Today is Day 3 without wheat products, and I have to say...it's not easy.
Nearly 6 months ago I changed my eating habits drastically. I cut out desserts. I switched from white bread and white pasta to whole grain. I began eating more vegetables and lean meats. I cut out fried food and junk food. I thought that was enough.
But towards the end of January, my longstanding digestive problems (I have diverticulitis and some suspected food allergies and intolerances) got worse.
Finally, I decided to do something about it. I have suspected for quite awhile that I have a wheat allergy or intolerance, and wondered if I have celiac disease. (If you are not familiar with celiac disease, read about it here: www.celiac.org). It takes a doctor's visit to get tested for celiac, and since I don't have insurance right now, that will be deferred.
The primary method of detecting food allergies/intolerances are by elimination, so I decided to eliminate anything containing wheat or wheat gluten for at least a week. I also decided to give up eating meat for awhile as I also felt it was affecting my digestive system.
The biggest challenge was breakfast (I usually eat whole grain cereal, or whole grain toast with boiled eggs). So I decided on yogurt and almond milk smoothies with frozen fruit and vegan rice protein powder and "green stuff". Surprisingly, the smoothies taste pretty good. (They would taste better without the green stuff, but I know it's important.).
This change hopefully will be good in the long run, but it has activated a lot of food cravings that I just had not been experiencing previously. Apparently, I had been getting a lot of sugar in the cereal even though I was eating "healthy" cereal.
I can't even eat my favorite lunch, Campbell's Tomato Soup, anymore because it contains wheat flour.
I am frustrated right now!
I feel like I can't even right about it anymore!
If anyone has wisdom or stories to share that will help me along with this, I'd sure appreciate it. I just was not prepared to be having these food cravings.
What I gave up six months ago were things I was ready to give up. I don't miss fried chicken or brownies at all. But I do miss my tomato soup, and also my whole grain tortilla chips from Trader Joe's.
And Chicago Man was kind of overwhelmed to realize he gets all the Vitalicious muffin tops, all the multigrain chips, all the Kashi bars, pretty much everything that was in the house!
It kind of made me feel like I was leaving him all these things in my will, lol. There, at least I found something to laugh about!
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