Time for a Change

I woke up the Friday after Thanksgiving and thought, "What happened????" My head hurt, my stomach hurt, and even my brain was foggy. What happened, you ask? I flipped my 80% to 20% rule of eating. At our house, we eat healthy 80% of the time and 20% of the time we eat what we want. Not so much on Thanksgiving. It was actually 20% healthy to 80% whatever I wanted. Too much coffee, too much dessert, and too much of everything else. It was time for a change, Amy, time for a change.

Wheat-sensitivity and dairy-sensitivity runs in my family and I did not follow the rules on Thanksgiving so my body was paying the price. Knowing that those sensitivities lurk around the corner plus being in-tuned to my body from intense training means I know when I have had too much dairy, too much wheat, and even, sorry to say, too much sugar. (Oh, sugar, how I love you! *sigh* I could write you many love poems!)

Thankfully, while I was making my grocery list the Sunday after the food-a-thon holiday, I found this food blog, Gluten-free Goddess. The author of this blog has a beautiful page, which attracted me at the start, plus wonderful recipes and stories about her quest to be gluten-free. As I happened upon this blog, I decided to follow a different way of eating. I decided to go gluten-free 80% of the day and 20% of the day enjoy wheat products. Top it off with one dose of sugar per day and it just might work (hopefully).

So how did the week go? Wonderfully. I feel amazing right now. More energy (yeah!), less headaches, more relaxed, and, overall, satisfied. That was my concern. Would a relatively gluten-free diet satisfy me, a foodie at heart. It did. We had some delicious meals that made me do many happy dances during our nightly dinners.

Here is quick view into our meals this week:

Chocolate Cake with Orange-Chocolate Frosting

This fantastic Chocolate Cake with Orange-Chocolate Frosting is a vegan cake from Bon Appetit magazine that is really satisfying if one is looking for a low-fat treat for the night. This cake is made with oil but does not have eggs in it. It is not gluten-free but there is the 20% balance I chose. The cake originally called for a thick frosting that is yummy but I opted to just put bittersweet chocolate chips on the batter before I baked it. Turned out delicious! Plus, with coffee, even better!

Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf

Next, we dined on a quinoa (a grain similar to couscous) salad that was out of this world. I wish this blog had scratch and sniff because that steak smelled crazy good that night. The picture does not do the Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf salad justice. Maybe because the steak was so good it had to be front and center but still, the salad needs to be mentioned. I found the recipe on the Gluten-free Goddess blog and am happy I did. I have had quinoa in the past and was not impressed. This time I was wowed! Very flavorful, very satisfying. Even better the next day. What more can one want from a meal?

African Black Bean Sweet Potato Soup

Our next venture into being gluten-free was an African Black Bean Sweet Potato Soup from the same blog. Spicy, happy goodness is all I can say! We topped rice with it and it turned into a dish similar to curry. It warmed the heart and made me want more. As we speak, I am enjoying left-overs for lunch and I am not a left-over person so it tells you how good it is!

When I look at ways to eat by browsing a bookstore's food section, or talking to others who are on a particular diet, I think to myself, "Can I eat this way for the rest of my life?" Typically, my answer is no and I keep searching for ways to stay healthy. After trying this 80% gluten-free to 20% gluten way to eat, I can see myself eating this way for the rest of my life. I can see the benefits that it offers me but also that it does not take away from the joys of eating that I relish.  So, I am looking forward to some new food adventures and will keep you posted. Now, I am off to see if I can make a gluten-free pumpkin bread. I will let you know how it goes! Happy eating!