I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted to try a sort of ‘detox’. I’ve suffered for years with bloatedness, stomach cramps, stomach acid and plenty of other rather unglamorous symptoms, which have always been put down to IBS, but the problem with IBS is that it’s not that easy to control. Rather than just suffer without questioning the diagnosis, I thought it might be worth trying to cut out a few things from my diet, one at a time, to see if I felt any better. Wheat and dairy were first on my list; I’ve been slightly intolerant to milk products my whole life, and I always feel puffy and uncomfortable after eating bread, so I thought I’d give it a go – how hard can it be?!
I was all ready with my rye bread, but then I signed up for a marathon. I didn’t want to be thinking so hard about what I was eating while putting in so much training, and I didn’t want to have to limit myself in any way. So I put it on hold.
Then, a couple of weeks before race day, I started to feel really awful. It might have been something to do with the stress of leaving a job, it might even have had something to do with my pre-race nerves, but my tummy was not happy with something. At the time I was drinking a glass of warm milk before bed every night, eating loads of yogurt, and snacking on cereal with milk whenever I got hungry. We had been given some free hemp milk with a recent supermarket delivery, so I took the plunge and cut out all milk products, aware that it wasn’t exactly the best time to be changing my diet.
During the week leading up to the marathon I had more energy than I’d had in…maybe in years. I was really busy with a new job and certainly wasn’t taking it easy, despite tapering for the race. Even better than that, my stomach was pretty much fine. The bloatedness disappeared, as well as all of the other icky symptoms, and I was slightly unnerved at how fantastic I felt for the first time in as long as I can remember! Race day was the biggest test, as I always get a really dodgy tummy before any event, and I was amazed to find that I was pretty much ok; standard tummy nerves, but nothing too hard to handle.
With the exception of the evening and morning after the marathon, and maybe a sneaky digestive biscuit last weekend, I haven’t touched milk for four weeks. I don’t crave milk, and actually the thought of eating yogurt turns my stomach slightly – I never thought I’d feel anything but love for yogurt, so this is a real surprise! I’m also finding that I crave more nuts, seeds and oils, and that I’m eating better than I ever have. Rather than snacking on a bowl of cereal, or eating greedily from the yogurt pot straight out of the fridge, I’m eating more fruit, and am enjoying regular morning smoothies before breakfast. I’m not hungry quite as often because the good fats that I’m munching on in the morning and at lunch are more filling than the bowlful of low fat yogurt that I’d normally have after a meal!
So, feeling super duper healthy and more energetic than ever, I decided to try going without wheat for a week. I replaced my lunchtime cous cous with quinoa or rye bread, stopped munching biscuits or granola before bed, and cut out muesli, bulgur wheat and bread. I ate rice, pot barley or potatoes every night, and the meals we cooked were delicious. At first I was really excited to see how awesome I might feel in a few days!
But then cravings started. I was desperate for pudding, for some reason; I just wanted stodge, and in the supermarket I found myself pouring over the cookies and cakes in the bakery section! Rice became wholly unappealing, and rather than sticking to a square or two of 70% chocolate in the evenings, as I had been doing previously, I found myself hungrily munching on sweet porridge! I felt hungrier than ever, more tired than I thought I reasonably should, and fed up with the limitations that I’d set myself. I stuck to it for 5 days, but Saturday came and we were simply too tired to cook. A takeaway peshwari naan was my undoing!
Now I’m back eating wheat again, and my appetite is back to normal. I’m still living happily without dairy, though, and will continue to do so until my body tells me otherwise. I’m not being super strict about it – a bit of milk here and there doesn’t do much harm, especially when I’m keen to avoid limiting my diet wherever possible. I’m looking forward to going out for pizza in a couple of weeks, for example, but I’m sticking to coconut milk instead of cow’s milk, and yogurt is still a big turn off for some reason! One day I might wake up and crave a massive dollop of Greek yogurt on my muesli, and when that day comes I’ll go out and buy some Greek yogurt!
One fun thing about this experiment was trying out new ingredients, and developing new recipes to keep life interesting. Look out for a delicious wheat-free breakfast, and a wheat-free veggie burger to top all veggie burgers soon!
One thing for sure is that today’s lunchtime bagel couldn’t have been tastier!
Read Full Post »
Running, Naturally 
