Oh, me. Oh, my. What a neglectful host I am. Oh well, you'll get over it.
I didn't tell many people this, because I wanted to try it out first, but this last month Jon and I have been almost completely grain/starch free. And by "almost completely" I mean that our day-to-day meals are grain-free (and free of foods that turn quickly into sugar in the body, i.e. potatoes, rice, flour, wheat, most fruit, etc.). We have had a few "cheat" days. Once we had to go to St. Cloud for a funeral, and one Sunday Night dinner we had bagels and corned beef from Max and Benny's. But over all, it's been grain-free. INCLUDING ME SAYING NO TO CAKE AT A BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR THE KIDS I NANNY. You need to read that again? That's okay, I can wait.
Done? Let that sink in. I have NEVER in my life before said no to cake. But yeah. I'm proud of myself. I also have been craving gyros for approximately 6 weeks and have yet to get them.
I will admit that I did cheat a couple times. I tried Cheetos once. I used to love Cheetos. These Cheetos tasted like sawdust. They were so gross! Sugar gives me a stomach ache. It just doesn't taste as good.
Having said that, Katie and I made this AMAZING chocolate cake. Only we used coconut oil instead of the butter, since Kate can't have dairy, and substituted 1/2 avocado per egg, since I'm intolerant (we're not high maintenance at all, I promise,) and we used coconut crystals instead of white sugar (coconut crystals are low-glycemic, so they don't spike your blood sugar). Guys, this was THE BEST chocolate cake I've ever had. Now, I'm not sure if that's because neither of us had had any good cake in so long, or we were craving the sweets, or what, but we ate like half of it all at once, with strawberries and coconut cream. Then, when we had others try it, they're all like, "yeah, it's good, but not great." We were aghast. Please, make this cake. Don't be discouraged by the disgusting batter; it's much more better when it's baked. (Also, I will admit the cake itself tastes better warm and fresh from the oven or reheated.)
For the first few weeks, I had NO energy whatsoever, since I wasn't pumping my body full of it's preferred source of energy: sugar. But the whole purpose of the no-starch/grains/sugar diet was to teach my body to burn fat for energy, not sugar. So it took a while, but now I crave more healthy fats (5 gallons of coconut oil, anyone? Yes, I did buy that much...) Avocados, full fat dairy products, nuts, seeds, and oils. Lots of meat and veggies. Creativity. This month has been a challenge, but it's been rewarding.
So you may be confused as to what we can and can't eat. We can have nuts
and seeds, meats, most veggies, dairy, berries, Granny Smith apples,
and the like. We can NOT have oats, grains, wheat, starch, and most
fruit, not to mention any processed foods. It's been a busy month of
cooking and cleaning in my tiny little kitchen that always seems to be
dirty.
Will we continue on this diet long term? I don't know. I find when I do eat a ton of grains or sugar, I feel sluggish, my stomach hurts, and I just don't feel great in general. Do I get sick of meat and veggies, and want my potatoes back? Almost daily. Not to mention the price tag of healthy fats! Oh my. But even if we do start incorporating more grains/starches soon, it will definitely be slowly, and hopefully we'll never get to where we were before, where the majority of the foods we ate turned to sugar in our bodies.
At this point I think it will be more determined by our budget than anything else; healthy eating IS NOT CHEAP. But we'll see.
Anyway, how about that weather, lately? My goodness.
