Long time no entries - and new diet challenge
Thursday, 5 March 2015 21:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krisomniacSo, jumping on the anti-sugar and processed foods bandwagon for a moment here. I realize it is close to sacreligious to give up sugar in the season that brings us Cadbury egss, but I also had two moments last week:
The first, I saw some pictures of myself and realized how "thick" (aka chubby) I've gotten despite trying to eat well and getting a lot of exercise. No one wants to hear another woman whining about her weight, but it definitely did play a part in this decision.
The second was that a colleague (who is also vegetarian) said she had just completed a Whole30 month, and it made her feel great.
I hadn't given a second thought to all the paleo and elimination diets out there, as they require a fair amount of meat-eating and I figured they weren't for me. But I also realized that I put more sugar and flour-based food in my mouth than just about anything else (think-- the old food pyramid we grew up with, the one that has grains on the bottom).
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to break its hold on me. I looked into the Whole30, and decided that it's too much of an elimination diet for me. Besides, I don't have any chronic inflammatory conditions that may or may not be linked to food. So I did a bit of a mish-mash.
NO: Sugar (including honey, agave, maple, etc), Grains or grain-like seeds, alcohol
MINIMAL: Dairy (i.e. greek yogurt for some more protein), Fish (Eh, I'm not a totally vegetarian compliant), Cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate
MODERATE: Beans and legumes (these are a no-no in paleo and whole30 circles)
FREE CHOICE: Vegetables (excluding some starchy ones like corn or potato), Fruit (I'm eating more fruit than most of these diets recommend), Eggs, Nuts, Nut-like Seeds
My goals are
1) To see if I can break the hold that sugar and simple carbs have on my eating habits
2) To learn how to cook better and more varied meals that are sugar and grain-free
3) To see what it does for me in terms of attitude, sleep, weight, skin, and body.
This is not going to be a long-term diet. I plan to do it for 1 month. Then I am thinking of adding back in whole grains and small amount of alcohol in month two. Month three I am hoping that I can teach myself to eat sweets only as occasional treats.
We'll see how it goes.
The first, I saw some pictures of myself and realized how "thick" (aka chubby) I've gotten despite trying to eat well and getting a lot of exercise. No one wants to hear another woman whining about her weight, but it definitely did play a part in this decision.
The second was that a colleague (who is also vegetarian) said she had just completed a Whole30 month, and it made her feel great.
I hadn't given a second thought to all the paleo and elimination diets out there, as they require a fair amount of meat-eating and I figured they weren't for me. But I also realized that I put more sugar and flour-based food in my mouth than just about anything else (think-- the old food pyramid we grew up with, the one that has grains on the bottom).
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to break its hold on me. I looked into the Whole30, and decided that it's too much of an elimination diet for me. Besides, I don't have any chronic inflammatory conditions that may or may not be linked to food. So I did a bit of a mish-mash.
NO: Sugar (including honey, agave, maple, etc), Grains or grain-like seeds, alcohol
MINIMAL: Dairy (i.e. greek yogurt for some more protein), Fish (Eh, I'm not a totally vegetarian compliant), Cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate
MODERATE: Beans and legumes (these are a no-no in paleo and whole30 circles)
FREE CHOICE: Vegetables (excluding some starchy ones like corn or potato), Fruit (I'm eating more fruit than most of these diets recommend), Eggs, Nuts, Nut-like Seeds
My goals are
1) To see if I can break the hold that sugar and simple carbs have on my eating habits
2) To learn how to cook better and more varied meals that are sugar and grain-free
3) To see what it does for me in terms of attitude, sleep, weight, skin, and body.
This is not going to be a long-term diet. I plan to do it for 1 month. Then I am thinking of adding back in whole grains and small amount of alcohol in month two. Month three I am hoping that I can teach myself to eat sweets only as occasional treats.
We'll see how it goes.
