One Year Later: Wheat Free

Back on December 21, 2014, I decided after reading the book Wheat Belly that I would go wheat free for 6 mos.  I thought "What the heck, I could give this a try and of course I would have remarkable results like all the people in the book, blog, and facebook."  Off I went, No more wheat!

What have I learned:

1.  After the first 10 days it is easy not to eat wheat.  I really didn't miss it at all.  I did feel some withdrawals: head aches and moodiness---all minor but it was there.

2.  There are a lot of great blogs out there with some fantastic recipes and other peoples hurdles along the way. 

A few of my favorite sites:

https://elanaspantry.com/
http://www.glutenfreecowgirl.com/category/recipes/
https://www.wheatfreemarket.com/

3.  Yes, I have lost about 30 pounds and yes, I have kept the weight off and yes, I need to lose more.  Why I haven't lost more is pretty easy: I eat a bit to high in the carb department and I have not cut out sugar 100%.  I have greatly and I mean greatly reduced sugar.  I don't eat hardly any processed foods.  If it is processed it is organic and not gluten free junk food.

The issue with sugars is the natural sweeteners for the most part, I can not stomach them----basically they all taste gross to me and I hate the after taste.  Stevia is a bit better but I still haven't really figured out how to work with these sweeteners (this shows how low the level of baking I do).  I use organic sugar, honey and I really like maple syrup as a sweetener.  I use far less than a recipe calls for and I am not baking all the time----baked items are a true treat. I figure I can deal with all of this as I still am not eating wheat except for Einkorn more on this.

4. Cooking and baking wheat free is really easy and once you realize it will be different not the same, but good in a new different way you will be very happy about it all.  I love eating foods without a label, eat organic, be healthy and happy it all works far better than anything else I have ever tried.

5.  I live in a very rural place for 10 months of the year.  We have produce flown in weekly and if we can do this anyone can and I AM SERIOUS!  We are  400 air miles from Anchorage---so I mean we buy, pack, ship our food to our home  . . . so yes if you live in a regular place YOU CAN DO THIS!

6.  My husband went wheat free in Aug. I came home and he had a big pile of food from our shelves we called a wheat eating friend to come take it all away.  It is hard to throw out food you paid to have shipped out to you so we gave it away.  He did this as he had stopped eating wheat and had a slice of pizza and could not believe the headache he got.  His science mind kicked in and he said enough!  This certainly makes eating in our house easier.  He does still eat corn, and I try my best to avoid corn.

7. I eat organic popcorn still not all the time once or twice a month max and sometimes not at all.

8. Einkorn:  This is the old original wheat and not modified or anything weird.  In November, we made a pizza with this flour and I ate it!  No side effects other than elevated blood sugar (I assume) but it was a great pizza.  We have used Bob's Red Mill baking flour gluten free----the short of it is we didn't like it at all.  I figure if I am going to eat wheat once in a great while it will be Einkorn only! Am I eating it daily no, weekly no, once in a great while--yes!  We have tried the pasta as well and I am not a huge pasta fan so this is sparingly eaten by me if at all.

I love the wheat free market pizza mix and we use that mostly for our pizza and it is great!  We love a thin crust and it works for us.

9.  Now it has been over a year, am I purist in Wheat Free Living NO!  I am very happy where I am in my eating, life style, and general health. Will I go back to present day modern wheat NO WAY EVER!!!!!!!  I feel so great all the time, I sleep well, my minor arthritis is gone, I have tons of energy and total clarity of mind (this I thought was a ton of bull---believe me the clarity of your mind will blow you away!)

I am so glad I read the books by Dr. William Davis and Dr. David Perlmutter.  I would highly recommend starting with both of these doctors/authors.  I love the audio books as I listen to them when I am working out.  Yes get their cook books, too!

10.  Last but not least: My doctor was very happy to see my drop in cholesterol and weight.  I am thrilled with the health benefits, love that I don't pay $$$ to some group to lose weight, and I am not tracking what I eat. I have taken total control of what I can control in my health! 

Wheat Free you bet! All I can say is give it a try! What do you have to lose a lot and you will gain so much more!

These are about the best photos I can find of my progress.  I spend most of my time outside in a cold place. I am not one for photos of me showing you my fat belly.  I think you can see the weight I dropped even in these photos.

This photo was taken 12/21/14 the 1st day of going Wheat Free.

Photo taken 10/31/15.

 

Wheat Free--Never Felt so great!

My wheat free experiment is still on going and I am feeling very good about it all.  I have a hit a bit of a plateau.  I am sure this has to do with a few things going on at this time of the year.  The first would be a switch from x-c skiing every day to walking now that the snow is gone.  Also having to many carbs, and this is the next focus for me is reducing the sugars.  I find the sugar part more difficult as I really can not stand the sweeteners out there that are "natural" and I really can not even deal with the fake sweeteners.  I have yet to wrap my mind around this part of not eating wheat and the high carbs of sugars.

I feel great, lots of energy, a clear mind and aches and pains although they were dull are gone from my life.  I really can not thank Dr. William Davis enough for his work.  I find the whole not eating wheat to be easy once you get over the initial 5-10 days.  I am still going strong and have been so happy with my efforts and the results.

I know when June 21st arrives I will not be going back to wheat nor will I even give it a slight try!  I am wheat free, pain free, energy enriched---who could ask for more!  Although, this is not a weight loss program but a health enriching way of life, I am -30 pounds and holding!  I do need to drop more weight as I am not at my BMI goal range yet.

If you are interested in this approach you can view the books my Dr. William Daves at his blog.  I would start with Wheat Belly first.  On a side note the cook books are great and I would say a must! 

Wheat Free-Wheat Belly

For some time, I have secretly laughed at the Wheat Belly book that I would see in airports when traveling.  I thought  to myself give up bagels . . . what the heck now we will attack wheat too!  UGH!

Last summer my husband's doctor suggest he read the book Grain Brain.  Of course he didn't read it and of course I did read it.  I found it interesting, a bit to much science for me at times, but I thought oh my no way could/would I give up all this stuff! (Wheat, grain, sugar, carbs  . . . )

Fall of 2014 came along and I needed something to read.  This Wheat Belly kept showing up on my Kindle as a suggested read.  Wheat Belly was on the NY Times list and I am sure many other reading lists. I would read a few reviews and skip right over it.  I must of have been desperate for something to read that wasn't violent and full of weirdo characters.  I figured a safe topic would be Wheat Belly.  A non-fiction read would be great and I could find out what this was all about finally.

December 21, 2014: I decided to go wheat free for 6 mos.  I figured if I could go wheat free and do this little experiment on myself then I would make a decision about this whole Wheat Free movement.

I have tried Weight Watchers for years and then a APP for counting points.  This APP was like Weight Watchers only free.  I had some success with this approach, but not the level of fitness I was after.  I cross-country ski well over 100 days a year.  I bike, hike, and paddle board during the summer. I get out every day but still it never looked like I was as active as I am.  I recycled the same 15 pounds every year between winter my lowest weight and summer time my highest weight for about a decade.  This is when and why I decided to try something completely different!

Living in rural Alaska has its food disadvantages.  We fly in most of our food in Aug.  We order a lot of food items through Amazon and have a box of organic produce flown in once a week.  Our (2) stores have food which is a bit expensive and honestly a lot of it we never ever buy or eat--think highly processed microwave food!  Enough said!  Going wheat free isn't a huge deal but we do have some limiting factors and planning ahead is key!  I guess my point is if I can do this out here anyone can do this any place where you can easily drive or walk to a store/health food store.

Ok----have I lost any weight?  I have lost 28 pounds since I have started.  I am on no medications and never was on any medication.  This would baffle the nurse at the doctors office at every yearly check up!  I am not sure on the inches but let it be said a pair of pants I could not zip now have extra room in them!  All my clothes fit better with extra room.  I feel great!  I sleep well but generally always have been a good sleeper.  I am not hungry all the time.  I eat a meal and for the most part am done eating.  Sometimes, I find myself thinking I need to eat more but I feel full sooner than I have been used to and realize I am done---just stop eating! I have more energy which I was never to low on but now I have even more!

Will I go back to wheat NO!  I won't at all!  I have not cut out all the grains or sugars as Wheat Belly suggests.  Why . . . I love popcorn once in awhile and I am sure will keep eating this once in awhile.  However, I will be switching to an organic popcorn once the other has run out.  Sugar---this is an issue. I tried stevia and the one I have right now I don't care for the after taste at all.  There is a stevia that comes in an orange box and I think that one tasted better.  I just wish I could go to a health food store and taste test the sweeteners.  Right now if I bake something I cut back on the sugar a lot! I use an organic white sugar.