Week 4 of 4 is a wrap
I have not eaten anything with gluten in it for the last 21 days. If you want to see how the first 3 weeks went, click below.
At the end of the month I’ll do 1 long post documenting my entire gluten free experience, but right now, let me tell you about the last 9 days. (I figured to stretch this post out to 9 days, rather than writing up 2 entries – one for 7 days and another for 2).
Click here to read why I decided to do something so stupid.
This is how Week 4 went.
Day 22 – Cauliflower is finger lickin’ good!
Had a craving for fried rice today. I know I can eat rice (technically it’s gluten free), but I’ve been wanting to avoid it since I had sushi a couple of weeks back.
I saw this recipe previously where cauliflower was substituted for rice to make fried rice. I thought it was an interesting concept, so I gave it a try. Turns out, it’s PRETTY GOOD!
(perfecto)
It does substitute well for rice – just tastes finer and maybe a little more moisture. Don’t expect it to taste like the rice you get with sushi.
IF you’ve never tried cauliflower before OR don’t think you like it, look at some of these pics. Tell me they don’t look GOOD! Best part is, if you substitute it for rice, you cut down your cook time coz it always feels like it takes 5 hours to cook rice. It does take more prep time (if you’re making cauliflower rice) though.
(Yums!)
Day 24 – Do I have to stop?
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I couldn’t keep this diet up after the 30 days are over. Like seriously, what would I be losing out on? Beer and noodles…
I’ve been drinking cider this month, and, I have to be honest, not a huge fan. I’ve never really liked the taste of apple juice, and cider just tastes too sweet for me.
I haven’t been able to find a good noodles substitute during these 30 days. I tried this gluten free pasta, bionaturae, but it was kind of gross. Actually, it tasted fine. It just looked gross. It seemed to dissolve immediately in the colinder and pot and turned into a pasta-y spiderweb that was impossible to clean dishes and pots that it touched. I’d rather never eat that stuff again.
NO.THANKS.
With only a couple of days left to go, it’s getting to that point where I have to decide if the challenge will be done OR I keep going…
Day 25 – Mexican Food is Great for Gluten Free Diet
I’ve cooked a lot of Mexican meals throughout this month. Eating corn tortillas has been a nice easy way to transition away from bread. (You do want to be careful coz some corn tortillas have gluten in them).
Here’s a fish taco recipe I really like. The one difference is I don’t pan cook the fish. Instead, I opt to steam it in the oven. Way healthier, and the oven does all the work. I can use that time to work out or read. Simple life hack!
Enjoy!
Day 26 – There are some surprising unhealthy gluten free food items
I find it absolutely hilarious that I can’t eat bread, but I could eat french fries or potato chips.
Day 28 – No more corn!
Okay, I know I just wrote a couple of days ago about how awesome Mexican food is for this diet. Well, today I’m singing a different tune. I’m so tired of Mexican food. ACTUALLY, I’m just tired of eating corn tortillas!
Day 29 – 99 problems, but is Gluten 1?
One more day to go, but I can’t seem to shake the question – Do I really want to go back to eating gluten?
I mean, nothing’s really forcing me to. Do I really want a beer that badly to give up this habit I’ve kept up with for the last 30 days? I’M SO CONFUSED!
(Why do I feel like this?)
Day 30 – The Moment of Truth…
I woke up this morning to the last day of my 30-day challenge. Wow, that month went by fast! Is it really over already? Looking back, I can’t believe I bitched about this so much during Week 1. Once I decided to fully commit to this, it got a lot easier. And standing here on Day 30 having gone 30 full days without gluten is a testament to how everything starts with your mentality.
I was very curious to see how my overall fitness and health improved, so I did my final fit test today. I decided to track this by doing the Insanity “Fit Test” 3 times – Day 1, Day 14, and Day 30. If you’re unfamiliar with the “Fit Test”, it’s a 25-minute exercise where you go through 10 exercises, one after another, for about 60-seconds per. The goal is to do as many as you can in those 60 seconds. Exercises include Suicides, Switch Kicks, and Modified Push-Ups. I settled on the “Fit Test” for a couple of reasons
1 – The structure already exists, so why reinvent the wheel.
2 – I don’t typically do Insanity, so I was working my body differently than I normally do.
3 – It’s hard!
You can see the results below.
I’d take these numbers with a grain of salt.
- My general fitness and cardio is bound to improve, even slightly, if there’s any consistency
- Even if there is improvement, can I say it was the diet?
For these numbers to really mean anything, I’d probably have to do the diet again, take the fit test, and not exercise over the 30 days. Either way – just wanted to see if there was any improvement OR if my fitness got worse.
Summary
Wow, I can’t believe how hard Week 4 was. The constant struggle in my mind of going back and forth about what happens after this week was almost too much. I wanted to eat a piece of bread just so my mind would stop for a minute!
The truth is, I don’t particularly care for the gluten free diet. I don’t think I experienced a dramatic improvement in my health – physical or emotional. It was just the fact that I created a habit, and consciously making the decision to break it was horrible. There was all this guilt that built up day by day this last week as the finish line was drawing closer and closer.
Ultimately, I decided I’m going to go back to gluten. Again, since I didn’t experience much of an improvement, I didn’t think the hassle was worth it. Will I immediately go eat a pizza covered in spaghetti and brownies and chug a beer at the stroke of midnight? Probably not.
I do think I’ll be more conscious of my gluten intake moving forward though. If I had the opinion to eat gluten or not, I can see myself going with the gluten free option. Why? Coz I know that there isn’t much of a drop off in terms of quality. And the mental reward of knowing you picked the healthier option can’t be ignored.
I’ll need to sit down after I get back into the routine of being gluten free, and think about the entire experience at a high level. These weekly entries capture how I felt in the moment, but I think it’s important to sum everything up as well as put together my tips and hacks that made these 30 days possible.
Wanna follow along?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
I just finished Week 4 of my 30-day challenge, and I’ll recap the whole thing and talk about tips and hacks I used to survive for anyone interested in trying this out of for themselves.
You have to be getting some joy reading about my pain and misery living this gluten free nightmare.
Better me than you, right?
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See you next week!
P.S.
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