Posts tagged ‘diet’
Reintegrating After the Cleanse
Try a new variety of winter squash this season.
Three days after the end of my cleanse, I have slowly integrated some of the food items I gave up for two weeks. I started with cow’s dairy and measured my body’s response to it. As I suspected, no change in energy levels or digestion. Then, just a teeny amount of sugar in the form of one Hershey’s Kiss on Monday and another on Tuesday, plus about 1/4 oz of chocolate chips after dinner both days. Last night was wine, which was nice to reincorporate. This morning it was my black tea, which tasted great.
I also just found out that it’s Celiac Awareness Month from Rudi’s Breads. They make a few gluten-free breads and are celebrating this month with the “31 days of Glorious Gluten-free Giveaways” on their Facebook page. There are Celiac awareness games as well as free loaves of bread, t-shirts and even GF toasters! Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/rudisglutenfreebakery. Their breads are lighter than most whole-grain breads that have wheat as a base, but tasty!
I’m not planning to go back to eating any wheat products until the end of the month, and probably sparingly at that point, but we’ll see. In addition to Rudi’s, both Udi’s and the Canyon Bakehouse make pretty good GF breads, so removing gluten from my diet turned out to be much easier than I thought, even though I’ve done it before.
I will also stay away from most sugary snacks and processed foods for a good long time, maybe until Thanksgiving. The afternoon sugar crash that occurs is just not worth it and I’d rather have really high-quality desserts, like fondue at a restaurant in Vancouver for which we bought a Groupon, rather than donuts and grocery-store cookies every day.
The best part is the season. I have been making soups for the past week out of yams, winter squash, potatoes, garlic, onion, leeks and all of the fall and winter produce. I’ve also been eating a salad almost every day, which is so satisfying and a nice foil for the warmth of the soups.
The Cleanse Ah-Ha!
When you’re doing a cleanse like I am, it’s pretty easy to pinpoint the food-related problems that might arise, if your mind is functioning. I started thinking about why I might be having gut issues and what I had incorporated that was different than when I was just eating whatever I wanted. The one thing that stood out, when I finally got there, was the granola!
Granola is such a simple, wonderfully healthy snack with no gluten, dairy, or processed sugar in it. So I made a couple of batches to satisfy my sweet tooth with something natural. Today, I went without and, lo and behold, my gut has had no problems.
Now, there’s no way to tell which ingredients are causing the issue, but I’m guessing it’s either the nuts or the oatmeal. If I really want to know, I will go off all nuts and oatmeal for two weeks, then add them back in, one at a time, to see how my system reacts. If it’s a specific nut, I’ll know. If it’s the “raw” oatmeal, I’ll be able to tell that as well.
On the good side, I haven’t had problems in the past, so if I follow a rotation diet and eat each thing no more than every three days, that will help cause less stress to my system than if I ate them every day. Whoo-hoo to good health!
Cultivate Health LLC 