My Summer “Adventure” Part 2 and a Little More on Gluten Sensitivity

If you are just reading this post without having read “My Summer Adventure”, you may want to back track.  See www.barwellness.net/blog/aippaleo

It’s now day  (I need to calculate….) 25 of my AIP Paleo eating plan and my adventure into a restrictive, healing diet.  I thought I would share with you the lessons learned (so far) and the questions I’ve been receiving since I started the plan. 

I’ve been keeping a food diary to recall (on days 1-7, especially) how I had been feeling and to really note and appreciate what changes have happened since I started.  It’s been exceedingly helpful to me as I have gone through the process and I recommend that you consider keeping notes if you are in a similar situation. 

The most common question I’ve received since I’ve started the diet is:  what’s the hardest part?  Followed closely by:  What’s been the biggest surprise?  Here’s my biggest takeaways:

Breakfast is Challenging

Oh breakfast, the easiest meal of the day.  But it hasn’t been for these 25 days. 

I need protein at the beginning of my day.  It really fuels me until the afternoon and gives me a boost of energy.  I suggest adding protein at breakfast to all my clients as it tends to eliminate hunger pangs before lunch and stabilizes blood sugar.  Here’s my particular problem with breakfast:  I can’t have eggs, my major go-to.  Or nuts, or seeds. 

Thankfully, I have a tool, That Clean Life, that I use for my clients to meal plan and to provide recipes for them to consider.  I love the system.  So, I just treated myself like a client and downloaded a recipe book of Autoimmune Paleo Breakfast options. 

The next step was to actually make the transition and the recipes.  I’m now basically “eating dinner at breakfast”.  Many of the recipes were a riff on meat and veggies.  For example, I made turkey burgers with ginger, apple, and garlic.  The first few days, it seemed so strange to be eating a turkey burger at breakfast, but my body needed it, so I went with it (with sautéed greens).  My other interesting breakfast (with or without protein) was to cook cauliflower rice with coconut milk for a few minutes and top with fruit.  I don’t love raw cauliflower, (in fact, I hate it) so the trick was to make sure it was fully cooked which took 5-7 minutes.  It was actually tasty.

Grab and Go, Gone and Went

One of my big “ah-ha’s” from this process was that I do snack more than I would have admitted.  In fact, I’m more of a daytime grazer than anything.  I don’t wake with an appetite, so breakfast is small or late in the morning (I’m generally eating breakfast when my husband, the early riser, is eating an early lunch). 

Back to eggs.  No more grabbing a hard-boiled egg and running out the door to run an errand.  And I love, love, love to grab almonds during the day.  Before AIP, I would sometimes “forget” to eat lunch (something I tell my clients never to do) and munch on almonds and gluten-free crackers around 4p, then make an early dinner.  This was absolutely not going to work.  My energy levels would begin to dip around 1p-2p and, instead of eating almonds to get me through, I needed to stop whatever I was doing and have a proper lunch. Sometimes, I need to follow my own advice.

Moody.  And A Drop in Energy

It’s probably a good thing that Covid has caused us to be less than social this summer because the first few days were a bit difficult as I adjusted to the food restrictions.  Those early days reminded me of lessons from my studies around detoxing:  first, everyone reacts differently.  Second, different emotions may come up, including emotions you don’t expect. 

The past 25 days have been a series of emotions and seemingly coming out from nowhere.  I was excited to have committed to the eating plan, then groggy waking up in the morning, then crabby with a caffeine withdrawal headache—and that was only the first few days.  My mood stabilized as the days passed and I’m waking up more energetic, without caffeine. 

One issue that surprised me was a lack of energy while exercising.  I’m a life-long exerciser.  I’m generally on the bike, doing yoga or working out with weights.   I expected that in the first few days I would feel lethargic, and that definitely happened.  But during the second and third weeks, I continued to feel less than energetic, especially on my bike.  I was losing weight and thought that I may need some added support.  So I researched and supplemented with a B Complex vitamin. 

B Vitamins are not energy-yielding per se, but they assist in the production of ATP—energy for our cells-- by participating in each step of the energy metabolism pathway.  They play a role as coenzymes, the molecules necessary (with enzymes) for the chemical conversions in our cells that are needed to produce energy.  So they are particularly important.  While I’ve been eating well, it seems that for the time being, I do need to get more of this vitamin from a supplement.

At Day 25, they seem to be helping me feel more energetic while exercising. 

Next Steps:  Reintroduction (and a cup of coffee?)

With only a few days left, I’m feeling generally happy, less moody, and emotionally stable, especially if I remember to eat on a regular basis.  I continue to have no digestive symptoms and that’s encouraging.  I’m concerned about reintroducing certain foods, especially ones that I like.  With the reduction in inflammation I’ve experienced, I’m concerned that some of my favorite foods could be ones that had been contributing to my symptoms, especially nuts and eggs.  I know gluten will be out of my diet, probably forever, and dairy will need to be severely limited.

So What About Gluten—Why Is it Such A Problem?

This is the second most asked question since I’ve started the AIP eating plan and it’s a question I get from clients and friends a lot.  It’s hard to understand how our parents could have been fine with gluten and wheat and somehow it feels like there’s now a prevalence of gluten sensitivity, autoimmune diseases, and general ill health.  What happened?  Here’s the teaser:  It’s a complicated topic and I’ll try to sort it all out for you in my next blog post. 

If you’d like to talk about your quest to improve your health—whether or not you go on such a restrictive diet—do reach out to me at BARWellness@comcast.net.  And make sure to sign up for my email list to get these blog posts and other fun information right to your mailbox!

To a Healthier You!

Bev