Grain Free Challenge: 30 Days, No Grains

Some of my grain free meals: grilled tofu and veggies, shrimp served over three bean salad with tomatoes and cukes, tilapia and stir fry vegetables with a black bean sauce, and eggs with grain free rolls.

Trainer Steve gave us a new challenge: no grains for 30 days. From July 5th to August 5th, I removed all grains from my diet. Here are a couple of links for you to consider.
Ten reasons to go grain free.

Why grains are unhealthy. 

I noticed a change within a week. I didn't feel as tired, sluggish or bloated. As long as I prepared my own meals, I didn't have to much of a challenge eating grain free. I substituted granola for a mixture of nuts and seeds for my yogurt because I have texture issues with smooth foods. Instead of my usual brown rice, I bumped up my vegetable intake.  I'm at work for the majority of my meals, so rotisserie chicken and frozen vegetables were my fall back meal if I didn't have time to cook.

My body did have a bit of a struggle with the increase of fiber in my diet. Heh, sorry to the new people following this blog, I'm sure no one is that interested in my digestive health. The lack of grains makes you, let's just say, more regular and leave it at that. Oh, and I noticed that my complexion cleared up quite a bit.

It's not all that easy to eat grain free at picnics and gatherings. Restaurants aren't bad at all, and are willing to swap out rice and pasta if you ask. I found myself trying a lot of food I wouldn't normally order.; seared salmon with pecans for example. The first family picnic I went to left me hungry. Everything besides the salad was either breaded, deep fried or both! Desserts aren't much of an option. Cake, cookies, pie. All out. (This is why I waited until after the fourth of July to start this challenge.) I found that I was happier if I brought small sides with me to picnics. Bean salads or fruit salads complimented burgers, without the bun of course.

I came across a great product at Whole Foods called Against The Grain. They make bagels, rolls and even a pizza crust all without grains, all the while keeping their ingredient count low and minimally processed. It was good enough to curb the occasional bread craving and I highly recommend them.

So, what were my results exactly? Nothing earth shattering on the scale. I dropped about 5 pounds, which I tend to fluctuate up and down that amount, and I dropped 1% body fat. As always, I don't worry too much about numbers, I judge my health on how I'm feeling. I'm down a pant size and I had a really good month at the gym. I felt like the exercises had a greater effect on my body, my muscles seemed to respond to the work. I don't know if removing grains really did that, but I moved better and felt stronger in general.

I did not cave during my weekend in NYC, even though I had a dream about getting a pretzel the weekend before I went. I'm totally serious; I actually woke myself up at how frustrated I was for not being able to eat the pretzel in my own dream! I did finally break my grain free diet for one of my ultimate temptations...

Crack Pizza

It's not really called Crack Pizza, it's pizza from The Colony. It's the best pizza in the world. I get sausage, while the majority of my friends go with the hot oil stinger. (I'm spice deficient.) We call it Crack Pizza because it's so good, you'll eat an entire pie yourself and will want a second pizza as soon as you get back to your house.

Yes, the pizza was incredible, as always, and I think because the crust is so thin, I didn't eat a whole lot of grains. The two things I noticed were: I could only eat half the pizza and my stomach made ALL sorts of gurgly noises when I was finished. And yeah, I became less regular and more gassy.

I haven't had grain besides this, and I'm going to continue to try to keep my intake to a minimum. Some occasional crack pizza or sushi won't be the end of the world, but I'm just as happy to avoid it.