Bye Bye Bread

So I agreed to do something crazy for the month of November – cut out bread/pasta/gluten. A friend had mentioned she just wanted to try it and I thought I would support her and help her out! Then that changed to the beginning of November until Thanksgiving. 24 days. I can do anything for 24 days.

Let me clarify something up front, neither of us are doing this to lose weight. That’s the first reaction from people when I tell them. It’s not about losing weight, it’s about being healthy. Since when did eating well have anything to do with losing weight? Pause. I know exactly when, when America became a morbidly obese nation; however, I am not trying to change the nation, just my eating habits.

This is what I have concluded with 6 days remaining.

1. It’s pretty easy.

2. It’s expensive.

3. My body went through gluten withdrawals.

Let me explain further.

I am very lucky that my parents forced my sisters and I to be good eaters. I will try just about anything you throw at me. I love vegetables, I love fruits, I love everything! So, sticking to mainly vegetables and meats wasn’t necessarily hard. The only time it was truly hard was when I was trying to eat fast food. When Taylor and I left for Baylor homecoming Friday night at 8 pm we needed to eat. Well you can eat a salad while driving and everything else has bread! Other than that, not eating bread at home was simple, especially when there wasn’t any around.

Fresh vegetables are a necessity. I just can’t force myself to eat the ones in the can anymore. That, however, gets expensive. It also took me a few trips to figure out how many zucchini/squash I could buy without wasting any later in the week - same thing with bananas. So there is a technical “price to pay” for eating healthy, but I can already say I think it’s worth it.

I was about 10 days into this whole thing when one morning I woke up with this serious craving for donuts. Donuts?? I have not eaten a donut in 2 years!! People have them at school all the time, but I think I’ve created some weird parallel about large, old teachers and eating donuts to force myself never to eat them. But this particular morning I felt like a heroin addict, the craving was that strong. No worries, I didn’t break. I ate my almonds and string cheese for a snack instead.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I will be having at least 3 rolls on Thanksgiving. I don’t think I will cut bread out of my diet completely, but I think I will eat less of it.

Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been eating!

Zucchini, Squash, Mushroom Stir Fry -- NOT served over rice! :)

My all time fav - asparagus with olive oil and parmesean cheese.

Sweet Potato and Celery

Breakfast mainly consists of smoothies