As of September 1st, Jim and I started our new “meal plan”. I’ll explain that later (if you are interested in healthy eating talk) but first a kid funny???

 

I explained to the kids (on the way to Trader Joe’s and Sprouts) that mommy and daddy were going to try eating healthier and all that entailed. As we walked into Sprouts, Ty shouts across the store, “WOOHOOOOO!!!!! We are going HEALTHY!!!!!!”

The public response was priceless. By the expressions surrounding us, the audience was tempted to applaud.

While standing near the produce, Ty says to his sister “No more wheat for us and Tori that means no more Cinnamon Toast Crunch for YOU!” She broke down sobbing by the oranges. It was hysterical.

He let every cashier know about our new eating habits and told them how awesome it was going to be. All the while I am laughing to myself because my little picky eater would fail to thrive in a hurry if I made him eat only what I am.

On the way home, Ty says “Mommy we should do this one day every August!”

“Do what Ty?” I say.

“Eat healthy!”

Tanner and I cracked up. ONE day of healthy eating IS awesome. I can agree on that point. LOL.

So if you are not in the mood for food talk, diets and such, I would totally skip this post if I were you. I hate listening to healthy food and diet talk when I am in no mood for it. Also this is going to be really long so you might not want to invest in my long winded post.

I am writing this all down so that I have a reference place for my notes and so that I can answer questions from those who have already asked. I live in a very large tribe you know.

So here is the deal???

Before explaining the “what”, I think I will address the “why” first and that means going back in history a decade.

When Tanner was a year old, I had my first miscarriage. Over an 18 month period, I lost 10 babies in a total of 4 total miscarriages (we lost multiples each time). I was devastated. During that time, I started having a lot of physical pain. I went to the ER one day and was diagnosed with extreme stress (which I totally did not agree with at the time but am now convinced that is exactly why my body freaked out – I was grieving). One memory stands out in particular to me. I was sleeping on the couch during the middle of the day and my little toddler was sitting beside me patting me and trying to pry my eyes open. It was then that I committed to DO something about my fatigue and health because Tanner was my dream baby and I wouldn’t let myself grieve so much that I missed out on the amazing gift of him. I started eating better and walking. Got those endorphins moving and in relatively short order, I felt “alive” again.

The next year, the next tragedy struck. Ty was born extremely premature at 25 weeks gestation and I basically lived in a NICU for three months all the while worried my son wouldn’t live. I got through Ty’s first year being totally preoccupied with taking care of him but when he hit about 12 months old, my body gave out. It was then that I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. The Dr.s offered me medications but I had a long list of reasons why I didn’t want to go down that road only one of which was that I had a small baby that needed extra care and I couldn’t afford to sleep so deep that I wouldn’t hear alarms and such at night.

Ultimately, I committed to a low carb diet and better nutrition and again, my body started feeling better.

Then Tori was born. 🙂

In the last four years it has been hills and valleys with my diet plans. Tired of low carbing, I kept trying low calorie or low fat but each time I would only get about 3 weeks in before I would fall off the wagon. Wasn’t sustainable for me. In the first place, I wouldn’t notice much physical relief. Secondly, I was still hungry and fighting it all the time. Third, I don’t lose weight well on low calorie or low fat.

There was a time when I researched celiac disease and worried that I might have it. I went to the Dr. for that and he said “No way. You aren’t malnourished and you don’t have Irritable Bowel Syndrome so that isn’t it.”

Still though…I may not have the most obvious Celiac symptoms but there were a disturbing number of symptoms that I DID have. I wondered if possibly I had a gluten sensitivity without having full blown Celiac. Several times I had done low carb diets and seen my health improve very quickly yet the low calorie and low fat diets had no effect. Who wants to give up gluten though? Not me.

Over the last few months I have felt my FMS/CFS symptoms creeping back up. More than that though, some of my symptoms felt more like Type 2 Diabetes (and that runs in my family). At 39, the thought of beginning that battle was not a pleasant one. I haven’t had my blood sugar evaluated, I have just been watching my symptoms and wondering about it.

In the last month, I purchased a book on my Kindle called “The Low Carb Revolution”, by John McLean. My thought was that my health might improve if I low carbed again but I need motivation. As I read this book, I came across a lot of information that I wasn’t aware of. This may be old news to everybody else but since it was eye opening for me, I’ll share several bullet points.

The author wrote a whole book to get across a few basic points. They are biggies too and I wish I would have known this. Before I summarize what he had to say I want to offer one disclaimer. I don’t know if any of this is truly accurate or not. I have found a lot of collaborating sources though from medical experts so I think the theory is sound and what he says makes sense to me. While I may type some of these things as “fact” – it is only because I am summarizing someone else’s thoughts (or I am directly quoting from the above referenced book). The proof will be in the pudding. It will either work for me or it won’t and that will be the litmus test for me.

To summarize???

People don’t gain weight from eating too many calories. Calories and fat are not what make you gain weight. Insulin is what causes weight gain. Basically it works like this (I think – again I am summarizing so feel free to check me on this):

When glucose is in the blood, the hormone Insulin is triggered. Insulin tells the body to store the glucose in the cells as fat. It then tells the cells to NOT let that fat out because it may be needed for energy later.

So here is a super important point that I wish I would have known. As long as the dominant hormone dictating things is insulin, you are not going to lose weight! The hormone Glucogen releases the fat from the cells back into the blood stream to burn as energy. Therefore, if you want Glucogen to come out to play instead of Insulin, you have to maintain a normal blood sugar level (that will thus allow you to burn the fat and lose weight).

Another interesting hormone that plays into this is Leptin. It is the “you are full” hormone. The level of circulating Leptin within our bodies is directly proportional to the amount of fat we have stored. The more we weigh, the more Leptin we have BUT the weaker and less effective it is. We become desensitized to it so it seems like we have less. Excessive amounts of Insulin in our bodies actually inhibits Leptin and keeps it from being called in to share its message. Insulin flooding the bloodstream inhibits the release of our natural appetite suppressant hormone Leptin. Therefore we are not overweight because we ate too much food, instead we eat too much food because we are overweight.

Who knew? Not me.

And that also is one explanation for why low calorie/low fat diets don’t work for me. I am still out to play with Insulin even though I may be eating lower calories. For example, when I was on a 1200 calorie diet earlier in the year I was eating one waffle at breakfast. It was relatively low calories plain. At lunch I was having something low fat on a light English muffin. All good right? NOPE! Those waffles and English muffins are at the top of the glycemic index!

The Glycemic Index is a tool that accurately measures how many sugars we are putting into our bloodstream. The GI uses pure glucose as its primary reference number assigning it a value of 100. The closer a food gets to the top of the list, the more it can be compared to pure glucose…which is the form of sugar that humans run on.

The higher the number on the GI, the more insulin gets called, and the lower number the less.

High GI Foods rank at 70 or higher, Medium are 55-70 and Low is 55 or lower.

As I read more about the Glycemic Index, things started to make sense to me. If you eat foods that are high on the glycemic index, you will be triggering insulin. If you eat moderately on the glycemic index you will likely maintain your weight. If you eat low, you will lose. That is the general rule of thumb.

Following were other tidbits I took note of:

As recently as 1900 Americans consumed an average of only about one pound of added sugar in an entire year compared to the staggering 160 pounds of excess sugars today. We are not built to manage these excess sugars.

In the 80s, the food pyramid came out. Remember that in health class? The whole bottom base of that pyramid is wheat, grains, pasta. Guess what happened every year after that “eat more wheat” campaign was introduced? Obesity skyrocketed. The charts on that in the book were very interesting.

Starches are at the TIPPY TOP of the GI.

Wheat products elevate our blood sugar levels more than virtually any other carb from beans to candy bars.

Carbs are NOT needed for human survival. The 3 major categories that we DO require for survival are:

Protein, Fat, and Fiber

Quote: “While fiber is technically a carb, by definition fiber is largely indigestible and so doesn’t have the same fat creating impact on our bloodstreams as do true mega sugars like bread and pasta. When people say that we need carbs to live what they mean is that we need a very specific type of carb to live called fiber. Beyond eating plenty of fruits and vegetables we never need to ingest a single added carb in our entire lives. Carbs DO give immediate energy needs but in 99.99% of the situations we find ourselves in our immediate energy needs are unlikely to be so dire that we must rely on extra carbs to meet them. The average person stores about 1500 grams of glycogen enough to run about 20 miles at full tilt. We don’t need an immediate energy source. We need a sustained source which comes from the protein and fat in meats, fish, poultry, seeds, nuts and even vegetables. ”

Insulin completely ignores natural fat. Eventually it will convert protein to sugar but it will never convert fat to sugar. (This makes natural fat good from a GI perspective – it is a great source of energy).

Author suggests eating from foods on 35 and under list to lose weight.

Eat these is unlimited quantities. ALL fruits average GI of 5-30 ALL vegetables average GI of 10-40 ALL beans average GI of 20-40 ALL dairy including milk, cheese butter etc averag 15-45

(Doni’s note: not ALL fruits are low. I learned the hard way by eating watermelon. Bananas, mangos, pineapple, watermelon – not low. He does clarify that in the book later).

ALL seeds and nuts average GI of 5-25

Beef, Pork, Lamb, Fish, Chicken, Buffalo, Goat, Turkey, Duck any other animal product – GI 0

What are some of the worst offenders on the Glycemic Index?

Examples of High GI

Russet Potato 98

High Fructose Corn Sugar 90

Instant Rice 90

Popcorn 89

White Rice 83

Pretzels 81

English Muffin 80

Gatorade 80

Waffles 76

Whole Wheat Bread 75

Corn 75

Saltine Crackers 75

White Bread 69

Oddly! Table Sugar 59

Don’t you love it that Waffles and English Muffins are on this list? Way to go at tanking my 1200 calorie diet! Sheessshhhh…if only I would have known that. (And by the way, this is not to say that low calorie/low fat diets “don’t” work at all. I just haven’t had much success with them or if I have, it has been HARD earned and didn’t last long – cuz I was still hungry!)

When I called my mom about this, the diet guru started educating me on glycemic load and how that comes in to play. I haven’t done my homework on all that yet but I will.

Now a bit of a switch in topics???

While reading this book, I realized that I am typically not motivated to diet for reasons of weight loss. I have been fairly unsuccessful at that. It is only when I changed my eating habits because of my health that I was successful and the weight loss was a bonus. I think, at least in part, I have my mother to thank for that. I was raised by a woman with a healthy self image. She raised me to have a healthy self image. I hope and pray I will give that gift to my daughter. Who I am, and what I look like are separate in my mind. I am multi dimensional. I am not my body. I love the C.S. Lewis quote “I am a soul that has a body”. I feel that. In most regards, I think that has been a very healthy way to live as a woman. My mother has never suffered from insecurities (at least not ones she expresses). She accepts herself and she forgives her failings. I think I have learned that from her and I consider it a true gift.

Having said that, it isn’t very useful when it comes to trying to keep my body healthy because I don’t give my body as much attention as it needs. The author of Low Carb Revolution seems to be a great guy. I like him. My preference would have been a more creative use of the English language (he loves to exercise profanity), and half the book is devoted to body image (and I only skimmed that part). There was a portion early on that talked about being good to your body and listed an example of thanking your hand for all it has done for you. I tried to read those parts but I couldn’t do it. Had to skip them. I do get his point though. When we under appreciate what our body has to offer, we don’t always maintain it very lovingly. Point received.

When I was reading this book, part of the reason I was really surprised by the insulin connection was because I had already been thinking my symptoms seemed like the beginnings of Type 2 diabetes so then all this really got me to wondering. Additionally, the author referenced another book, Wheat Bellies, by Dr. William Davis, several times and I was totally intrigued by that because again, I have always questioned whether or not I was gluten sensitive. So I bought that book???

I was really surprised reading Wheat Bellies and would highly recommend this one. Dr. Davis spends a lot of time building a great case against wheat. Bottom line is, Dr. Davis is a cardiologist and has seen thousands of his patients cut wheat out of their diet and have all kinds of positive health benefits. He believes it is because our bodies were not designed to digest wheat in its current form. Truly organic wheat is very difficult to purchase and wheat is in darn near everything. Scientists (back in the 80s I believe) genetically modified wheat seeds to make them grow faster, be hardier, and resistant to pests. Instead of the beautiful waving fields of grain you envision, wheat only grows about 18 inches high these days so that they can produce twice the crops as unmodified wheat. And the result, people seem to be getting sicker and many people seem to respond poorly to genetically modified wheat .

Dr. Davis references Celiac all over the place because people with Celiac CANNOT eat wheat or ultimately it may kill them. He also defends that Dr.s who diagnose celiac based on IBS and malnutrition (exactly what my former Dr. did) are off base. Celiac is not easy to determine. Further, many people seem to have “celiac lite” which is basically not full blown you-may-die celiac but they have a lot of symptoms of gluten sensitivity.

And now you know what I will say…many of my symptoms are consistent with a wheat sensitivity. From his experience, countless patients have gone off wheat entirely and had significant health improvements. From my experience, when I am low carbing I am basically off wheat and have had health improvements. Is it the wheat that is getting to me? I really don’t know but based on these two things, I think there is a very good chance.

I highlighted so much stuff in this book I can’t begin to write out the tidbits. I’ll just say this about it for now. Based on my past experience to validate what he is saying, I am now not a fan of wheat products! (By the way, the beginning of the book gets really deep in wheat history. Once you get the gist, you might want to skim a bit because some people may find that boring reading. Once you get past that though, I found the information compelling.)

I talked to Jim about all this and ironically, he had been reading up on the Paleo diet that same week. We both decided to at least give a wheat free diet a chance. My MAIN goal is to improve my health. Secondary goal is to lose weight. With this secondary goal in mind, I am basically trying to eat just low glycemic index (and wheat products are NOT low glycemic index). That leaves me with meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit, seeds and nuts. I allow myself some carbs (like in a dressing) as long as they are lower carbs without wheat products in them. I had to make my own taco seasoning this week because the packaged kind has wheat in it of course. I am also avoiding all gluten free food because yes they are wheat free BUT they are replaced with starches (rice flours and tapiocas and such) and those may not be as bad for you as wheat but because they are so high on the glycemic index, it would shoot my secondary goal to shreds so why bother. Jim is doing the Paleo diet and that includes eliminating dairy as well. He tends to struggle with dairy so he wants to eliminate and add back in slowly. Dairy is okay from a glycemic index point of view (which is why I am keeping it) but arguments can be made on the hormones. Giving up sugar and wheat is about as far as I am willing to go at the moment though. Frankly, weight loss goals would not have motivated me to go THIS far. It’s only because I need to test the theory that wheat may be (essentially) poisoning me. I have four kids, a business, am homeschooling, and the drive of a 20 year old. My body must keep up! Wanting to have the health and reserves to do all the things I want are very motivating to me and worth the wheat sacrifice.

At the end of the day, this will work or it won’t. Simple as that. Jim started noticing relief from head pressure and headaches almost immediately. We are still not sure if that is a fluke or not but watching it. He is very sensitive to allergies and pressure changes so it would be AWESOME if he felt better off wheat. I am on day 3 now and I feel terrible. I have had three days of intermittent headaches, irritable bowl, fatigue and brain fog. I didn’t recognize my own niece at church yesterday and the mental hoops I was jumping through trying to determine who she was had me totally freaked out. According to Dr. Davis, some people tend to go through withdrawal for a little bit. He even suggested that those with the higher intolerances, suffer the most through the withdrawal stage. That may be telling huh? We shall see.

Again, I am no expert, and maybe all this is hooey. “Experts” change their minds about everything all the time and everything you read seems contradictory. At the end of the day, all I can do is test the theory. If it works, I have no argument right? And if I lose weight as well, that would be pretty awesome (though I am not even going to weigh right now because I don’t want to be distracted by weight loss goals – those end up being self defeating for me).

And a few questions I know you’ll ask if you read this far:

1. How are you feeding the kids?

I am not taking all wheat products and sugar out of my kids diet. First, as far as I am concerned, this is an untested theory so I want to do it myself for considerable time before big changes with the kids. Second, I have seen a lot of bad outcomes from trying to force kids off food they love. Third, they can eat moderately, they don???t need the added weight loss goal. Fourth, Ty wouldn’t survive. Really. Instead, I am tempting them with healthier alternatives and that is working. I make a smoothie for breakfast, they want one. I make me scrambled eggs, they want it. I had tuna with no bread today, they wanted that (well not Ty but the rest of them did). I am also adding a lot more fruit and veggies in and they are totally gobbling that up. Eventually, I would like to move them farther and farther off wheat but Ty will be tricky with that. The sad thing is, it might help Ty exponentially for all kinds of reasons but since he eats such a narrow diet and few proteins already, that would take a lot of planning and working with Ty to expand his palette and those things don’t happen over night. Additionally, my kids may not have gluten sensitivity. I doubt it is GOOD for anybody but not everybody reacts to it adversely as I do (may).

Update: I tried a (almost) no carb bread today called “Cloud Bread” that I saw on Pinterest. It reminds me of an egg based popover (which I actually love). There is a restaurant in Prescott that serves them and Ty and I both love them. This isn’t exactly the same thing of course but at least reminiscent. Ty and I both really liked them today. All they have in them is eggs, cream cheese (or cottage cheese), stevia, and cream of tarter so no sugar, no gluten. I know they sound yucky but I was really surprised at how much I liked them (and TY LIKED THEM). http://www.food.com/recipe/carb-free-cloud-bread-411501

The recipe is very much like making a meringue. Crispy and light when first out of the oven but if you store them in an airtight container, they are soft and chewy the next day.

The trick seems to be, I have to find stuff that is healthy that they like BETTER than what they are eating. Been proud of my successes in that department this week.

2. What in the heck are you eating?

For breakfast I am having scrambled eggs or a smoothie of some sort with fruit and dairy. I am also using Stevia as it is the most natural sweetener. For lunch, I am eating tuna with mayo and seasonings in a bowl with fruit and veggies, OR meat and cheese wrap with fruit, OR veggie stir frys with coconut oil or virgin olive oil. (Those are GOOD fats). Today I tried a fried egg with a little meat, bit of mayo, and cheese on it. Egg mcmuffin minus the muffin. It was good. Bet it would have been good on the cloud bread too. For dinner, I am trying to incorporate meat, fruit and veggie. Last night we had rotisserie chicken with half an avocado, zucchini and watermelon. I think the watermelon was a no-no. I have to get this whole glycemic load thing figured out. Probably shouldn’t have eaten that one but the kids love it and they can totally have it.

3. Was it so expense to shop?

I spent $10.00 less this week. I bought all organic fruits, veggies, and meat at Sprouts and Trader Joe’s too. With all the stuff I didn’t want to buy, that made up for the extra expense. It helps though that Jim is doing this with me because then I am not making separate meals. I am just giving some extra stuff to the kids if they want it.

4. How long will you do this?

No idea. If it works, I hope I do it forever (at least the wheat free part) because I don’t want to be sick!!!! If it doesn’t work, that won’t help my motivation much. I am not one of those that is willing to put positive words out there and have that optimism fuel my efforts. I am a doer. Don’t think it. Do it. So will I? I am three days in. That’s it. We will just have to see. I really can’t imagine a life time of being wheat free but if I become certain that it’s the cause of my physical pain…well???

It gets so frustrating researching well living because you will find a diet eliminating every dang food group for one reason or another and at the end of the day you have nothing left to eat. 🙂 In my case, I hope to stay off wheat but other than that, I will introduce some stuff back later. (For example, Jim is having honey and I am not. I can eat that in moderation later).

5. What are your symptoms?

I didn’t want to write this out at the beginning because it sounds on the whiney side but I figure anyone who hung in there and read this lengthy post may want to know what exactly I am trying to address with this drastic change.

??? Headaches

??? Fatigue

??? Low Attention. Some days I feel so sorry for Ty because my attention wanders as much as his while teaching him.

??? Feet pain ( a lot!) If I sit any length of time, the bottoms of my feet hurt to walk when I get up and I have to walk it out. Early morning is the worst.

??? Body pain during sleep. Mostly lower back but some fibro type stuff too.

??? Eye dryness (I have never had eye dryness and have been a contact wearer for over 20 years. In the last few months this has been driving me crazy).

??? Travel swelling and general hand swelling. If I drive more than an hour in a vehicle, my lower legs and feet are swelling really bad. I am having trouble wearing my wedding rings due to swelling as well.

??? Would love to get up out of a chair or off the floor in Tori’s room and not walk hunched over like I am 80. I have to walk the pain out when I get up often.

??? My mom suggested I start taking B12 for my knee nerve pain. I noticed a difference almost immediately. I am not over it yet but it is MUCH better than it was.

??? I get numb spots off and on. Usually face, neck and upper back though right now my knee has numb spots.

??? I would love to get off omeprozole but right now I have to use it to manage my GERDS (reflux, ulcer and hernia pains)

??? I don’t know if I am still anemic post hysterectomy BUT I did read that people with gluten intolerances are often anemic and deficient in several vitamins including (interestingly enough) B12 – the very one I just started. Ironic?

If I can’t do this long term, be merciful okay? And no commenting if you see me cheat!!!! LOL. I am a CARB ADDICT and this will be a tough addiction to break! I’ll report back in on this later after I have given it a bit of time. I can say that I am not struggling with hunger at all and that is a great thing.

Life is an adventure isn’t it?