Day 14, and Oatmeal

With the advent of Day 14 free of grain I have actually added in a grain on an occasional basis. I’m not talking your instant oats, but your old fashioned, mostly unprocessed, steel cut oats. To make them more digestible and the nutrients more available I soak them overnight with a small amount of lemon juice. I’m also moving on to locally grown organic oats as well to further reduce the problems with them.

Oats never gave me a problem before and I wanted to reintroduce them on an occasional basis because I love them so much. Yes, it is a grain, but oats are one of the least problematic ones. The real scary grains are the ones that have gluten and I still will be steering free of those indefinitely…(except for this little encounter with a slice of pizza I had on the weekend). Boy did I ever pay for that. My body rebelled against it (hot flashes all night, cramps, and a nice face breakout the next morning). However, I honestly don’t think there is anything wrong with doing that once in awhile. Life throws interesting situations at you and sometimes you just want a piece of pizza…and beer, no matter what the consequences may be. As long as I can eat clean 90-95% of the time I am happy.

I never get the negative emotional or physical reactions with the occasional oats. I won’t be doing it everyday, but a couple of times a week is a-okay in my books.

So I guess this is the end of my grain free challenge with the introduction of oatmeal. I guess I could technically call it the wheat free challenge, or gluten free challenge.

But honestly? This is a lifestyle for me and making it a challenge undermines that. Yes, 3 weeks before this challenge I had gotten back into the habit of bread and that happens. But I don’t need a ‘challenge’ to eat properly again. I just pick myself up and dust myself off. Life happens, and after that 3 week  foray back into gluten I now know that the grass is definitely greener on THIS side.

I am also proud to say that with finding a source for locally pastured meat we are now eating 90% local foods (the maritimes). The other ten percent is mostly Canadian foods.

Nothing in this journey into natural whole foods (that are correct for our bodies genetically and evolutionary) is about being perfect. It’s about making an effort to be the healthiest we can in a world that strives to make it very difficult to do so.

LONG LIVE meat, veggies, fruits, dairy and natural unprocessed fats!—–(oh yeah…and some steel cut OATS)

7 Days Grain Free and Feelings…

As I mentioned before, I never took the plunge to go fully grain free. A little oatmeal here, a tiny piece of bread there. That’s all fine and dandy until it becomes more of a habit and then I start feeling not so great anymore. Not sure how I got into the rut of eating bread regularly since I have been relatively grain free (except for oats and the occasional indulgence in wheat) since October 2009. This is day 7 of being completely grain free and I’m feeling fantastic. No more highs and lows and just a general feeling of well being.

I’ve come to learn that what I eat has a strict relation to how I’m feeling. I noticed that over the two weeks that I was indulging too much I had been feeling down and negative about things in my life. I even had some self esteem issues crop up that I haven’t felt in almost a year. Now my life has not changed much in the last week, but I just feel happy, glad and grateful. I feel more emotionally balanced and more capable of dealing with stressful situations when off the grains. There is remarkable evidence that what you eat can affect your moods. Mark Sisson makes a great post about that here. Now, I’ve never been closed to real depression, but I do notice that I am more likely to feel down and unmotivated when eating grains (especially wheat) then off them.

Heck, the last few days I’ve been so motivated and energized. I missed that feeling. Energy, yes, that is another thing that has returned now that I stopped eating grains. Glad for it to.

I won’t go into the physical negatives that I had while eating grain as I covered those in my very first blog post. Yes, they came back while I was indulging and yes, they are gone now.

A lot of people ask me what the heck I eat if I don’t eat grains. Well, I eat whole natural foods for the most part and I usually have a protein, fat and carb (from veggies or fruit) together as that tends to make me feel excellent and satisfied. I don’t feel deprived at all and I don’t even want bread—which is amazing as I bake bread from scratch as my husband and son like a little bread every day. There are a few times a week when the smell of freshly baked bread is wafting through my home and I couldn’t care less and don’t even notice it! Pretty amazing if you ask me…

So…what do I eat? Here is what I ate today.

• 10am – Blue berries in cream, a boiled egg and coffee
• 1pm – My favourite meal of almonds, a slice of cheese (yes real full fat cheese) and a fruit, this time being grapes.
• 3pm – Protein shake with whole milk and a banana
• 5:30pm – Spaghetti squash and meat sauce
• 9pm – A big salad full of fresh local veggies, some from my own garden
• 12am – An apple and a slice of cheese

So there you have it. Today’s food.

30 Day Grain Free Primal Challange

So…although I am still mentally very much against the grain sometimes life gets involved and I find myself eating grain again. It started very intermittently and went from there. Grain for me is an interesting down hill spiral. I get more cravings for grain and find myself hungry all all the time. I won’t even go into the physical problems that arise even from a couple of weeks indulging on the occasional grain.

So for the sake of my health and sanity, it is time to get back on track. No more ‘a slice of bread here or there won’t hurt’ attitude. Because it does.

So for the next 30 days I am going to commit fully to going grain free and pay close attention to the changes my body goes through, inside and out. Even though I have pretty much given up grains for the most part (with the exception of the last two weeks…), I’ve never actually gone 30 days straight without them.

So here is to better health and stability!

Update…

So it’s been awhile since I’ve updated.

People are asking me if I’m still off the grains. For the most part I am. The only thing I still do enjoy and it doesn’t bother me at all is steel cut old fashioned oats. I still stay away from any other grains as I do pay dearly for eating them. I still feel great, have lots of energy and I’m still losing the weight. This is an updated progress picture and I’ve lost almost 10lbs since the last picture there in May. I will have a brand new picture up soon! I still have not seen any recurrence in my other issues (digestive, sore gums) other than after I ate my birthday cake in June, heh.

Progress as of May

Spaghetti Squash: More Nutritious and (according to my family) Delicious than Pasta

So finally after a month and a half of maintaining my weight while obviously putting on muscle it is coming off again. I’ve seen huge muscle gains and beautiful tone show up along with some lost inches. It’s been quite the journey for me to not take the scale seriously, especially when I had evidence of muscle gains elsewhere and clothes fitting better. With my 7-10 hours weekly of dance I don’t need to add any more slow-moderate movement to my routine but I have been adding in more strength training in the form of resistance. My husband, who had always complained about a bit of a belly has completely gotten rid of it in about 4 months and is now starting to show some definition in his abs. All he does for activity is plenty of slow movement (walking, hiking) and a couple of pull ups every other day. We also do sprints every 10 days or so. This goes to show you that body composition is indeed 80% determined by what you eat. I still have lots of work to do, but I’m getting there!

Tonight I made spaghetti for dinner. But this is not your traditional spaghetti. One of the hardest things to give up in my family was pasta. We even did the whole ‘healthy’ thing and bought the whole grain stuff. Well, it’s still bad for you and oh so processed and like all processed grain (all grain products are processed, even products from whole grain), and carry many anti-nutrients. I don’t even have to read the science behind it anymore as my body having an interesting reaction when I eat them is proof to me. My husband also states how different and lethargic he feels after indulging in too much grain or sugar or both. Amazing to think that this is what we thought being normal and healthy felt like…

Anyway, back to the spaghetti. I had tried a few things under my meat sauce, like green beans, and it just wasn’t that great to me. It was good, but I thought I could do better. One day when shopping a few months ago my husband and I wandered past the spaghetti squash section and stopped. I remembered reading that spaghetti squash has a similar look to actual pasta. We picked one up. My husband was extremely skeptical, thinking that it would be awful and bland. Nothing could replace his pasta that he loved so much.

I made my meat sauce from scratch as usual, with lots of fresh veggies and meat with fat, and simmered it in the slow cooker all day. Preparing the spaghetti squash was so simple. Poke some holes in it with a knife or fork to prevent squash-plosion and bake it in the oven for an hour or so. After the hour, take it out, remove the seeds in the center and shred it out of the shell with a fork. Put some on a plate with some butter and cover with sauce. One cup of spaghetti squash has ¼ the amount of carbs as a cup of pasta, grain free and is loaded with so many more nutrients. Talk about an easy way to get your veggies for the day! We add butter to the squash before putting the sauce on to increase the healthy fat content of the meal for satiety.

This meal is full of yum and great nutrition!

Well, I will say this. I have never seen my 15 month old son eat spaghetti like William did that night. My husband was blown away and to this very day he raves about how spaghetti squash is FAR superior to pasta under sauces. We have tried it with Alfredo as well and it was just amazing. Because the flavour of the squash is very mild it works with all sauces and I absolutely adore it. I have never loved pasta dishes as much as I love them now with the squash.

It’s easy to realize that pasta took away from the flavour of the sauce (my opinion) while the squash brings out the best in it. It also has a slight crisp texture which is incredible. My husband also noted that he realized that pasta was giving him discomfort after a meal and didn’t make the connection until after he switched to the squash.

Spaghetti dinners are served up regularly in this house!

Why am I against the grain?

Why am I against the grain?

My journey into Primal eating and to the reduction and elimination of grains actually was birthed from my research to heal my cats digestive issues. Isis was plagued with horrible digestive problems, to the point she was bleeding…It took us years to find the solution. We tried the vet diets and recommendations, no improvement, fiber, absolutely not, laxatives, poor thing didn’t tolerate those well. Finally I descended upon the Internet and found some very interesting advice. Why on earth are we feeding our cats a diet of primarily corn?! They are carnivores for goodness sake. This research took me some time, but I eventually made the switch to grain free kibble. A huge improvement was seen. Then finally recently this year I made the switch to wet food. Isis’ problems have pretty well completely disappeared!

This interesting discovery—which is basic evolutionary knowledge of a cats normal diet—led me to begin my research into human nutrition. Humans vary in many different shapes, sizes, diets and situations so diets differ dramatically. But what we do know, is in North America, there is major problems with weight gain and digestive problems. I know that I have struggled with my weight most of my life and have had to closely watch everything that I put it my mouth from the age of 12. But we were always taught in school to make sure to ALWAYS have 6-12 servings of grain a day! My weight loss struggles starting at this age and continued throughout my life.

I started dieting at 12, trying to be skinnier and small although when I look back at pictures I really didn’t have a weight problem until after I was dieting all the time. I would try these diets, be hungry all the time on high carb, low fat diets and revert to eating things that weren’t so great. My mother always ensured that we had excellent whole foods on the table when she cooked. But I had developed interesting eating habits in high school that happened in secret during time away from home. A cycle of eating very restricted meals and then binging oneverything I could find that was the worst for me—this including processed junk like Kraft Dinner.

Eventually this lead to a brush with Bulimia, and for many months I would eat until I could no longer think of food and then end up with my head in the toilet. Luckily I had such an amazing and caring family who discovered this fairly soon and together we sought help for my issues.

Fast forward a few years into my college years where my body stabilized and I was happy for the most part with my figure. I had a good 10-20lbs always extra, but I chalked that up to the cliché “everyone has to lose 10-20lbs”

Fast forward to my pregnancy. In my college and early marriage/working years I never ate too much grain. I was diagnosed in college with IBS among other digestive problems—which mind you, have completely disappeared with my new lifestyle choice. I was actually diagnosed as lactose intolerant while eating grain and I now enjoy (while being free of grain most of the time) full fat diary with no digestive problems what so ever. So I was told “You must eat 6-11 servings of grains a day, preferably whole grains, for a healthy baby.” So me, wanting to do the best for little William, scarfed down 6-11 servings of ‘healthy’ whole grains along with a healthy diet with very little indulgences in my cravings proceeded to pack on 60lbs! YES 60LBS! This was with being active almost every day with little to no processed junk and very little overeating since I was sick almost half of my pregnancy. By the way, I was tested for celiacs and have come back with ‘no problems’.

So here I was, post baby, with still a good 40lbs to lose to reach my pre-pregnancy weight which was anywhere was 10-20lbs over anyway. I didn’t lose a single pound while breast feeding. After months of futile attempts with following weight watchers perfectly and cutting my fat it just wasn’t happening. So I gave up for awhile. It is good to add that I was always very active in the last 10 years being a dancer (and now performing and instructing) so it wasn’t a problem with inactivity.

In my constant research on cat nutrition I was led to some very interesting human nutritional sites. I was always aware that that high carb diets did cause problems but I always had trouble on super low carb diets with excessive diet soda and other low carb alternatives (not real food). I always gained the weight back within weeks when I resumed a healthy diet. This research led me to Mark’s Daily Apple. Which started my borderline obsessive tendencies with the effects of grain, sugar and refined products on the human digestive system. I won’t go into all the effects, but Mark Sission has a great post on the negative effects of grain on insulin, all the anti-nutrients and inflammation that grains cause to our digestive system. This way of living (it’s not a diet) looks to our evolutionary traits and the nutrition that best suits them.

To put it bluntly, when I started cutting the grain out of my diet (especially wheat) and upping my intake of healthy fats. I noticed dramatic fat loss and digestive improvement. What I also learned was how important fat is and that there are actually no conclusive studies that prove that saturated fat or cholesterol is bad for heart health providing the fats come from natural sources (no artificially created vegetable, canola, corn or hydrogenated oils that plague most of our processed foods)!

Fat is not bad. Butter is not bad. Animal fat is not bad. Hydrogenated and man made vegetable oils are bad—I mean really, someone tell me how you get oil naturally out of corn…Our ancestors lived on these things without any problems. Heart disease and diabetes have become prevalent with a diet riddled in highly processed sugar, oils and carbohydrates in the last couple of decades including our obsession with cutting fat, which is one of the only things that doesn’t provoke an insulin response and provides many vital nutrients.

Anyway, back to my story. So after William finished breastfeeding I started following the ever so simple primal guidelines. Lots of natural fats, good proteins and lots of veggies and some fruit, minus the grains and sugar. I lost close to 30lbs of fat and noticed a HUGE improvement in muscle tone. I ate when I was hungry and never had to worry about counting calories. Sugar, especially the refined stuff, is very bad as well.

My diet is 60-70% fats. It is composed of good fats like butter, animal fat and olive oil (which you can see if you squeeze an olive mind you, no high tech man made, heat riddled techniques there). Then lots of high quality proteins from animals, grass fed when I can afford it. After those are taken care of, I make sure to eats lots of veggies and some fruit (certain fruits cause a huge response in my body, and yes I’ve been tested for diabetes and yes, negative).

Here is my progress since May 2009. Pictures May 2009, Nov 2009, Feb 2010, and March 2010.

This is my current progress picture with about a 30-35lb loss. I haven’t lost a lot of weight in the last two months but I feel so incredible and fabulous and my muscle tone is increasing amazingly fast. I am the most comfortable with my body as I have been in a long time even with the extra weight I still carry.

Now I did divert from the primal way of lifestyle for about a month when I read Weston Price’s material on soaking grains and preparing them properly to neutralize the anti-nutrients and other problems with them. My sore gums came back, I started breaking out again and feeling lethargic even with these ‘healthy’ whole grains. I never knew how good I could feel until after I was grain free and then eating grains again! So again I ventured into grain free living and saw huge improvements in my health again! I was never hungry and was able to eat things that feel so absolutely satisfying to me.

I can eat this way for life. I have lots of energy, my skin has cleared completely (acne was a problem since I was 10 years old), my gums don’t hurt anymore, my mood is vastly improved and HEY! Weight loss and muscle gain! My husband has also gotten on board (without my hounding actually) and has lost two notches in his belt and he has been eating like a horse. All these improvements by just reducing grains and processed sugars and junk (I’m a bit jealous of his lightening quick progress though).

I think that is all I will post for now. But that is my story and I’m sticking to it! There is an abundance of information on the Internet, specifically my favorite site Mark’s Daily Apple, on this way of living. Look forward to more posts on my nutritional journeys from here on in!