Being Gluten-Less

Earlier this year I jumped on a bandwagon.   That bandwagon was the Wheat Belly bandwagon.

After becoming increasingly frustrated with my inability to lose weight (and ability to put pounds on), I started to get wrapped up in the idea of becoming gluten free.  I read Wheat Belly, which made some excellent points while being a little repetitive and boring at times.   On top of the inability to lose weight, I was bloating all the time.  I would walk by a mirror after a meal and break down because I looked so "fat" and joked that baby Harris had arrived.  It was not a good time.

I decided to go gluten free earlier this year for a month just to see what would happen.  The answer: not much.

Without fan fare, on August 15, I decided to try it again.  One month gluten free.  But this time it came with some other "rules".

1) Don't replace gluten with more carbs - One of my issues last time was gluten free pasta and gluten free beer.  While not off limits per se, I had pasta maybe 1-2 times in that month.

2) Increase protein intake - Protein powders have made a comeback!  So good.  I bake tons of treats and make my shakes and really found they help keep me satisfied.  I also made sure to have a large portion of whatever I ate be protein.

3) Decrease sugar - aka stop the Starbucks - Honestly, part of this was the fact that my sugar came with gluten in baked treats that I'd 'just have a bite of' so in reducing gluten I was decreasing a lot of my not so great treats.  On top of that, an iced coffee with syrup was a normal occurrence even though I like my coffee with just milk most times. It's okay though, I found some awesome substitutes.

4) Work-Outs - I've actually worked out LESS in the last month than I was in the month before.  What's changed?  Making them count.... um... literally.   I can't count reps for the life of me.

5) Decrease stress - There's been a lot going on behind the scenes right now and I took several steps to make life a lot easier on me.  Including getting rid of the Mazerbatty.

Me just over 2 years ago with my first car.

6) Stop counting calories/get rid of the scale - I did it.  I got off MyFitnessPal.  I haven't been on the scale for a month.  What happened?  A lot of good things.

The rules going forward:  To be gluten-less.  I'll still have homemade pasta and pizza and beer sometimes.... but after seeing those two pics, it's going to be a heck of a lot less than it was.