So I have now completed 8 full days of no dairy, no wheat (only grains have been 2 cups of brown rice), no sugar, no caffeine, no fruit etc.
Days 5-8 have been much different than 1-4. I sort of feel like I’ve fallen into a “routine” and I know what to eat, and feel good and full. Some things that I have noticed:
I sleep way better. I MIGHT get up once a night to use the bathroom, but prior to this I had a hard time falling asleep. Now I fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time, and I feel rested when I wake up. It’s amazing. I’m assuming this has to do with the white devil, sugar.
I also have found that after dinner, I feel satisified. Prior to this, I would want dessert almost as soon as I finished dinner. Now I find that I am ok with what I ate, and the few times that I’ve had “dessert” (berries with full fat coconut milk, OMG amazing), it’s just been a bonus, and not something I was craving.
I am not really “missing” anything, other than the convenience of the foods that I am not eating. Like eating a string cheese when I’m hungry, or a piece of toast while I’m making dinner. Eating this way has shown me it’s imperative to plan plan plan!
So…where to go from here? Well…I plan on eating what I want on thanksgiving, but I already feeling myself leaning towards the turkey, potatoes, green beans, and cranberry sauce, with no real hankering for rolls or bread stuffing. I am planning on having a piece of pie.
After turkey day I do think I’m going to continue with avoiding dairy, or at least limiting it, and limiting grains. I do think I’m going to start eating a bit of fruit, I would like to add that back into my breakfast or morning snack, but I’ll probably keep the focus on berries, apples, and pears, and away from bananas.
I think I’m going to be aiming for 90% “compliance.” 80% might be lenient enough that I will end up in a sugar binge.
Also, just for giggles, I weighed myself this morning. I lost 3 pounds from last Friday to this one.. I did not count calories, I did not count anything. My macronutrients worked out to approximately the following proportions, Fat-51%, Carbs-29% and Protein-20%. I am averaging about 2100 calories per day (ok, I do count calories, because I track my food online, but I don’t use the calories as a guide to how much to eat). I track to see how my nutrients are stacking up. On Weight Watchers I averaged about this same amount of calories…and as we know…never saw a significant weight loss.
Interesting no?
Slow Miles 
Don’t call it “compliance” – but 90% is a good place to aim. That’s about where Karen and I are, and it is enough to really notice when you do go “off the rails.” If I end up hitting the candy jar at work (why do they feel the need to put those there?!?!) or have a drink or two (even wine) at night and have to get up at my “normal” time, I notice it. I won’t wake up in the night, but I definitely won’t feel 100% the next morning. If I have a couple of beers (which have gluten in them), I definitely feel crappy the next day. One piece of bread will do the same thing…and I used to eat and drink the stuff all the time!
It is amazing how you don’t miss a lot of it once you’ve stayed away for a while, and especially when you go back and realize how crappy it actually makes you feel.
For the berries with coconut milk – are you using fresh, or frozen? I absolutely LOVE a handful of frozen blueberries or blackberries (they have to be “individually” frozen) with the coconut milk (or even better is coconut cream) on top. The cream will freeze onto the surface of the berries and it’s like ice cream without the dairy and without too much sweetness.
Glad you’re doing well on it…hope that Pumpkin Pie turned out the other night!
Yeah, I was iffy on the word compliance, but have seen it in several primal/paleo blogs and forums. It does make it seem more like a regimented diet, as opposed to a life style.
I am quite surprised how little I miss things when it’s only been 8 days!
For the berries with coconut milk I am using frozen berries. And the milk I am using is creamy, I dumped the can into a tupperware and mixed around, so I mixed the milk in with the cream (it was seperated in the can, this week was the first time I have used full fat coconut milk, and holy cow–how anyone can use the light stuff is beyond me!). I had the same thing happen with the cream freezing to the surface of the berries, it’s delectable!
I actually ended up not going with the pie, and made your chocolate coconut bars instead. It was my first true dessert like food in 8 days…so combined with the fact that they are amazing tasting to begin with, the bar I had with dessert last night was total bliss!
Very interesting