I’m going wheat free!

Oh yes that’s right. As of today, I’m starting a wheat free diet. These past few weeks have been hell in terms of stomachaches and food cravings and so I’ve decided to figure out what I could do to get my body back to normal. After some research I figured I might be wheat intolerant and the only way to find that out is to cut all wheat from your diet. This post is all about my decision to go wheat free and what I plan on eating for the next couple of weeks.

Some of my wheat free groceries. I’m excited to get started!

Let’s get started with a bit of background so you can understand why I’ve decided to take such drastic measure. Because I’m pretty sure that’s what people will think. First of all, it’s not a drastic measure. At least not for me. In October 2012 I noticed that I had stomachaches after eating starchy and carbohydrate rich foods such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. After hearing about low carb diets from Noelle, I decided to cut down on carbs. I would still eat them, but only a handful of times a week and definitely not all day, every day. You can read about my low carb diet here, here, here and here.

My reasons for doing it were simple: I had cramps so bad that kept me up at night and I felt sick to my stomach half the time. Like I said, I still ate some carbs, mostly on days when I worked out. I did well. I even lost some weight, which was an added bonus, and felt better than ever. That is, until summer. With more birthdays, dinners, vacation and music festival than I could count, I found it hard to keep up. I decided to simply eat whatever and of course I gained some weight and also felt pretty crappy again.

Once summer was over and I got back to work I cut down carbs again, only more than last time. All my dinners became low carb and my one bread filled lunch became a smoothie. I don’t know why, it just did. I felt good until my work out routine became more intensive. In November I started spinning classes and in January I added two more days of work outs. As a results I developed major food cravings, mostly after work. A sign of my body saying: you need to eat more. Which really isn’t rocket science: your body needs carbs when you work out, which is why I didn’t cut them out fully the first time round.

I decided to add some carbs back in. I started eating oats during spring break as oats are known for being good for your digestion. And then it went wrong completely. After 5 days of eating oats I felt like I had a rock lying in the pit of my stomach. I felt heavy, bloated and what’s more: the cramps, nausea and stomachaches of a little over a year ago were back. I felt horrible, but I knew I had to eat carbs to give my body the nutrients it needs. In my experience adding in bread and pasta would not be a good idea because those would result in similar troubles. So now what?

My mom told me about people having wheat allergies and I decided to look into that.  I found I don’t have a wheat allergy but I might have wheat intolerance as my symptoms are eerily similar to that description. As wheat can be found in EVERYTHING it would make sense as well. I already know I don’t have a gluten allergy because I was tested for that last year. And since I have symptoms not only after eating bread or pasta but also after drinking beer, eating cookies or eating sauce rich meals, I figured I might as well see if I am intolerant to wheat.

So here’s what I’m going to do:

• add back carbs, but none of them containing wheat
• eat more nuts
• stick to my salads/ yoghurts/ veggies & meat

It is actually pretty similar to a gluten free diet, but since not all gluten free products are wheat free, and not all wheat free products are gluten free, I will have to buy some other products as well. Here’s what I’ve bought to ensure I get some carbs, but no wheat into my system (all in the picture):

• rice cakes
• spelt bread
• gluten free & wheat free bread
• buckwheat flour
• amaranth
• nuts (I bought almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts for this week’s meals)

What I plan to do is to pop the amaranth and mix it with some ground up almonds and hazelnuts to add into my cereal. I’m also adding walnuts into my lunch this week. I’m going to use the buckwheat flour to make pancakes and have the rice cakes with some peanut butter or honey as a snack. The bread is for after I work out or if I need a quick meal. I also bought a sweet potato as that is a good source for starch. I’ve never had one before, but since I dislike regular potatoes I thought I’d give it a shot. Last but not least, I’ve also bought protein powder to chuck into smoothies which I can have after a work out.

What I hope to achieve:

• no more stomachaches
• no more food cravings
• maintain my current weight & shape
• potentially fewer hayfever symptoms (as wheat intolerance has been linked to hayfever as well)

Overall I simply want to feel better. I know I’m healthy as a horse and in the best shape of my life. I have no weight loss or weight gain goal in mind as I’m happy where I’m at. All I want is to be able to go to sleep without my stomach keeping me up because it’s working over time. And if I can get rid of those late afternoon/ just before dinner food cravings that just make me want to stuff myself with food than that would be great too. I want to keep this up for about 4 weeks to give my body plenty of time to get used to the change in diet. If my stomachaches are gone for that entire period of time I’ll know…

I will write an update and add the foods I eat probably once a week or once every two weeks. Of course if you have any other suggestions as to what I could eat, feel free to leave a comment below.