That Friday feeling!

Here is a picture of Anna’s delicious Curried Cauliflower stew! It was absolutely gorgeous and my dinner for 2 nights earlier this week. Highly recommended (not really Dukan friendly but it wouldn’t take much tweaking!)

I’ve been pretty much on veg days all this week, I did a PP day today but more because I couldn’t be bothered cooking than anything else. Its definitely been another one of those weeks! But on a positive note, my tummy troubles have made me take a real hard look at myself / my thoughts on food etc. I even bought Wheat Belly for my Kindle! It was read within 24hrs!!!!!! My initial reaction shocked me, I found it all very sad and upsetting! We are led to believe that ”whole-grains” are good for us, that they will keep us healthy and help us live longer, when in actual fact the total opposite is true. To all intents and purposes wheat has been genetically modified, yet no tests have been carried out to ensure that it is safe for animal or human consumption, yet by calling the process hybridization, they found the loophole. I’m still in the process of digesting all the information and it will probably need a few re-reads before it all sinks in, but I’m hoping to do a post on the points I find most enlightening as soon as I can.

My Mum has been having tummy troubles too! I’ve been on my Dukan/Wheat Belly band wagon trying to help her, telling her what is best to eat, etc. I took her round some flaxseed crackers tonight, she is such an evening muncher, I knew she be on the biccies/crisps if I didn’t. I gave her some oatbran and the bread recipe. I just hope she can stick with it, she knows that she is allergic to wheat and dairy, but she still eats it (she has had problems with it for years – her Mum also had IBS and ended up with a twisted bowel and a resulting colostomy bag 😦 ) Lynda’s comment always sticks in my head, ”it’s the food that fails people, they don’t fail”. Its so true, I told my Mum, its not your fault. I’m quite worried about her and just hope that I can help her get a plan sorted and she can be determined to stick with it for her health’s sake.

My diet this past week is more Paleo / Wheat Belly based, although I think the core ideas are very similar to Dukan.

My weight has been steadily going down, not by much, but, I’m hardly surprised with the way my tummy has been. I’ve not been able to eat much and as we know on Dukan, not eating isn’t good. I have cut my water intake right down too, this is a struggle for me but ingesting anything has been painful. You’ll be glad to know that today has been a little easier so I think it’s improving.

I think I was drinking water as an alternative to eating, you know the concept of always having something in your hand! But I really don’t think its been doing my tummy any favors, from the research I have been doing I think I may well have low stomach acid so diluting it further with too much water especially at meal times has no doubt added to my troubles. I was drinking 4.5 – 5 litres per day not including coffee. I am now trying to keep it at around 2.5 – 3.5 litres although it should be at about 2.4 litres total liquids. (Apparently the calculation to find out how much you should be drinking is, weight in pounds divided by 2). Although Mark Sisson has different ideas on this in his Daily Apple. (A great read) 🙂

The next biggest hurdle I have to face is getting off the coffee, it is so acidic. At the moment I’m drinking a cup of lemon and ginger tea :), I also got some chamomile tea and another tummy aiding tea – liquorice root, fennel, etc. I don’t how I’ll manage without my morning caffeine fix 😦

I have found some great websites this week discussing intestinal health, loads of sites on being gluten/wheat free & low carb pages, I think I will start a new page with some low carb recipes / links to other blogs and sites, as this is the way things are going now for me.

I doubt I’ll have chance to do another post before Monday, weekends are always so busy fitting in the things a toddler makes it difficult to do in the week. Hope you are all well and I wish you a great weekend. For you ”losers” 😉 out there, stay strong and no cheating over the weekend or you’ll have Constance to answer to on Monday morning! What a thought! (Such a great idea having a Monday weigh in!) Ciao for now! xoxo