Grain (and glucose) free diet crap update

Still working the no grains diet.  It is STILL about the best thing I have ever done for myself.

For anybody finding this by searching grain free, gluten free, paleo diet, zero carb diet - here are my factoids.  For the rest of you, go read this instead.

I started zero-carb eating on June 19th of 2013.  As of August 5th of 2013, I had already lost 25 pounds.  2 months, 25 pounds.  By simply cutting out grains.  This was my progress picture in August.  (Before pic is from prior year but I remained the same gigantic tub of fat for the entire year - scales don't lie.)

I've lost another 10 pounds since then.  As of today, I have lost 35 pounds.  I went from 185 pounds down to 150 pounds, from a size 16 to an 8/10.  By removing all grains from my diet.  My weight-loss slowed down in September, because I relaxed my vise-like grip on ALL THE FOOD - and I let myself have French fries, or rice along with my bacon cheese burgers.  I ate a bean burrito (or twelve).  I managed to prove to myself that I could maintain my weight-loss and still have SOME carbs.  But I am not satisfied with my weight yet, so I decided to crack down and get down to 145 pounds.  Reason?  ha, not vanity.  Or not ALL vanity.  I've had a front-row seat to watching my husband's parents' health take a nosedive - all of it exacerbated by their refusal to lift a finger nutritionally to help themselves.  I'm 5 pounds away from that goal.

ALSO - more to the point - when I started allowing even those few types of carbs into my diet, I noticed an immediate uptick in the following:
Rash - uncontrollable itchy skin, again.  In my elbow crease, on my back, on my stomach - it's horrifying.  Not alleviated by cortisone lotions or anything - only by clearing out the glucose in my system.
Insomnia - it's bad at the best of times.  With grains/glucose it's insurmountable, even with Ambien.
Gout - which can be caused by a fructose intolerance.  Also the foods that are typically thought to cause gout (raising your purine levels) have been proven to not necessarily cause it - red meat does not cause gout.  Neither does fat.  It's an inflammatory reaction in your system to something that your body hates and is allergic to.  In ME, high-fructose-corn-syrup (HFCS) is the cause of my gout - it is the absolute devil, it is evil, and I am very careful about allowing it in my system.
Depression - what carbohydrates do to my brain is not funny.  They function as fake dopamine and serotonin, for a small time.  Then they crash you into depression.  If you are prone to depression and you are fat, there is a reason.  The SAD (standard American diet) is BULLSHIT.  And it is killing you totally dead.

I refuse to be SICK when all I have to do is stop ingesting certain 'foods'.  I put 'foods' in quotes because grains are completely horrific for some people.  Carbohydrates are what cause obesity and diabetes - not fat or doughnuts or candy. 

Here I am just the other day:

 

I cut off my head because nobody needs to be subjected to my morning hair.  I am STILL 5'4", and 150 pounds.  I am still far to overweight to be called 'healthy' - yeah, the picture looks great but why do you think I chose THAT one?  I still have 2 chins, I still have a fat belly, my back fat still swells up around my bra straps.  But hey-yo - 35 mother freaking pounds, right?

 

Please - if you have realized that you may need to quit grains - if you have researched and come to the conclusion that a carb-free diet may be for you, if you are mostly BELLY fat and cannot lose it, please clicky the links in the linked entry.

 

ALSO - if you are researching depression, hormones, menopause - well, email me and I will send you some info, and some links.  I will direct you to places to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.  YOU can figure your way out of the hell you're in - your doctor most emphatically WILL NOT. 

 

Losing weight hasn't made my husband love me more (he adores me as I am! *snort*) (ack shoo lee, he does.) It hasn't made men flirt with me (I'm still 53 years old).  It hasn't made me richer.  Or any of that crap.  But the research I did on how my body reacts to certain foods and the subsequent changes I made in my diet has helped my HORRIFIC depression.  It helped me discover which anti-depressant would work for me, which I then demanded from my doc, which has since been MIND BLOWINGLY FANTASTIC for me.  Losing weight has helped my knees.  Eating this way means my skin doesn't itch.  My sinuses don't drip.  I never fart anymore.  On that subject - no, eating a mostly all meat diet will NOT make you poop all the time.  And it does NOT cause constipation.  Just FYI - veggies have all the fiber you need.  And your body uses almost ALL of the nutrients in the food you do eat, so waste production is minimal.  Energy wise - I wake up at about 6:00 am and actually get out of bed.  I'm able to walk 5 miles, 4 or more times a week - which helps weight loss AND dopamine production.  I'm able to be around (some) people and not want to claw my own brain out. 

 

YOU are the only cure for your health problems.  The internet is a valuable, gigantic tool.  USE IT.

 

Go here:

 

My entry with more details:  http://mypostcardsfrompurgatory.blogspot.com/2013/09/3-month-report-yes-more-diet-crap-shut.html

 

Scroll to the bottom of that entry, all the links are there.  It's worth it.  I wish I had started 10 years ago when menopause and depression started in on me.

3 month report (yes more diet crap shut up)

What's changed since June 20, 2013:

• 30 pounds lighter.
• 25 inches lost on my body.
• Down 3 sizes.  Started at a 16 - I can wear a 10 now, and depending on the manufacturer, I can get into an 8.
• Plantar Fasciitis is gone.
• Not one sinus problem - and I had chronic sinus infections.  I don't even remember where my neti pot is.
• Smoother skin
• TMJ is disappearing
• No gout pain.  No arthritis pain.  NO JOINT PAIN
• Depression is completely just fucking GONE (still taking Wellbutrin, but I'm going to begin weaning off of it)
• Mood is good.  Like, I'm in a good mood all the time.  I still spend a lot of time alone, my basic personality hasn't changed, but I'm happy.  ??  Feels weird to say that.
• My taste buds - wow.  Everything tastes like FOOD.  Butter tastes like heaven.
• I'm not TIRED all day.  I get sleepy and tired like at night, when you're s'posed to.  But I'm not saying "waaah I'm tiiiired" all the fucking time.
• I love exercise.  <--who says that, right?  But, seriously.  When I start walking, I start smiling.  I walk 4 or 5 miles a day and just DIG IT.
• No hypoglycemic episodes this entire time.  Do you know what it feels like to have one of these attacks?  It's so mind-blowingly awful - I ate every 2 or 3 hours just to keep them at bay!  These days?  I eat twice a day, sometimes my first meal isn't until 1:00 PM.  AND NO ATTACKS.  jeebus.
• I do NOT count calories.  Or track points.  Or weigh anything.  Food is EASY and uncomplicated.

Me on Coronado island, I forced Jeff to rent bikes and HAVE FUN DAMMIT

I don't feel like an old lady anymore.  My brain feels sharper - I'm thinking clearly.  I'm able to be around people and not want to kill them dead (well, not as often.  Say, maybe only every OTHER minute.)  I laugh more.  I'm not swollen and puffy and out of breath.

I feel FINE.  fine?  what is that?  Do you remember the last time you had no aches and pains?  because for ME, these days, when something hurts, it's a 'hey wait a minute!' thing, not just part of the chorus of painful parts in the background.

Your joint pain will get so much better you wont be able to believe it.  TWO WEEKS IN and I had no knee or hip or knuckle pain (unless I tried running upstairs, HAR like I would do that, but old knees is old knees, no matter what).

Hypoglycemia vs. Regular Hunger:  Who knew that being hungry wasn't a fucking EMERGENCY!!?  All of my life, when I got hungry, it was this panic inducing thing.  Hypoglycemia makes you feel wicked weird, panicky, light headed, unable to think, can't move - it's just horrible.  I knew to eat breakfast and keep food in the car/my purses.  Granola bars, protein of some kind, peanuts, something.  ANYTHING.

NOW?

My insulin never spikes.  So it never crashes.  My insulin levels stay the same, all day.  I can now go HOURS without even thinking about eating.  And when I DO get hungry, it's a little 'hey, food would be good soon' feeling.  This is the hugest thing - I wish I could make everyone understand.  It was so horrible, that feeling.  I haven't felt like that ONE TIME since starting eating like this.

Again:  I don't think of this as a diet.  And I hate that whole 'way of life' thing too.  I also hate 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' or any of those weight loss platitudes.  The weight loss is secondary to my body being healed.  I am deathly allergic to grains and sugars.  Removing that stuff has done the above positive things to my body.  When I say 'deathly allergic' I don't mean instant anaphylactic shock stuff - I mean I WAS DYING.  Inflammation and a crashing hormone system (adrenals, cortisol, insulin, estrogen, all of it) was absolutely slowly sending me to my grave. 

I was miserable.  For 8 years, I have been miserable.  I'M NOT MISERABLE NOW.

One of my points above:  I do NOT count calories.  Or track points.  Or weigh anything.  Food is EASY and uncomplicated.  Food is just that, it's food.  I eat when i'm hungry and don't eat if I'm not hungry.  It took a while to get to the point where my body could tell me what it needed.  I just had to get all the other noise out of the way so that I could listen.  And hear.

What do I eat?  People ask me that all the time.  "I could never give up bread!" well, fuck yeah you can when you realize how shitty it makes you feel.  "I could never give up pasta!" ditto.  I do not feel deprived because that stuff makes me feel horrible if I have one serving of it.  The only carb I have been able to add back in is white rice.  White rice (not freaking WHOLE GRAIN) doesn't affect your glucose hardly at all.  I only ate like 1/4 cup of it mixed with chicken, and I did ok.  But I only had it once - just to see if I had a reaction to it.  I feel fine and FULL without it, I don't need the empty calories.  SO - back to the question, what do I eat?

I've listed this before, but I'll do it here too so you will see.  Around 1:00 PM when I get hungry, I will make a hamburger patty.  I fry it in Kerrygold grassfed BUTTER <--(oh my god!  butter!  yeah, fat doesn't make you fat)  I mean, a little bit of butter.  A tsp, not a stick.  Possibly add some cheese, but not always.  OR, I cut up some leftover steak (there is always leftover steak now) and sauté that in (a little bit of) butter, dump that into a bowl, then fry a couple eggs over-easy and put that on top of the steak pieces and nom the hell outa that.  Some avocado on top of both of those things and *bam* it's great.  I eat a little bit of Trader Joe's organic ketchup - TJs also has this wasabi mayo that I mix with the ketchup for a bitey thousand-island type thing.  But it's a minimal amount of that sauce stuff.

For dinner we have steak and a veggie, asparagus or something.  A burger patty (Jeff has two) and some avocado.  If he wants potato, he has it.  He's LOVING this eating thing.  He's lost about 20 pounds and still drinks beer every freaking day.  He doesn't miss the bread either. (until a pizza commercial or Man Vs. Food comes on, then he cries softly to himself while I scream NO CARBS FOR YOU!)

 

I HAVE A NECK!

 

Know what?  I don't really think about it.  I don't look for recipes and try and find interesting things to make, because 1. meat is delicious, and 2. food is just fuel.  It isn't a big party, it isn't a big deal, it's just fucking FOOD.  My life doesn't revolve around food anymore.  I don't really CARE anymore, lol!  It's like looking at a mirror with fat lines of cocaine on it.  I know how that is going to make me feel if I ingest it, I don't want to feel like that, so I'LL PASS.

If we are eating out, I will get a burger no bun.  restaurants are so used to that request they don't even blink.  Or I get the sashimi appetizer (here in San Diego you can pretty much always get raw fish).  Or I get carne asada with no tortillas or beans/rice.  (I then eat all the guacamole GET BACK OFFA MY AVO).  Salmon and zucchini.  I don't worry at restaurants if it's PRIMAL like no canola oil, blah blah I don't want my food to be complicated, it's ONE meal, just gimme the burger and don't tell me what cow it came from.  I don't want to be THAT person at the dinner table, you know?

When people hear I eat red meat and fat and no grain fiber, they get all weirded out and 'cholesterol!!' and 'blood pressure!!' and 'FAT!!" and people.  NO.

• Fat does not make you fat.  (carbohydrates and insulin make you fat) Your brain NEEDS FAT.  Good fat - like butter and avocado.
• Meat does not raise cholesterol.  Neither do eggs.
• Fiber doesn't help you poop or any of that. (do you want to read how that started?  http://psychcentral.com/lib/do-kelloggs-corn-flakes-help-control-masturbation/0001043 or here, http://theholyprepuce.tumblr.com/post/5971765336/kelloggs-corn-flakes-originally-developed-to  TO KEEP BOYS FROM MASTURBATING.  Also, he had an unholy (har) fixation with things in your butt.)
• Glucose can be VERY BAD for you. 
• Wheat is an abomination and you should stop eating it right now I mean it.

OK so - if you read this far - I stopped researching narcs and also religion and jesus and stuff, and turned my big fat brain toward researching carbs and brain health and hypoglycemia and menopause weight loss and depression - and it all led to the place where I've been leading YOU.  Grains are bad.  Glucose is bad in large quantities.

Just try it.  Here's the books again - it's that important to get people to read them.  yeah, now I'm pointing you toward books but I didn't buy them at first!  I read and read on teh interwebz.  But some people want books, I know I do - so here.  These.

The Primal Blueprint.  I also highly recommend his website.  Here are the success stories.  I don't buy anything else from the site, in fact I got (downloaded) the book from B&N.  I am mostly primal now - so are my dogs (Thank you TW!!)
Wheat Belly - explains why you have a giant pot belly and why.
Why we get fat - another great science-y book about insulin and carbs

Yeah, we've been told all of our lives to believe the government food pyramid.  The government also tells you that you MUST get a mammogram.  That you MUST get flu shots.  Our government tells you a lot of things that I think are bullshit.  (I wouldn't get a flu shot on a bet, but you go ahead if you want to) What is that old saying?  FOLLOW THE MONEY.  The food pyramid is a scam, plain and simple.  It's false, it's making you sick, and making you fat.  You are smart - find out for yourself.

GAWD I know I'm all preachy.  But to me this is better than researching narcissism.  For now.  It makes me feel like I'm doing something GOOD for myself, instead of looking for answers to my child abuse.

Eat Whole Foods.  Stop eating food from a box or a can.  Stop eating anything with more than one ingredient in it.  Like, eat MEAT.  Eat CARROTS.  Don't eat chemicals.  Please, just try it...?

Not dead yet

Still here, reading y'all behind the scenes and just taking a break.  It's been nice.

I've been reading and researching and RESEARCHING the whole wheat thing.  Wheat and sugar.  And all I can say is, if you think it might help, give up wheat and sugar for let's say 2 weeks.  And see.

I know maybe it sounds all airy-fairy or hocus-pocus - but honestly, you aren't ADDING something.  Just taking something OUT for a while.  If it doesn't help, you can always go have a sammich or fix a box of mac & cheese.

I've become sort of fanatical about how incredible this has made me feel.  I went on a 7.5 mile bike ride yesterday!!  This from someone who had to struggle last summer to get off the couch.  Although, I was in Maryland and the humidity almost killed me...  but I was riding 7 miles every other day last summer.  AND hitting the driving range on the between days!  And I couldn't feel better, I still had to force myself outside, I was still achy and fat. 

From what I'm reading, wheat has the special ability to really hurt you.  It's been horribly genetically modified from our 'amber waves of grain' into 3 foot stubby stalks of hybrid 'fiber'.  The SAD (standard American diet) has been recommending high fiber/low fat for how long now?  And all of us are chugging along, TRYING to lose weight by eating fiber bars and frozen diet meals and multi-grain sandwiches and munching on wheat thin crackers and low fat cottage cheese and it did not work for me, what about you?  How is that diet going?

I remember writing a post about how I couldn't lose weight on a 1200 calorie a day diet and I was SO PISSED!  Here, it's right here and jeebus.  I have been trying to lose this weight following the advice of doctors and magazines and BULLSHIT for - well, since 2006 at least!

I WEIGH LESS THAN I HAVE SINCE 2006

I had STRUGGLED to get this thin, this was my step-daughter's wedding, 2009.  I was about 160 pounds here.

 

And it started fucking falling off of me when I quit eating wheat.  Now, granted, I quit eating sugar too.  Here is a list of what I don't eat:

sugar
sucrose
fructose
high fructose corn syrup
corn
potatoes
wheat
any grains whatsoever
no fruit whatsoever.  NONE.
pasta
rice
crackers/pretzels/bruschetta
beans
peanuts
canola oil (rapeseed oil, it's HORRIFYING)

Here's what I DO eat
meat
steak
ribs
butter
olive oil
avocados
eggs (sometimes 4 a day)
chicken
sashimi (raw fish uh mah gah so delicious)
bacon
bacon cheeseburgers (sans bun)
all veggies, sometimes raw, sometimes sautéed in butter/olive oil

Here's what has improved:
weight:  down 29 pounds since June 20, 2013.  just under 30 pounds in 2 months.
inches:  25.5 inches lost over my body.  TWENTY FIVE AND A HALF.
JEFF has lost 22 pounds by proxy - he eats what I eat, lol.  And he drinks beer every single day (carbs)
I sleep
My energy is KAPOW
I don't HURT in my joints
no gout attacks
sex drive is back (Jeff nods vigorously)
Memory is back
Give-a Crap is back
Happy IS BACK
Hardly ever hungry. 
Hypoglycemic attacks GONE

Look.  Like I said.  Just try it.  All you're doing is removing something from your diet.  I'm not saying to take a supplement, or a pill, or buy a book or join a cult.  And it's easier than you think.

Jeff and I in 2002

Jeff and I in 2011

 

The difference in the two pictures above is fucking horrifying.  I was so healthy and happy in the first one.  I remember that second picture - in Sweden.  I felt like crap, I was SO FAT and ugh.  I wanted to FEEL healthy again, besides the vanity of wanting to be smaller.

December 2012 - no smaller even though I'd been trying like hell

READ.  read read read.  I've given you links, I will give you more.  YOU decide.  But it seems to me that the link between Monsanto and big agriculture and the US Govt food pyramid and obesity in this country and the rise of things like celiacs and asthma and skin rashes and inflammation, and rheumatoid arthritis, and PCOS and thyroid issues and hormone imbalance and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - it all seems so fucking fishy to me.

I worked in the clinical trials industry.  I'VE heard first hand stories about all this crap.  And I can't imagine that taking more chemicals in the form of "medicine" is the way to go, when it would be so much easier to just TRY and remove a substance from our diets.

Do you know what causes diabetes?  Yes, insulin imbalance.  What spikes insulin?  Glucose.  What turns to glucose in your system the fastest?  WHEAT.  What doesn't spike insulin?  Protein.  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/#axzz2dTwYv6ke

http://www.nffc.net/Issues/Corporate%20Control/USDA%20INC.pdf <-- PDF

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/#axzz2dTaUhwX1

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/simple-complex-carbohydrates/#axzz2dTaUhwX1

(three of the above links take you to MDA, but the articles link outside sources and I am not going to reinvent the wheel.  That Mark Sisson guy is pretty smart.  he also has a lot of detractors on the net - please do your own research)

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/ I have his book.  It's written sort of badly, but his links are good and the info on the blog is good.  I just find the book sort of juvenile.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/ - Monsanto has to be one of the most horrifying corporations I have ever heard of.  Did you know that any farmer who is government subsidized (which ones aren't?  ORGANIC FARMERS) are contracted to buy their seeds through Monsanto or another same-type organization?  The seeds these companies provide will not propagate.  Which means a farmer cannot harvest their own seeds for the next growing cycle.  They HAVE TO BUY more seeds from the same company, or lose the subsidy (losing the farm, so to speak).  Monsanto has genetically engineered the seeds to not reproduce.  They can come and take a DNA sample of the crop and see if the plant was grown from a Monsanto seed.  Wheat, corn, soy - HAHAHA you thought soy was the new protein??  It's all GMO and kind of a frankenplant.  And not good for you.  Remember how Pa Ingalls would buy seeds?  Or any story from that time, there was a 'seed man' coming around in a wagon, selling corn or wheat seeds?  Now it's Monsanto.  The same people who bring you Round Up poison.

OH HEY - the wheat is also called 'Round Up Ready'!  Cos it's genetically modified to be able to be sprayed with Round Up for bugs and not die!  How convenient for the maker of the seed and also the spray. 

What about the school cafeteria menus?  government schools!  It's state run, remember, just like Russia.  Pizza.  Spaghetti.  Oh, just look it up, you can find your kid or grandkid's school menu online.

My own kid suffered HORRIBLY from asthma.  Like, Mike was in the urgent care just about every weekend.  He also has hideous dermatitis rash on his skin, and as a kid it was so bad.  I was poor.  We ate a lot of mac & cheese and spaghetti and rice and fish sticks and hot dogs and frozen veggies.  I had no idea.  regrets?  Yeah, I got 'em.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/concentrated-animal-feeding-operations/#axzz2dTh8Ke5z  Again with the MDA website, but follow the links.  We all know how horrifying the animal industry is.  Now I am researching a grass-fed organic farm here in Temecula where I can buy chickens that actually eat bugs the way they are supposed to, that scratch and feed in the grass naturally.  Cows that eat fucking GRASS.  I'm also going to start my dogs on all protein, since dogs don't need fucking CORN (read the ingredients on your pet food).

I eat almost ALL protein.  I eat fat.  Real, grassfed butter.  Bacon (uncured).  I'm lucky that we have no kids at home anymore, so we can still spend the same on our food budget and get better stuff.  But just cutting out wheat is SIMPLE.  It costs LESS.  I am making a dr appt and I will post my numbers when I get them.  Like my cholesterol and blood pressure and all that - but I'll betcha a hundred bucks they all GO DOWN.  Yes, even while I'm eating eggs (the whole thing, Omega 3's baby!) and steak and (healthy) fats.

And you will eat less.  You will spend less because you will eat less.  Because you wont be hungry every 2 hours.  (however, you will cook more...)

158 pounds, August 22, 2013.

 

 

Behind the scenes

I've been sick and exhausted and fat for a long time - since a hysterectomy threw me into menopause about 8 years ago, I've been suffering.  The black hole of depression almost did me in.  For the last 5 years I've been searching and looking for a way out.

I went to doctors hoping for a diagnosis and a pill of some kind that would help.  Maybe hormones.  I also thought I had fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue symdrome.  TW put me onto the clue that my thyroid may be messed up.  But all my tests came back 'within normal ranges' and I didn't REALLY want to take any more chemicals anyway.  I was depressed and just felt sick and I ached and I was exhausted and it was ugly.

Before menopause I was always active, always fairly healthy (barring drugs and alcohol HA HA so not funny).  But I was always happy in my own skin. 

This is the picture I submitted to the online dating site where I met Jeff, it was 2002 and I was 145 pounds

 

Menopause threw every one of my systems into acute distress.  Hormones - yes yes, estrogen, testosterone, but ALSO insulin and adrenaline and thyroid function.  It all went south and I don't know if you've been there, but I could tell my body was fighting something.  I felt poisoned and just OFF.  I decided to tackle these issues from a nutritional standpoint.  Something I was putting into my body was killing me.  I researched the holy fuck out of my symptoms - not just on medical sites, but also on forums and personal blogs of people who had actually had the same symptoms and their data on repairing their bodies.  End-user data, my favorite kind.  Because I do not trust the FDA.

My research all led to the same place.  And, I just two months ago quit eating ALL forms of sugar.  ALL of it.  Anything that my body turns into glucose (besides vegetables).  I no longer eat bread.  Or pasta.  Or rice.  Or any kind of grains whatsoever.  No starches - no beans or corn or potatoes.

Within one week my body felt better.  I was sleeping better.  In a month I stopped having hot flashes.  My skin is better.  My eyes are brighter - my energy is through the roof.  I walk at least 2 miles a day, more often I do 3 or 4 miles a day. 

Changing what I was putting into my body has been transformative.  In two months I have done this:

No, it isn't difficult.  If you ate a tomato and that tomato gave you painful hives, you would have no problem not eating tomatoes again.  Sugar (glucose) causes unbearable inflammation in my system.  Grains/pasta cause stomach cramps, bloating and gas (you're welcome).  I eat protein and veggies.  I am at almost zero carbs per day, I would say less than 50 grams, and that includes ketchup and the 1/3 of a dark chocolate bar after dinner (what??). 

Jeff and I in Sweden, 2011 FAT FAT FAT

 

Jeff and I when we started dating, 2002 (big yards of beer)

 

It isn't just about the weight.  Let's face it - I'm 52 years old, I'm not going to be buying a bikini or trying out for a Real Housewives show.  I'll tell you what the best part is.  My body has stopped fighting itself.  I'm CALM.  My brain is MUCH calmer.  My depression is so lifted that I'm thinking of talking to my doc about weaning off the Welbutrin.  I'm not all bloated and inflamed and there are no more aches and pains (other than you know, bad knees and hips).  I'm not fucking exhausted all the time.

 



When I say I eat protein and veggies, ha - I'm not talking a boiled chicken breast and lettuce.  I eat sashimi.  Bacon cheeseburgers with no bun, but more avocado please.  Tri tip steak with asparagus or Brussels sprouts.  If we go out to dinner, I just ask for the steak & veggies, hold the tater.  I can't even begin to describe how I don't feel deprived.  Because starches/grains cause me so much distress, it's easy to not eat any of it.  I'm planning on going to brunch this weekend and getting eggs benedict.  Just, no bread.

If you want to research this for yourself, I can give you some starting links:
Mark Sisson's 'Definitive Guide to Grains'
The website the above link takes you to is CHOCK full of info.  But you must do your own research.  Use the search feature on that website, but also GTS! (Google that shit) - nobody can find your answer but YOU.
The book 'Wheatbelly' - grains are creepy stuff

If you are suffering, keep researching.  Keep looking.  My answer may not be YOUR answer.  Don't stop trying.