Healthy whole grains.
Dieticians and nutritionists pitch them as part of a balanced approach to eating.
Our pantry used to be filled with whole grain treats that made us believe we were one of the healthier families on the block.
Then we got an education.
Two words you need to know about today’s bread: Genetic modification.
I honestly thought the people who talked about genetic modification of foods were on the black helicopter side of the paranoia spectrum.
Apparently wheat ain’t what it used to be. It may taste like wheat. Look like wheat.
But when it goes in our body, we don’t know what the hell it is. When our body doesn’t know what is going in it, BOOM goes the sugar levels.
When the sugar levels go BOOM, so goes the inflammation and excess belly fat.
When I think of Lisa and all the issues she had with endometriosis I cringe thinking about how many club sandwiches we had after our consults, and how many 12 inch subway sandwiches we’d take with us on picnics to the park when we needed to get away from all the heartache of failed cycles. I picture gasoline being thrown on all that endometriosis everytime I picture her taking a bite of those wheat filled meals!
And holy cow is this stuff addictive. According to Dr. William Davis, who wrote Wheat Belly: Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health, modern wheat contains a special protein called gliatin, which has the same effect on brain receptors as opium!
When Lisa started clean eating with the paleo lifestyle, I REFUSED to give up my morning piece of toast.
It was such a habit, and I couldn’t believe that it would actually really make a difference.
Not wanting to repeat my unsupportive role at the beginning of our infertility journey, I opted to at least keep an open mind and cut back on the sandwiches, and the extra piece of bread with the salads.
It was tough pushing away that bread basket when it came to the table. I watched longingly as other people ate one basket after another.
After a week or two of this, I found that I felt thinner in the middle after a lunch or dinner meal without any bread.
Cutting out the lunch and dinner wheat products made me feel starving at first. But then I learned about healthy proteins like almond butter, and low sodium no nitrate beef jerky sticks and found they helped with the initial Jonesing for the bread stuff that I experienced at the beginning of my “wheatectomy”.
But I was not willing to give up on that morning toast.
Despite my new found nocturnal energy, I still found that I hit a wall about mid afternoon.
Since I was suddenly enjoying new found energy at night and in the late afternoon without any wheat product intake, I decided what the hell–I’ll lose the morning toast.
I replaced with an apple, almond butter, hard boiled egg, and some vegetable of choice.
I was stunned by how quick the change happened.
Suddenly I found that I was working through to the late afternoon without any slow down in mental acuity or focus.
It takes every ounce of mental, emotional and spiritual energy to stay on the infertility path.
If turning away the bread basket will keep you alert and focused, especially when you’re on that schedule for giving the triggering shot, the hormone shot, or getting psyched up for the next cycle, then I say what can it hurt?