3 Weeks! More or less …

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Erica

I’m finishing up week 3 of no wheat. I’ve had a few cheat meals and 1 or 2 full cheat days .. but for the most part I’m sticking to it! I’ve actually really surprised myself that I’ve gone this long .. well what’s surprising is that I’ve actually found it to be pretty easy.

Breakfast still seems to be mostly eggs. I’ve had them scrambled, fritata’d or as an omelette with every veggie I’ve had in the kitchen, but I find myself craving just a plain cheese omelette fairly often. Besides zucchini cakes, I haven’t really found an alternative for breakfast. I guess I could do yogurt and berries, but I like warm breakfasts.

My work schedule works out well for lunch. I have a usual break from 12-3 (ish). I’d like to start making a trip to the gym on my way home but for now its nice just to have extra time to cook lunch and relax at home. My lunches are usually leftovers, but occasionally I’ll have a turkey burger or a chicken breast (with veggies of course).

I’ve been learning different cooking techniques and experimenting for dinner alot. Some of my favorites that I’ve made are pan seared sea scallops, shrimp scampi, and various chicken in foil packets (so easy). I’ve roasted shrimp with green beans (shrimp was good, beans not so much), cooked steak in a cast iron skillet and stir fried. I haven’t had any major failures .. so thats good

Weekends are hard .. sometimes I need a break from cooking, ordering out doesn’t usually work real well for wheat free. Those have been my cheat days. One Friday I ordered from PeiWei’s gluten-free menu and got their ‘pan seared shrimp’ and was surprised to find that it was breaded. Apparently its breaded in gluten free potato starch or something .. but it was a welcomed change, even if it wasn’t technically on the diet.

My guilty pleasures continue to be ice cream and iced coffee. I’ve struggled with sugar vs fake sugar and for now I’ve decided if I limit myself to 1 coffee per day (or really every other day) a little sugar isn’t so bad. The ice cream I should really cut back on .. but during the hot summer its such a perfect way to cool down ..

I’ve lost 5 lbs so far .. but the biggest thing I like about this change is the fact that I’m eating fresh, non-processed foods .. I’m cooking and making food regularly .. its becoming routine .. and its good

So far I’m happy and I’m going to keep going.

Day 4 done :)

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Erica

I’ve been very surprised at how easy this has been for me. I thought coming home after 6, sometimes as late as 7 was going to be tough to cook .. or at least that has been my excuse for the last 2 months .. but I’ve had no problem throwing together meals just after I get in the door.

I didn’t really plan to do this .. so when I was asking the bakery lady to split a bag of hamburger buns so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat them and she reminded me that next week was 4th of July, I realized I have a few days next week where I will have to allow myself some treats. Sunday is The Hot Dog Fest, Wednesday is the 4th of July and Saturday will be Ella’s birthday. It’ll be interesting to see what I can resist, what I’ll end up giving into and how I’ll feel afterwards. Of course I’m planning on going right back to wheat free afterwards.

Today was good, my energy is coming back, even though I woke up at 3am with a headache bad enough to get up and take something for it. That was the only headache today.

Breakfast: Zucchini pancakes – 1 med zucchini shredded and drained, 1 green onion finely chopped, 1 egg, salt & pepper. Fry in 3 piles in a little olive oil. Pretty good, I was happy and it lasted a long time.

Snack: Morning snack was a packet of freeze dried strawberries and banana that I picked up months ago, afternoon I had fresh strawberries and a couple pieces of celery + hummus.

Lunch: had a shorter break today .. so I whipped together an omelet with mushrooms and onions .. for some reason its easier to eat eggs in the afternoon then in the morning.

Dinner: burgers with some pepper jack cheese and mushrooms and spinach.

Btw .. this morning I was down 2.5 lbs since Monday .. I really wasn’t doing this for weight loss (though I do want to lose weight) I’m doing this to see if it helps my arthritis, and other ailments that this book claims wheat can cause.

Turning a corner?

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Erica

Woke up with a headache .. and actually slept in an extra half hour today. When will these withdrawal effects end? I also had a few cravings to just eat a piece of bread to fill me up .. I’d really like that to go away too. But I’m actually still going strong! Had my first real challenge today by having to make a trip to Char Hut to treat Ella. I had a chicken breast on a plain salad .. and successfully avoided her fries, and later Sean’s onion rings .. didn’t even try one! But I was really hungry today .. I went home after that chicken salad and ate a small caprese salad.

Breakfast: straight up asparagus and mushrooms .. I get sick of eggs easily, and I loooove asparagus and I didn’t think my bunch would last much longer .. so I ended up with this (sautéed with a little soy sauce at the end). I was happy, but it didn’t see to last as long as my egg breakfasts on monday or tuesday .. I was starving by 10am .. guess that means I need more protein in breakfast, just need some alternatives to eggs

Lunch: Grilled chicken on a plain salad from char hut .. this was really really plain. I only ate half the salad before I got really tired of eating iceberg lettuce. Next time I’m thinking that the breast with some cheese and no bun would be better .. just wish they had better sides or salad.

Snack – Caprese salad .. I love Caprese salad sooo much .. this was so good.

Dinner was leftovers. Wanted to make sure we’re not wasting food. I’m looking forward to breakfast tomorrow with a new recipe

Have an interesting breakfast planned for tomorrow

I have a headache

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Erica

I woke up at 6:!5 this morning and jumped out of bed. Had tons of energy and thought, wow this is great! Then by 9am my head had turned into a foggy mess, I couldn’t concentrate on anything .. eventually I came around but yeah, that sucked. At 6pm I got a headache which hasn’t gone away yet .. and I should’ve taken advil right when it started .. but instead I had errands to run and dinner to cook and now its 8 and I’m thinking if I could just wait until 9pm I might take an advil pm and make sure I get a good night sleep.

Craving ice cream today .. badly .. I actually think I could have a small amount .. but I have no willpower .. and would probably eat a whole pint tonight if I gave in to the craving.

Breakfast: frittata with onions, peppers and pepper jack cheese

Snacks: almonds and celery & hummus

Lunch: leftovers from dinner last night

Dinner: flank steak stuffed with spinach and mozzarella .. it was tough .. I tried to pound it out but didn’t actually google stuffed flank steak until after it was in the oven. Next time – butterfly the steak, or ask the butcher to do it.

The wheat free experiment …

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Erica

Last week I ran out of diet soda .. so I decided not to buy any more. That’s it .. no more diet soda .. just water. I’m now on week 2 and feel good about it .. I don’t really miss it. So since I made one positive change in my diet, I decided to try another. I’ve read some articles over the past year or 2 about the gluten free diets .. and this Christmas I got the book ‘Wheat Belly’ and finally read it this weekend. Wheat Belly – the book

The basic idea of the book is that wheat today has been so genetically modified that it’s nothing like the wheat 50 years ago, and because of that, it does some pretty horrible things in our bodies. I read some stuff in that book that made sense, and found it to be really boring in parts .. but I did identify with a lot of the aches, pains, energy level changes and symptoms of some of the studies in the book. Also, the fact that 2 slices of wheat bread can raise your blood sugar more then 2 tablespoons of sugar, was a real eye opener to me. Anyways, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to try it .. and I need a big push to get me cooking and not getting take out or drive through every day. [here's an interview with the author of Wheat Belly]

I’ve done low carb before, but usually starting with phase 2 of South Beach .. which allows some carbs .. I’ve never cut out carbs completely. This is going even further then that, eliminating deli meats and hot dogs, and other processed foods that contain wheat as fillers. On top of that .. I’m not really going ‘gluten free’ since a lot of those products replace gluten with starches that may raise your blood sugar / insulin as well. I guess its a low GI diet. The only rules I know so far is that you can eat veggies, meat (real meat, not processed) and cheese. So I’m sticking with that, and kinda winging it. [here's Dr Hyman's take on it]

So .. I’m going to try to use this as a food diary & a place to keep recipe notes .. write down things that work or don’t .. and hopefully that will help me give this a real shot.

Breakfast: 2 egg omlette with asparagus, mushrooms & a little colby jack cheese

Snack: hummus & celery, whole natural almonds, and kale chips

Lunch: organic turkey burger patty, sautéed mushrooms & onions, pepper-jack cheese & tomato and cucumber salad

Dinner: Asian chicken packets – just over a pound of chicken, 2 cups of broccoli, 4 baby bella mushrooms, 2 green onions, 1/3 cup sherry, 1/3 cup soy sauce, garlic, ginger .. mixed up the marinade, then added everything and stirred to cover everything. Then split it all between 4 foil packets. Baked at 450 for 15 minutes .. I thought it was pretty good. Of course it may have been better over rice .. but it was good enough for me. Next time I might use asparagus instead of broccoli since some of the broccoli didn’t cook all the way through, but over all I’d consider the meal a success.

Then I had 1 dove dark chocolate square (since that’s all I had in the house, its from Valentine’s Day). Overall I’m pretty happy with my food choices and actually looking forward until tomorrow. I even made it to the gym today, after not working out for almost 3 months. I only stayed for 15 minutes .. but I’m taking baby steps here

Speaking of goals …

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Erica

I just got an email that said my 101 things in 1001 days posts are among the most popular posts on this site .. so I went through and crossed off or updated 11 things off [the 2nd list]. It’s a fun challenge but since I never went through and completed the full 101 list last time, I’m probably not going to try again for awhile.

Well until I’m really bored one night and decide to do it