My Recent Diet Shift

As you may know, I must adhere to a gluten free diet (see this post for background information). After learning that I must be on a gluten free diet for the rest of my life I purged my kitchen of all gluten-containing foods. It lurks in many places, including things as surprising as soy sauce. I replaced what I could with gluten free versions, and bought plenty of gluten free grain products, because wheat and other gluten containing grains had been my primary diet for as long as I had control over my food. I did spend my first two gluten free weeks on a gut healing diet (well, the first week was mostly only liquids because I took an iron pill which caused horrible pain for days).

My health slowly (very slowly) improved. It has not yet been a year since I have been on a gluten free diet, and it was a rocky start, too. I got accidentally glutened a couple of times, and learned to avoid most restaurants. I then went on an international vacation, and did well until I misread the ingredients list (hey, it was in a language I don't really know). Now I know that I get trouble with peripheral neuropathy, among other problems from the type of gluten in barley (It's months later and one of my big toes hasn't fully regained feeling yet). After that trip I began to realize that I have to be even more careful, because gluten containing products could have been used in the manufacturing of things I wouldn't suspect, and cause me problems from cross-contamination.

I soon also realized that I need to be careful about breathing flour dust. One day I found a container of flour I had missed on my earlier gluten purge. I opened the container and dumped the flour into the trash. I smelled the flour in the air, and I got a return of my symptoms. Now I know I must be careful wherever flour dust could be in the air. More recently I also found that many things like skin and hair care products can contain gluten. I had to get rid of my favorite conditioner (but my skin and scalp are happier now that I have purged all gluten containing products).

One problem did start to appear after months on a gluten free diet. I started to put on a little extra fat. Not OK with me! I had been concerned that weight gain could be a problem on a gluten free diet, because the replacements for wheat typically are lower in fiber and higher in carbohydrates and starches than wheat products. I decided I needed another diet, and began to look into a modified version of the paleo diet. My plan was to cut out grains and replace them with fruits, vegetables, and protein sources. This kind of helped, but not quite enough.

Extremism here I come! I decided to cut out sugar, and foods that my body readily converts to sugar. So, that means no sugar, honey, sweet fruits, legumes, protein powder or starchy vegetables (and no grains of course). I have been following that diet for three weeks. The first week was very hard, because I've been a major sugar addict for my entire life. I felt dizzy and weak. But I got over it, and then felt healthier than ever. I have been eating vegetables, meat, eggs, tart berries, and nuts as my primary diet. I have not cut out dairy. I still will use ghee, butter, cheese, yogurt, and kefir. But I have noticed that aside from butter and ghee, cow milk products make me very sleepy and tired. I do fine on goat milk products, though. What about the fat? Well, I have been enjoying delicious butter on my food, and the fat is melting off my body. Even the lower back fat pads that no amount of exercise has touched for decades are shrinking. I'm already fairly thin looking, but I know how big my underlying frame is (tiny), so I know that it is not unsafe for me to be getting thinner. I'm also loving the increase in visible muscle definition!  

After three weeks on my new extreme diet I have decided to allow a small amount of fruit back in, but now a bit of fruit is like a dessert, and too much makes me feel off- like I just ate too much cake. So I don't have sweet fruits every day, and when I do it is in small amounts. The hardest thing has been redoing my green smoothies. I had green smoothies once or twice a day since going gluten free. Unfortunately they were like sugar bombs! Even though I added no sugar or sweetened things to them, they had so much sweet fruit like banana, and pure fruit juices, that the glycemic index was high in them. I still haven't come up with a green smoothie recipe that is low glycemic and tastes good- but I'm trying. I had a good one in Scandinavia, so I know it's possible.

I plan to stick about 90% to my extreme diet, and simply make it a part of my lifestyle. I won't permanently say no to honey, just because I have a few jars of really yummy raw honey and specialty honey that I don't want to waste. After they are gone I won't be buying any more, though. I also plan to do a bit of intermittent fasting. I've read some good things about it, and some days I get so busy I forget to eat anyway. This is so far away from my past diet! I used to put 8 spoonfuls of sugar on my breakfast cereal (types that already had some sweetness to them at that). When I worked really hard on my will power to get it down to three spoonfuls I thought I was doing great! Ha ha!

ETA:  I discovered that raw cow milk does not make me sleepy...odd.  But I still don't plan to include milk much in my diet anyway.

:)