dinner at Panera, which was perfect because there was no line, no waiter to tip, and the food was delish.  Then we watched The Lego Movie at the Clackamas Town Center.  It was so funny!

We had lunch together on Valentine's Day and Dustin told me some shocking facts.  Of all the married couples who started this Chiropractic program with Dustin, 50% of them are now divorced.  Of the married couples that are doing the Sports and Exercise Science Master's Program as well, 2/3 of them are now divorced. Grad school is HARD.  We hardly see each other, especially true the further he gets into the program, and it's hard not being able to spend much time together.
A few people have asked how we're able to do all our fun dates or outings.  I'm not sure if they meant financially, or how we find such cool stuff to do or whatever, but I honestly don't know how we'd survive these couple years WITHOUT the quality time together.  I literally get so cranky when I can't see Dustin for more than a few minutes a day. We need time together. And some days we see each other when we wake up, and then for maybe an hour before we go to bed.  I know we should get more sleep, but I like those few hours that we have to spend together.
Financially we are fortunate to be able to easily prioritize fun dates.  My job has been excellent and I have increased my hourly pay rate by almost $3 more an hour since I started 2 years ago.  We're also still taking out max student loans.  Starting grad school I was FREAKED OUT by the financial side, but we have been very blessed.  We use Groupon often and usually spend at least one weekend night (Friday or Saturday) at home.  We use our credit cards to our advantage to receive rewards like cash back or Thank You points that get us gift cards.  We pay them off in full each month and never pay interest.  Sure, we could have a lot more in savings or could take out less student loans, but we are making memories and taking time to be together. I'm happy to be in that 1/3 that are still married and even happier that our love for each other has grown during the past 2 1/2 years in grad school. We're in this together FOREVER and I'm so glad I have Dustin with me to go through this hard time in our lives.