Weekend Observation

I've been doing really good at this "only whole grains" thing - and I will start off with some exciting news: In the past three weeks, I've managed to lose approximately 5 pounds.

I say "approximately" because my weight can fluctuate a LOT from day to day, so checking my weight is not a good indicator of actual weight lost. However, my scale has now been hovering right around 216 pounds - which is ten pounds lighter than when I started my attempt to lose weight at the beginning of this year, and five pounds lighter than my weigh-in three weeks ago before cutting out enriched flour.

I think that this is pretty solid evidence that getting rid of enriched flour was a good idea for me.

I may have mentioned already that one of the things I noticed is that, when substituting whole grains where normally there was enriched flour, the increased fiber seems to also increase metabolism. So it really came as no surprise to find that my body just was not functioning in the "new" normal way, after having had no whole grains, and increased sugar, for a period of about 30 hours or so.

It all started Friday afternoon with a trip to Taco Bell with my husband for lunch. I like Taco Bell with my new diet change; I can still eat quite a bit of what's on the menu by simply removing the covering. So I ordered two crunchy tacos - one of them supreme for some tomatoes & sour cream - and proceeded to take the filling out (passed the shells to my husband, so don't worry, they didn't go to waste) and make a messy little taco salad. :) I drank water with my meal, but my husband had a giant cup of Mountain Dew, which he proceeded to refill and bring home with him. He left it behind as he left for work, and of course I just had to drink it. And, of course, I was up rather late Friday night.

Saturday morning was the usual: cereal for breakfast, and then preparing for a picnic with friends in the afternoon. Before we left the house, I had a granola bar, then we got to the picnic relatively late in the day, around 2pm. I actually did pretty good at the picnic itself; the only enriched flour I had was a spoonful of pasta, and a few different sweet things later in the afternoon. I ate my burger without the bun, and had some excellent fresh cole slaw, potato salad, etc. Most of what I filled up on was not flour-based at all. I did, however, drink another Mountain Dew. Despite having a fair bit of water throughout the day, it's never a good idea for my body to have Mountain Dew two days in a row, as it completely counteracts any metabolism I've managed to put into place. Didn't eat anything for dinner, as we had been nibbling on things at the picnic later in the evening, too.

This morning, for my second "cheat meal" for the weekend was a bacon-egg-cheese bagel from McDonald's for breakfast. I haven't had one of these in months, so it was a nice little treat. This afternoon, however, I was really feeling the effects of so much sugar and so little grain/complex carb over the weekend; I started to get sluggish shortly after noon, and by 4:30 pm we still hadn't eaten any lunch, but I also didn't feel like moving at all. I eventually got up to go scare up some food, but my brain and my motor skills just were not functioning the way they normally do. I ate a banana, for a quick spike of some kind of carbs, and my husband and I heated up (home made) chicken soup for an early dinner.

The feeling I got this afternoon was similar to the feeling that made me quit attempting the "Atkins" low-carb diet. It was as if my brain simply hadn't had enough fuel. It wasn't a matter of not having ANY carbs over the weekend - I did have plenty of sugar, but I also had vegetables, potato (in the form of potato salad and potato chips at the picnic yesterday, and hash browns this morning) and simple carbs in the form of breads and pastas, but I didn't have complex carbohydrates at all since the granola bar I had before leaving for the picnic yesterday. It's interesting to see how my body handled a lack of these complex carbohydrates.

I think more than anything, my "cheat days" are important to me because they continue to teach me exactly how enriched flour is processed by my body, and the consequences that arise due to consuming it. The more I learn about how my body is adapting to these dietary changes, the better; I find it interesting, too, that in the span of just three weeks, my body has latched on to the nutrition in whole grains & complex carbohydrates, and is now, after a fashion, demanding them.

I apologize if this entry seems to be a little dis-jointed or not concise/clear; like I mentioned, I've definitely felt a difference in how my brain has been functioning, and I fear it will take a little bit of time before it gets back to 'normal.' (Whatever that may be!)