Wheat Belly

I'm always on the hunt for nutritional knowledge and new ways to feel better and healthier. Some theories are difficult to implement, others don't make sense to me. One thing I've been fairly successful at recently is cutting way down on diet soda. I now have one every few days and used to be a 3x a day gal, easily. I've known for a while that carbs are not great for you (or sugar), but let's face it, as a vegetarian those are two easy things to eat a lot of. Then came "Wheat Belly." Even the name made me giggle a little.

The basic theory is that everyone (celiac disease or not) has some wheat allergy or sensitivity, whether they recognize it or not. I, of course, recognized many of the 'symptoms' it lists, such as brain fog, fatigue, chronic allergies/sinus grossness, and aches/pains/head aches. The soda cutback has helped with the headaches considerably. There is a whole host of reasons, which quite frankly I don't care that much about, followed by a tremendous number of testimonials (in comments, in the book, on the blog, online) of people who have dropped obscene amounts of weight quickly by cutting the wheat. Generally they drop their other ailments in the process. This was a very appealing combination, I mean who wouldn't like to have more energy and breathe better and lose weight?

But I love wheat. I love pasta. I love bread. I love desserts. I could go on and on and on. The idea of not eating wheat every day flat out terrifies me. But unlike paleo and other restrictive diets, it does encourage you to eat dairy, cheese, beans, and even rice and other non-wheat carbs. So you have more to work with. As an experiment, I went one day without wheat--a 3 egg omelet with veggies and cheese for breakfast, a black bean burger in a bowl (with goat cheese, tomato, zucchini, and portabella mushrooms) from Sesame with butternut squash soup, and wheat free pizza with veggies for dinner. Maybe it was the placebo affect, but I felt more focused and like I had more energy, and I really wasn't very hungry. That's what I'm most skeptical of, the people who post about all their cravings going away and not wanting brownies any more or saying they were never hungry and had to remember to eat. I can't ever picture that day. I think about food a lot.

So while it's restrictive, I think it might be worth a try. If it works, the outcomes would far outweigh the sacrifices. I'm going on a birthday vacation and when I get back, I think I'm going to be ready to give it a serious go. Fingers crossed!