{"id":43,"date":"2012-02-23T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/sayonara-carbs\/"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","slug":"sayonara-carbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/sayonara-carbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sayonara Carbs."},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, so I\u2019m feeling super cranky today.  I basically just sent the girls upstairs to fend for themselves and told Charlie not to come and get me unless someone is BLEEDING.  Why am I ready to scratch my own eyes out?  Well, it could be that two days ago I embarked on a journey I shall call \u201cGaga for Grain-Free\u201d \u2013 yes, I said it.  For really no other reason but potentially changing the health of my family, Vann and I are going grain-free, primal, Paleo, whatever you would like to call it. And I think I must just really be craving a bagel this morning.  Like in a way that makes me want to hang my kids up by their ankles and leave them there. I\u2019m just kidding.  Sort of.  Let\u2019s start from the beginning: I found out last week that one of my dearest college friends found out she had a gluten intolerance last year and has since lost 45 pounds by following the Paleo diet.  And let me just say, this darling friend was always beautiful \u2013 in college she was one of THE prettiest girls I knew \u2013 so to see her improve on that \u2013 well, she literally looks lit from within.  I thought, \u201cDude, WHAT is she doing??  Whatever it is, I need it, and fast.\u201d So I guess that planted a seed in me.  And I started doing a little reading, started asking some questions.  I came to find out that two more of my close friends from college (and their spouses) follow this diet or something similar to it.  Huh?  What am I missing here?  As you know I\u2019ve been doing Weight Watchers (mostly successfully) since last summer.  And as much as I have loved WW, I just can\u2019t seem to get past the holiday slump.  I\u2019ve been stuck at the same place since Halloween, give or take a pound or two.  Super frustrating, right? Well, I admit it, I was super intrigued by Paleo.  I am no doctor, obviously, so I wanted to find a pretty simple way of explaining what the diet consists of.  I found this great diagram (in pictures, no less) here<\/a>.  In my few days of reading up on it, I\u2019ve seen numerous accounts of how going grain-free helps with a HOST of ailments, can cure disease, promote good \u201cgut\u201d health, etc., etc.  I\u2019ve written very openly about my struggles with depression over my adult life \u2013 and when I read that it can help with depressive tendencies \u2013 well, that about sealed it for me.  I just couldn\u2019t resist the testimonials of my friends who feel better than they EVER have in their LIVES.  And don\u2019t feel deprived, and are able to eat things like avocadoes and olives and steaks and a million other things, and get this \u2013 STILL lose weight.  Because, you know, this goes against everything I\u2019ve learned following the Weight Watchers program.  So, yeah, I was a little scared about cooking my eggs (not just the whites) in butter and throwing out all low fat items in my house.  But I had some pretty awesome results to go off of, so: When Vann came home that night I broke the news to him that I had gone through our pantry and purged ALL of the processed foods.  And yes, girl scout cookies and m & m\u2019s were sadly a part of my whirlwind.  I think he was scared initially, but thankfully I am married to a super-supportive spouse \u2013 he agreed to do a 30 day grain-free challenge with me, to start.  I mean, really, what do we have to lose??  Yesterday I started the replenishment of my pantry.  In PepsiCo\u2019s benefits program if you fill out a health survey you get a $75 pre-paid shopping card \u2013 a perfect contribution to buying all of the staples we need to get our Paleo kitchen going.   Coconut flour, almond meal flour, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, omega-3 eggs, grass-fed beef, free-range chicken\u2026just a small list of the things I am super excited to start using.  As far as our kids eating Paleo, well, that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother post.  For now, I\u2019m going to start being super vigilant as to what they put in their mouths, and primarily, what they snack on.  I\u2019m sure there is nowhere to go but up when it comes to Charlie and her \u201cbehavior\u201d struggles \u2013 I\u2019m anxious to see if cutting out the vast majority of sugar in her diet will help her be more focused and less \u201call over the place\u201d.  All of this being said, before you knock me off my grain-free pedestal, although I have enjoyed the yummy food we\u2019ve made these past three days, I must be having a carb withdrawal day (which my sweet friend Haley tells me is totally normal and will pass).  I am, well, kind of pissed off today and not afraid to say it. As this is the tale of a carb-a-holic gone grain-free, I will post about this journey probably quite a bit.  If something tastes good, I\u2019ll post recipes and share tips and tricks.  And most importantly, how the diet is impacting mine and my family\u2019s health and well-being.  So my first challenge is going to be finding a great recipe for pancakes.  I love pancakes.  So much.  I know there has to be delicious, grain-free options out there.  Feel free to share if you have any I should try!  Oh, and I forgot to say \u2013 yes, you can drink red wine on this diet.  You know that was one of my first questions, after all. To going gaga for grain-free, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, so I\u2019m feeling super cranky today.  I basically just sent the girls upstairs to fend for themselves and told Charlie not to come and get me unless someone is BLEEDING.  Why am I ready to scratch my own eyes out?  Well, it could be that two days ago I embarked on a journey I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}