Saturday, March 24, 2012

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.

14 comments:

  1. Good job on the habit change and weight loss and feeling better. When I travel alone, I cut out all of the grains, except for rice and quiona. Now I am at my daughters house and a few things are sneaking back into my diet. I will be moving on in 2 weeks and will be back to the gluten free diet, hopefully for good this time. I get those emails from Mark's site, will have to look for your story.

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  2. Kudos to you! I did a diet like this years ago and felt great. It is SO time to do something like this again. We need to do something for weight. We have put on so much weight over the 2 years since being on this fulltiming adventure! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Lloyd,

    Thanks for submitting your story to MDA. It is very encouraging to me as a fellow Primal eater. In the article, you said they your excercise is hiking and walking, do you do any other excercise - wieght lifting for instance?

    Thanks again,
    Rick

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  4. Teri, Cheating for me is not good. The day long -- or longer -- indigestion is not worth cheating and eating some item which has gluten.

    Rick, My exercise is walking and hiking. Not sure the two 10 pound hand weights that I use to work some upper body muscles would count as weight lifting.

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  5. Thanks Lloyd for your reply to my question. I have been struggling with a bad back for a while now and pretty much stopped all excercise but kept eating the MDA way. Seeing you in the article there has made me determined to get regular about some walking even when I can't lift. I want to look like you when I am 71 in 30 years! Take care,Rick.

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  6. Lloyd, I have also been eating Primal since nov. weight this a.m.? 141. Amazing. I'm guessing last time was in high school? 51 year old, 5' 10" male.

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  7. Two of my kids and now we suspect their father also had it, ciliact (sp?) disease is caused by gluten allergy. They both have done quite well on the gluten free diet. Can't convince one more daughter to try it.

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  8. Hi Lloyd! Came across your blog from Mark's Daily Apple. I enjoyed your story, thanks for sharing.
    We cut out wheat gluten a long time ago, but now that we are grain-free all together we are feeling better than ever.
    Have you read the book 'Gut and Psychology Syndrome' by Natasha Campbell-McBride? It explains gluten intolerance in the best way I've ever seen. It's an amazing book.

    Have a great day!
    Taryn

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  9. K - so weird... I read all the comments, and all these people were saying that my Dad is 'HOT'. So yes, I know I'm 40, and I know he is healthy, but it's still weird to read that about my Dad.

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  10. Does The Primal Blueprint advocate giving up all grains? I have not read it. If you still like grains and bread occasionally, there are other grains that are healthy and have a fair amount of protein and usually don't cause a reaction like gluten.

    Congratulations at having found a way of eating that works for you!

    Jaimie

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  11. Vanita, Really. How did you get to be 40. It was just yesterday when....

    Jaimie, The Primal Blueprint recommends no grains with occasional wild rice. Robb Wolf is more strict describing in his The Primal Solution the chemistry of grains and our body's reaction to the proteins and "chemicals" in the grains.

    Really don't miss the grains. The variety of vegetables available along with meats keeps me well satisfied. Spices and a few fruits, I really don't crave anything else.

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  12. Ran across your article on MDA and decided to check out your blog--nice to see another Primal RV'er!

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  13. Ran across your article on MDA and decided to check out your blog--nice to see another Primal RV'er!

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  14. Spot on with this write-up, I actually believe that this website needs much more attention.
    I'll probably be returning to read more, thanks for the information!
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