What I eat

That last post might have you wondering what I do eat. After all, if you eliminate grains, sugars, dairy...what's left? No toast, no pasta, no cheese. Does it sound boring? Or like you'd lack energy?

The truth is, it does seem a bit boring at first. And hard! But after the first week, it wasn't either.

By getting away from my lipid-phobic ways, I opened my eating up for foods I had either always avoided and hadn't had in a long time. Real bacon! Steak - often! Full-fat hamburgers (organic). The day I found myself eating braised short-ribs for breakfast, I knew I'd really made the transition.

But that doesn't happen often. A normal day looks a bit like this:
Breakfast: 3 eggs, bell pepper and onions (or other veggies like zucchini) scrambled together in either coconut oil or pastured butter. (that's pastured, not pasteurized...two different things)  3 breakfast sausage links. I might add a quarter of an avocado, some salsa, and/or berries depending on what's in the house.
Lunch: Usually a big-ass salad, using whatever veggies we have in the house. Romaine, spinach, bell pepper, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, green onion. Add some walnut pieces. Top with ~4 oz. of some sort of meat (usually either steak or boneless chicken breast, but sometimes tuna). Homemade dressing of olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar.  If we're out of salad fixings or I'm rushed for time (i.e. feeling lazy) I might have leftovers.
Dinner: Here's where I can get creative! We used to eat basically two kinds of protein - boneless skinless chicken breasts or ground turkey. Occasionally lentils or other beans. But now we have steak, roast, meatballs, chicken thighs, hamburgers. Indian butter chicken. Beanless chili. Braised short ribs! (OMG those were yummy. Can't wait for the weather to cool so I feel like making them again.). Add in some veggies - braised kale with pancetta. Or mashed cauliflower (instead of potatoes). steamed broccoli and carrots. Anything really, except corn. Corn is not a vegetable!

But that's only three meals, you might say! What about snacks? Aren't we supposed to eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep our metabolism up? Well, that's actually one of the top diet myths, according to LiveScience. Along with "eating fat will make you fat" and "exercise will make you skinny," these are things we've long believed, things the media keeps telling us. But they aren't true!

But I need snacks! you say. If I don't eat every three hours, I get irritable! Or nausteated! Well, guess what? This used to happen to me, too.

On day 6 after making this change, I had plans to go to Costco with a friend. I ate a salad with tuna about 11:30. By the time we got to Costco, I was feeling kind of hungry. Plus, the clock was telling me I hadn't eaten in 4 hours; I "knew" I needed to eat soon or suffer the consequences. So I decided to get a hot dog. But the line was super long. I decided to wait. We shopped for about 90 minutes, and I was carrying my baby the whole time. It was late when we left, so I didn't stop to get one on the way out.

In the end, I went over seven hours without eating. That is the longest I've voluntarily not eaten during waking hours in...over a decade? And I did it without once feeling irritable, shaky or nauseated.

That was a huge revelation for me. I was hungry, yes. Tummy growling, feeling like I should eat something. But having none of those awful symptoms of low blood sugar and low energy? Totally awesome.

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The numbers, day 41:
Weight: 166.7 pounds
Waist: 97.5 cm
Hips: 105 cm
W/H ratio: 0.93
BMI: 26.12
Bodyfat: 29.5%

Baselines

I remember the first time I got pregnant, the doctor I saw (for a nanosecond) insisted I have blood work done as a baseline, a mark to measure things against as the pregnancy progressed. It seemed like a good idea then, and taking a series of measurements or baselines still seems like a good idea.

I've been thinking a bit about what made me desire change. What was it about my life that was making me unhappy and discontented? How would I know these changes were working for me? What baselines did I have with which to measure my progress?

On the day I told my husband, "Starting next week, I am no longer eating grains or sugars," I was a size 14, weighed 177 pounds and was around 32% body fat (according to my body fat monitor scale, which is perhaps not greatly accurate). Size, weight, body measurements - these are all good solid markers I can track with the tools at hand. But what about other, more subtle markers? How else was I feeling on that day?

I was sluggish. Everything seemed like such an effort! I would laze around all day, then rush to get the dishes done and dinner on the stove at the last minute. Or not, and ask my husband to get take out on the way home. If my son wanted to go out and play, I'd go out with him...and sit in a chair with a book, knitting, or iPod. Or all three. Pregnancy and a newborn were great excuses for a while, but even I was getting tired of hearing them.

I felt foggy. My mind was as sluggish as my body. I think I said, "Huh?" a dozen or more times a day. I would drift off in the middle of things; I think I preferred it, actually. I wasn't writing, I wasn't even reading much. I had no ideas for creative projects when my son wanted to craft. I wanted to do nothing more than sit and watch TV, or cruise FaceBook and play games on my iPod.

I had digestive issues. I've had IBS for 20+ years, thanks in part to a bout of amoebic dysentery when I was 18 or 19. I tried many things to cure it, and about a dozen years ago realized it came down to diet - increasing fiber while decreasing sugar made the "attacks" less frequent and less intense. But they'd never gone away entirely. I thought high-fructose corn syrup was the big culprit until I had ELISA testing 2 years ago, and discovered I reacted highly to cane sugar. So much for the "healthy" substitutes!

I sometimes got the shakes. This would happen a lot when I ate a "healthy" breakfast of steel-cuts oats with brown sugar, 1% milk, and walnuts. Ninety minutes to two hours later, I would start to feel hungry, then ravenous, then I would shake or feel nauseated. I felt that if I didn't eat, and eat NOW, I would surely faint. Or maybe throw-up. Especially during my last pregnancy, this all too often led me straight to the McDonald's drive-thru, and a repeat of the cycle two hours later.

I lied. I would tell people - and myself - that I ate a diet of healthy whole foods, eating only whole grain breads, lots of vegetables, leans meats, etc. In reality, I was eating fast food 3-5 times a week, some days ate no vegetables or only a few baby carrots, and sometimes ate a packet of ding-dongs while grocery shopping. Not that I would tell anyone that; I paid for them, and had the clerk throw away the package.

I didn't need blood work or a scale or even a mirror to tell me that I wasn't healthy. I could feel it each and every day, and I showed it each and every day with my actions and my inactions.

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The numbers, day 1:
Weight: 177 pounds
Waist: 104 cm
Hips: 106 cm
W/H ratio: 0.98
BMI: 27.72
Bodyfat: ~32%