Life Challenge Week 2: Kate Birch

Day 14: The intolerable intolerance

Being highly intolerant to gluten (ie, having to give it up for a year) is not an easy discovery. There's just so much hidden gluten and so much of what I eat (and enjoy) has gluten in it: it's often used as a thickener especially in sauces.

There's gluten in sausages, gluten in pasta sauces, and gluten in gravy. It's requiring a whole new set of food skills and knowledge that will take time to learn and put into action, but I'm starting on the gluten-free journey. I've discovered a website www.glutenuae.com, which regularly posts ‘new-in-Dubai’ food products that are gluten-free, provides recipes and recommendations on eating out. This may well be my saviour.
 
I've also bought myself a bread pan and some gluten-free bread mix and, this week, will be baking my own bread. Depending on how it turns out, and if I like it, I may be asking Father Christmas for a breadmaking machine this year. It's all going to take time, but I'm determined to give it a go...

Day 13: Fitness flop?

While I'm taking huge steps and making vast progress in my eating habits and my life coaching goals, I'm feeling a bit of a flop on the fitness front.

To be fair, I have moved on from doing no dedicated exercise to doing regular exercise, but it's still fairly minimal: a daily 3km walk and once-a-week 20-length swim. So while my Aquarius Life Challenge peers, Louisa and Charlene, are powering through a number of weekly body-battering classes: Body Attack, Body Combat, Body Busting, Body Bashing… and sweating buckets in the process, I'm taking leisurely walks and hardly breaking a sweat.

Of course, I know I shouldn't compare because the whole point of this makeover is to find suitable and sustainable programmes that suit us as individuals, but it is making me feel a bit inadequate. So this week, I have a plan to ‘up my game’. I will substitute three of my morning 3km walks for jogs, and I'll do a Yogalates class. It's time to push myself a bit - I'm not unfit, so I can do it, I just need to get motivated and find the time. Wish me luck...

Day 12: Food glorious food

Just as I was starting to enjoy eating properly again (I had a habit previously of substituting lunch and breakfast for coffee) and savouring food, the news of my intolerances (gluten, dairy, cashew nuts and hummous) have brought me back to square one. Having not had time to shop properly since hearing the intolerable news, I’ve been on a diet of mainly dressing-free salads and seeds, for fear of eating gluten without realising it. According to my mother, who is coeliac (allergic to gluten), there is an enormous amount of products containing hidden gluten, without stating it on the label: pasta sauces, crisps, gravy granules etc. Along with my mother, I’ve already experienced the pain of ‘eating out’ as a non-gluten eater: situations that usually involve long and embarrassing conversations with staff and chef to detect the whereabouts of gluten in every dish on the menu. Clearly, I need to do my homework: research what the alternative label names are for gluten, make a list of foods I can eat, make a weekly plan, and get shopping. After tonight though, as I’m off out for supper tonight…

Day 11: The breakthrough

Today I had my third Personal Breakthrough coaching session with Shana. Having found the previous session somewhat traumatic and hard work, I was anxious about this third session: the focus being on deleting my ‘limiting beliefs’.

These are beliefs you have about yourself and/or the world that guide your thoughts, behaviour and intentions and stop you from actually living your life or moving forward. I needn’t have worried: the three-hour session was totally uplifting and revelatory. Perhaps due to last week’s session (though tough) having actually worked its magic, this one was a breeze and highly successful.

The irony was that what I thought was my main ‘limiting belief’ turned out not to be the case, and Shana worked away at my sub-conscious to reveal the actual issues and conflicts, which she subsequently deleted. Revelation upon revelation unfolded, not only providing me with clarity about myself, but understanding of what I actually want out of life.

By the end, I was buzzing – and I still am. There’s nothing more powerful than being empowered – learning to stop blaming others and realising each of us have the power to make changes. I think I may be breaking through…

 Day 10: Another day, another walk

Thanks to my new-found fitness friend, the pedometer, I’ve been rising early (waking at 5.30am without the help of an alarm, mainly due to sleeping early because I’m drinking less caffeine) every morning and taking a 2km walk.

This morning, I rather surpassed myself and even broke out into a leisurely jog at one point, which I kept going for a good five minutes, without feeling like I might pass out. I’m hoping I’ll break out into a sprint tomorrow. I’m also continuing my daily breakfast habit (previously, I was consuming only coffee for brekkie), which until this morning had been two boiled eggs and toast.

After my food intolerance results yesterday, which delivered the news that I was gluten intolerant, I did just eggs this morning. It looks like this weekend may be taken up with searching and shopping for gluten-free foods. I feel another trip to the Organic Foods & Café coming on.

Day 9: Knowledge is power

When it comes to looking after your own health, ‘knowledge is power’. But today I’m thinking the ‘ignorance is bliss’ mantra is more up my street. I’ve just been given the results of my ImuPro 300 intolerance test which I undertook at Dubai Herbal & Treatment Centre, and it’s not good news: I’m highly intolerant to gluten.

The ImuPro 300 test – a simple blood test that takes two weeks to return results – analyses more than 270 foods and additives. It then provides you with a set of super-detailed results outlining your list of intolerances and grading them with a score of 1, 2, 3 or 4. Though I only had 16 intolerances, the ones I did have were not only major in terms of how important they are in my diet (I love my pasta and my toast), but also in terms of strength of intolerance.

Gluten (bread, pasta, couscous, most cereals) was graded at 4, which means I have to give up all gluten-related products for a year; while cow’s milk products scored a 1, so I need to give up milk, cheese and yoghurt for three months. It sounds drastic and I admit that at first I was petrified (no more marmite soldiers with my egg in the morning), but the potential pros - better digestion, more energy, less headaches - really do outweigh the sacrifices. After all, there’s a growing array of gluten-free products and milk substitutes lining Dubai’s supermarket shelves (Organic Foods & Café is one), and with the help of the detailed plans, recommended food substitutes and customised recipes, provided by Dubai Herbal & Treatment Centre, I’m feeling positive. It’s definitely a challenge, but that’s exactly why I signed up.

For a list of foods that are tested by ImuPro 300, click here

Day 8: My new best friend

I’ve had a revelation about what works for me and it’s all to do with being super-aware. The process of keeping a diet diary has made me really conscious of my consumption, and the fear (and shame) of having to write down bad food choices in my diary has really kick-started me into healthy-eating action. So I’ve decided to apply the same ‘successful-for-me’ principles to my fitness regime, which if I’m honest, was getting off to a bit of a slow start.

So, while browsing Adventure HQ (this is the most amazing and inspirational store) at Times Square, I picked up a pedometer. Though it came with a 10-page instruction booklet, it’s really rather simple to work out, calculating time, steps taken, kilometres walked and calories used. Conscious of living a sedentary life in Dubai, I’ve started strapping on my pedometer all day and, considering I’ve got a desk job, I’ve been quite amazed at the results: today, from 8am when I arrived at work to 6pm when I left, I walked a stretch of 4.5km and lost 200 calories.

The genius of it is that I would probably have done less had I not been wearing the pedometer, but conscious of its attachment, I parked my car at Safa park and walked the remaining stretch; I walked over to my art designer and sales team, rather than calling them etc. It’s also pushed me to go for an early morning walk, and along with my diet diary, my pedometer is my new best friend in the battle towards better health.

Click here to read how Kate got on in days 1 - 7 of the challenge