Breaking A Habit -- Follow Up

It is now three months later that gluten is out of my diet. It is great not having acid indigestion, heart burn or acid reflux. Once cutting out the grains, there has been one episode of acid indigestion. That was after consuming a hot dog (without the bun) at a farmers market. Pinto beans and salsa were the toppings. Could find nothing else I ate that day that could have caused the indigestion. Could there have been wheat flour filler in those hot dogs. Note to self: hot dogs are not range fed beef.

Three months later, a welcome side effect was an additional small weight loss. A year ago I was 20 pounds heavier. At that time, I cut back on breads and other carbo loaded foods. That resulted in a 10 to 15 pound loss -- depending on the date of a weigh-in. Since I eliminated the grains from the diet three months ago, today (this morning) I weighed in at 145. It has been decades since I last weighed 145. To lose weight was not the reason to cut grains from the diet. It was a 30 day test to find out how I felt. Less than 30 days later, no more indigestion. With that incentive, it was easy to continue a diet without grains. The positive "side effect" was that I lost additional weight. Another side effect is the lack of hunger cravings -- for the bread and the cookies.

Dining out is not that tough. There are plenty of items to choose from most menus that do not include wheat flour. Of course, that would not include breads or pastas -- or desserts. Salads or meats are a safe choice. Avoid the soups and sauces. There is no way to know what may have been used as a thickener.

With the positive experience behind me, I have become an evangelist encouraging others to start a 30 day trial without grains in their diets. I understand how difficult it can be. Breads and all the other wheat flour products taste good. I was there. All I recommend is to try it for 30 days. In addition to how you may feel, two objective measures may help in the analysis of before and after: weight and detailed blood work. It's only 30 days. It's not the rest of your life.

It was time to thank a "mentor". After rewriting my Breaking A Habit post of two months ago, I sent my success story to the author of The Primal Blueprint -- Mark Sisson at Marks Daily Apple. Two days ago, my Life Is Great story was posted at his site.

After breaking a habit, life is great.