Lessons Learned: Wheat Free, Week Three

Breakfast! Eggs, Canadian bacon and zucchini.

It's been about three weeks since I dove head first into a wheat free life.

I feel I've learned a few tidbits worth sharing:

• Breakfast can seem challenging when you are used to muffins, cereal and toast as options; but my wheat free (gluten free? eh, the terminology doesn't concern me at the moment) breakfasts have been pretty fabulous and incredibly tasty (see the picture above if you don't believe me). I am eating quite a bit of eggs, but I also have leftover meats and veggies, nitrate free sausages and uncured bacon. Along with my green juice, of course. It's undeniably filling and I'm rarely ravenous by lunch, it's a good feeling. 

• Also, I thought these breakfasts would be so utterly time consuming, but they are in fact rather quick. I often cook up the bacon or sausage the night before, while I'm cooking dinner, and have them ready to be reheated in the morning. I'm trying to tell myself 'no excuses', not having enough time is one of my all time favorite excuses to try to trick myself into bad habits.

• Have I mentioned one of my favorite things I've read recently? I don't recall where it was but it suggested that instead of saying "I don't have time" replace that phrase with "It's not a priority" because that is in fact what you mean. Try it next time you find yourself uttering that excuse and you'll find you will either make time for it or realize it just isn't a priority.  

• When I search for 'gluten free' foods, I often am inundated with fake cupcakes and cookies even though I'm honestly looking for satisfying meals- not cheat treats. Booger. I'm still searching for more fabulous blogs/sites. If you have any, please share!  
• If a cooking video on you-tube has the word 'sexy' in the title, don't click on it. They're being literal. Even though they are talking about zucchini as pasta. 

hungry hungry hippo

 

• My hunger used to feel all consuming. I was constantly hungry, and it was non stop. A ravenous beast lived in my belly and turned me into a grouchy witch whenever I waited more than two hours between snacks or meals. Now, three weeks wheat free, I see how people wait for meals- I can see how hunger should feel. I can handle the hunger a lot more than I could before. I'm snacking way less, and finding it much easier to say no to the cookies in the staff room (yes, that actually happened. Cookies, doughnuts and muffins, oh my! I walked away from them all.)

hunger cycle pre-wheat free

While it's not the best graphic, you see the spike and the drop so dramatically

•  I ate some pizza last weekend, and it was delicious. About two hours after the super carb meal, I was completely overrun with the desire for cookie dough. I had some almonds instead, but it was a tough choice. I really wanted some sugar. I can't help but think there's a correlation here. 
• I am having wheat once a week or so, if I want it. Trying to stay balanced! 

Super satisfying lunch option: walnuts, aged white cheddar, chopped zucchini

• Simple lunches, like the one above, have kept me satisfied and I am so surprised. I used to pack so much stinkin' food every single day. This is crazy and I'm loving it. I am drinking lots of water and adding green tea to my days as well, I'm sure that helps too. 
• While wheat is what I'm avoiding, I'm also staying away from sugar and I've found that once I have a bit of sugar, just a teeny tiny bit, the cravings for more last all stinking day. Geez. Not worth it. 
• I'm not the only one in the household noticing that it feels better to eat less wheat. Dylan has adopted the breakfast routine and eats whatever I cook for dinner, and he has been talking about how fabulous he's feeling overall. 
• I'm feeling pretty good too- but, in full disclosure, my sleeping has been strange. I've been waking up at about 3am and finding it hard to go back to sleep. I read something that suggested a few nuts or nut butter before sleep to keep blood sugar satisfied throughout the night. I've tried it and it seems to work. I'll take it! 

 It's been interesting, trying to avoid wheat and sugar, and remain on the unprocessed side of life. I'm loving it so far!

Hope your weekend is just fabulous!
-m

 

food for thought

Tomorrow my summer is over. Back to the grind, which means that tonight I'm thinking of lunches to get ready for the week and getting my coffee set up to be ready and waiting for me in the morning.

As much as I love summer, I'm ready for the school year to begin. I thrive when I'm busy and feeling purposeful. But I also get easily overwhelmed and stressed out. I'm hoping that I can avoid that this year. I've moved schools and hope that I'll have more time to focus on teaching and less extra duties that kind of wore me out.

Here are a few things I've been loving in this last bit of summer...

food for thought 

I'm not going Paleo 100% (a lifestyle with lots of veggies and protein), but kind of with the whole no wheat thing, so I've been searching for a good paleo blog to give me ideas for wheat free meals. I stumbled upon nom nom paleo and am in love!

One of the books I thoroughly devoured this summer was Room, by Emma Donoghue. It's the story of a mother and son who are trapped in a room, and the mother makes life very interesting for the young boy by turning everything into games and riddles. The most striking aspect of the story is the fact that the young boy is the narrator. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I could not put it down.

Another favorite, and an author I am currently obsessed with, was Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. This one is a heartbreaking memoir that made me want to lace up my hiking boots and go out for hours. I cannot tell you how much I admire her courage and spirit and at the same time how much she just baffles me. I loved her writing style so very much that I picked up her book, Tiny Beautiful Things, a compilation of advice columns she wrote as Dear Sugar. It was another simply fabulous read. Very well worth your time, though you can read all the advice online too!

This video was suggested by a friend for being inspiring and heart warming.  It doesn't disappoint, get out your tissues.

Have I posted about this lunch roundup before? I know it's for kids, but I like the ideas (sans wheat of course, 14 days and still going!)

have you heard of a leptocephalus? I'm entranced by this thing.

Enjoy!
-m

Egg Salad with Cucumber

I love egg salad. Love love love. I always have. And while it is usually seen in a sandwich, I honestly prefer it by itself. Seriously- not just because I'm giving wheat free a try, but I always have. When I was in elementary school, the teachers told my mom that I wasn't eating my lunch. They had seen me throwing away my sandwiches, or so they thought. Turns out I was just gobbling up the delicious insides and throwing the bread out.

The only thing that bothers me about egg salad is that I think it gets eaten up way too quickly. I wanted to find a way to make it last a bit longer and make it, can I say, heartier? more refreshing? crunchier? It fits all those bills.

chopped English cucumber 

 I will admit that my egg salad is pretty basic. I do not add mustard to it (eek. no thanks) or vinegar or really anything other than mayo, eggs, green onions and some seasonings. You can make your egg salad however you please and add the cucumbers as you are mixing it all up!

Now I'm wondering how I can add to tuna salad as well! Any other ideas?

Egg Salad 

ingredients

5 boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup mayonnaise, add more or less to taste
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 English cucumber, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (English cucumbers do not need to be peeled)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil eggs, peel and chop into bite size pieces in a medium bowl. Add the mayonnaise, cucumber and green onion and mix.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!
-m

intention

I haven't gone to yoga in what feels like ages, but I keep thinking about what is often said in the beginning of the class- set an intention.

In yoga, my intention is usually a focus for my practice for the day, but what about in life? It's almost the start of a new school year and it is time for me to set an intention for myself and my well being.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I both listened to much of the real food summit and that I'd picked up the book Wheat Belly.

Both things have got me thinking about a few things. Allow me to ramble just a bit...

Etsy

First, and maybe most importantly, who can you really trust? For the longest time we'd been told that low fat diets were going to make us healthy. Now, they are killing us and fat isn't the enemy. I believe it, because I've read a good amount of research/books that seems to explain it. But, honestly, I'm sure there are books and research suggesting the opposite. Who do we listen to? Who can you trust?

I don't have an answer. I'm just curious. I listened to many people during the real food summit talk about healthy, nutritious whole foods and I was so inspired. Meat is not an enemy, vegetables still reign supreme and processed foods are always going to be bad for you. Anything that can sit that long on a shelf shouldn't go in our bodies, I get it. I'm choosing to believe this side, I think that's fairly obvious with my desire to eat unprocessed foods.

But, here's my next thought, we live in America, in the 21st century and most of us are fairly social people who enjoy a meal out once in a while. Some of the presenters suggestions depressed me. No eating out, no sugar- not even honey, very limited fruit, no wheat, make it all yourself always, don't trust anything, ever. Yikes. Eat raw foods, including milk and eggs. How realistic is this to expect?

Side note: I looked up raw milk in our area, because I am curious, and I can get it delivered to a cooler in front of a strangers house. I would go and pick it up from the cooler outside their house, how fabulously creepy does that sound? Dylan didn't go for it. 

I wanted to call in and ask how to do this realistically, but I heard one of the presenters mention that if this was too hard then he felt sorry for us, because we were slaves to convenience foods. Eek.

Here's the thing. I'm no slave to convenience foods, but I do go out and I do go to other people's houses and I do enjoy a treat once in a while. And, and this is a big one, during the school year I work a lot. A lot. I need easy breakfasts and lunches and I need to relax and have someone else prepare a meal once in a while. Many presenters focus their whole lives around this real food and I admire that, but I don't live that life.

I live my life, so how can I incorporate what I've learned with the restrictions I know exist in my life?

I'm also reading Wheat Belly, and I'm not gonna lie, it's awfully dull. But he has some seriously interesting points to be heard- did you know that bread increases your blood sugar level more than table sugar? more than a snickers? I think he is suggesting I make all my sandwiches with snickers in place of bread (ha! dreaming!).

It's made me rethink my love afair with bread, but.. I do love bread. But I also love feeling good and not feeling bloated.

I've been slowly eating less and less wheat over the past year. Around this time last year, I noticed that I ate wheat at every meal: muffins, sandwiches and pasta- yikes! No room for vegetables!

So, what to do? How to live a healthy life but a realistic one with work and friends and stress and time limits on lunches?

Another good question.

I'm going to aim for balance and preparedness, but here's my plan as I see it..

• limit refined sugar intake: 
• This I can do. I don't have a serious sweet tooth. I have like a cheese tooth or something. Cheese. That's my vice. I'll allow a treat here or there, but I'm thinking like once a week or so.

• limit/restrict wheat intake:
• Whoa. Really. I'm aiming for about 30 days wheat free, followed by limited wheat with one meal a week with wheat allowed (you know it's going to be a delicious wood fired pizza pretty often, that's cheese and bread. oh heaven). I get so bloated and gross feeling when I eat wheat, even though I love it to pieces, it obviously doesn't love me back. 

• eat tons more veggies and protein
• up the protein intake- more eggs, more meats, more beans, more nuts. Can do. 
• enjoy more vegetables, with every meal including breakfast and lunch!

• enjoy my meals, savor them
• this is hard with breakfast and lunch, I seem to inhale them. Last school year, I got about 20 minutes for lunch if I was lucky and I'm hoping for something better this year but I can't be sure. I just have to savor what I can get and bring good, delicious foods with me. 

I will, of course, share a lot of what I end up savoring here! Especially lunches, as I think that preparing and bringing a good lunch to work can be quite a struggle.

Why am I sharing all of this? You might notice it without reading this post, but I doubt I'll be posting a heap of bread and cookies like I had before. I thought it was worth a warning!

Why in the world am I doing this? I don't feel very healthy. Really. My hair and nails stink, I have a gross itty bitty ganglion cyst (his name is Bruce, be nice) on my wrist, I don't sleep well, I have a super sensitive stomach and I gain weight when I just think about nachos. When I eat junk, I feel like junk. While junk for me isn't fast food and soda, more like frozen Trader Joe's foods and tortilla chips, I still end up in a bad place. I want most of all to feel good, to have energy and to sleep well, and if I lose some weight well, I won't complain. But if I just feel fabulous, but don't lose an ounce, I'll be happy as well. Life is too short to focus on the size of my pants, I want to have the energy to focus on the things that really matter. That's my intention.

What's your intention? Making any changes soon? Got any delicious recipes to share that fit this intention? I'd love to hear it!

Wish me luck!
-m