The Wheat-Free Experiment- Week Three- Cheater, Cheater

So I admit, week three was the week of cheating.   We let the wheat get back into our systems. It's what happens when you leave church late, stop for gas, and notice that there is, conveniently, a Subway sandwich shop attached to the gas station.  The tummy is rumbly, you can smell the bread even over the gas fumes... why not?  Let's get some sandwiches for lunch.

A Subway sandwich may not be a major cheat on a typical diet, but it is, of course, if your diet doesn't include wheat.  We've discovered that there is very little eating out you can do, particularly at any place with a drive-through, when you're not eating wheat. Hamburgers, chicken nuggets, salads with croutons, even McDonald's french fries are coated in a wheat product.  This is one of the better side-effects of being on a wheat-free diet, although it's hardly convenient.  It eliminates so many junk food options right off the bat.

The other day Josh and I were talking about the popularity of almond milk and other almond products, like almond meal for baking.  He asked me about soy milk and I, with great passion, declared that soy milk is a  horrible product and ought not to be ingested by anyone.  The prevalence of soy in almost every packaged product indicates that it is a cheap filler "food"  but has hardly any nutrition... and I believe it's the polar opposite of anything nutritious.  Anything but a pure genuine soy food, like edamame, is not good for you (at least not for anyone in our house).  I went to the pantry to show him just how prevalent soy was in our food. I pulled out a package of rice cakes. Ingredients: brown rice, salt.  Nice, I thought to myself.  I pulled out a box of cereal.  No soy in this particular plain Jane product.  Hmmm.... I glance around the pantry, which is void of pretty much any convenience, pre-packaged food.

"Wow." I said out loud.  "None of this has soy in it."  Why?  Because we have basically eliminated all those easy-peasy snack and convenience foods when we eliminated wheat.  And wheat and soy seem to go hand in hand.  Surely, there are GF foods and lots of so called "health" foods that contain soy.  But I've discovered another great side-effect to this wheat free diet: because I have to make most of our foods, I control exactly what goes inside them.  They come out cleaner, and more natural, than practically anything I could buy in the store already made for me.

Back to the cheating.  Did I feel guilty?  Not really. This is just an experiment, after all.  I ate a brownie at church Sunday night. I also made some Magic Cookie bars with a pretzel crust (we had some pretzels lingering around), and ate some.  But let me tell you. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday my legs were once again, sore.  At first I thought it was just from my workout, but by Wednesday I realized it was that other kind of sore that I would get just by doing daily life.  No wheat since Tuesday and my legs are feeling great again.  Workouts and all.  So I'm calling it.  Wheat is contributing to my sore legs.

I think the "experts" say it takes three weeks to make a new habit or break a bad one.  Well, we've been doing this for over three weeks and it is coming much more naturally.  The benefits, like the ones mentioned above, are becoming more important to me than the extra work.  I'm really thankful that we put the whole family on this diet.  It enabled us to completely empty out the pantry of wheat-full foods and eliminate temptation.  Everyone is getting used to it by now.  We've got one final week left of our thirty day experiment.  Will we continue to keep the wheat out of the house?

I don't know yet.  I think that, for me, the wheat has to go.  I'm not at the end of my own personal food journey, discovering what works best for my body. But this has been a valuable learning experiment.  Josh hasn't had any major, noticeable differences in how he feels.  He has lost five pounds, but his weight fluctuates about five pounds naturally.  If it falls below the current mark, we'll start to conclude that maybe the wheat-free diet is helping him too. However, this hasn't been just a wheat-free change, as I've already mentioned.  Lots of other icky foods and not-so-great habits are being eliminated too.  So perhaps it's not just the wheat that was affecting us.

I really love that the kids aren't eating as much pre-packaged snack food.  The extra work it makes for me is less bothersome now (new habit gained).  I love that they are trying new foods because their default foods are missing.  But this doesn't mean I'll be a Nazi when it comes to what they eat.  I'm sure we'll have goldfish crackers in the house occasionally.  But  maybe just a small bag of them for a treat instead of the giant tub.

I'm anxious to see what this week brings.  The experiment is easier and easier and as our thirty days come to an end, I hope we gain even more insight as to how we want to feed our family.