Gluten Free Living and Training

This was written towards the end of July 2015 and as of this date I've been mostly successful at not eating anything with gluten in it for the past meh...8-9 weeks? It's been really really overwhelming, and now I've had a real eye opener of everyone who tries a new diet and things are well, overwhelming and all encompassing and confusing and just Hol-ee smokes very thought process involved. The internet for the most part has been of no help, because I don't know what to type into "Google" that won't pop up some granola tree hugger, paleolithic, "clean eating" persons blog condeming gluten all around. And right there, right then and there I have a hard time taking anything they say with much credit. Really, at this point I'm not interested in reading someone angrily and forcefully telling me why gluten is bad. I mean, I know it's not sitting well with me at this point and I know I feel gut-fantastic when I don't eat it but I want to know the truth. Scientifically WHY did I all a sudden (it seems) go from one day chowing down on my favorite whole food fiber breads, whole grain foods and the occasional doughnut, and the next thing I know I'm standing in front of a (rather small) gluten free shelf in the grocery store wondering what happened…and really, I know better than to reach for the gluten free processed products but dangit, at this point I'm dying for a doughnut!! :( Whatever Google, you were no help. I guess I'm doing this by trial and error.

Whatever. This article is meant to give you my experience on going grain free, the struggles and the impact on my training. It's kinds lengthy, but still only sccratching the surface with the concerns and struggles as I went from a perfectly structured routine of eating my favorite grains to going gluten free.

Impact on Training: No lie...IT TANKED. Almost immeadiately I felt the effects of ridding roughly 50g of carbs from my diet within the first week. Now I have to tell you that since about July 2013 I have regularly taken in at least 230-250 grams of carbs on most days. High carb days were just the best days ever. No I didn't pig out on junk, I do believe 100% in whole, minimally processed foods with adequate amounts of fruits and veggies. Because HEALTH.

A few days after I dropped my carbs I noticed three things. First, when I worked out (pushups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, step ups, etc) I felt like I was wearing a 50 pound vest in addition to any weights used during the workout. Pushups were exhuasting only after a few reps. Lunges were sloppy, and squats burned far sooner than usual. It was unreal. Second: Sleep. Getting up in the morning was like...woah. Like just not "normal Brandi" waking up in the morning. I had a hard time getting out of bed and going, I was SO TIRED. And third, recovery. I was rarely sore after my workouts. Largely because previously, I ate near maintenance and my food intake was adequate enough to fuel and quickly recover from each workout session. (read the truth on DOMS here) But now? Oh Em GEE!! Hello Sore-City!! Rolling out of bed in the morning was an act of God, pure miracle. Yeah, that sore...

As I dropped carbs the first two weeks (I reduced them even further as I cut out gluten and then became lost, yes, lost on what was safe to eat to avoid feeling the painful symptoms from eating wheat) I was incredibly sore from all my workouts. I felt like I was a total newbie! Each workout I had low energy, I was feeling very discouraged because I was so afraid of food and didn't trust it (except meat, veggies and fruit obviously) so therefore since I wasn't really eating much like I used to my stress levels were up, I was moody, tired, and having flash backs to when my diet was out of whack years ago before I got myself on macros that made sense. But I knew I had to continue to ride on the solution train and fix this and get my stomach and life back to "normal"?

Another interesting thing that I noticed: I love my FitBit HR and the feature it has to track your resting heart rate, particularily more accurate when worn to bed while you sleep. I proudly checked my heart rate every morning and loved seeing it in the lower end of the 50's. Sleep was good, recovery was good, it was all good. Once I went off my beloved wheat filled foods and reduced calories (see why in previous blog) I watched my heart rate go up. Check out the photo collage. The first photo features a typical week of sleep with low numbers when I was carbing it up and eating near maintenance. The second is a week of RHR on reduced calories and no grains. There were some weeks I was hitting 60. WHICH, yes, I know, is still in the healthy range. Yet it was an interesting feature to watch directly due to diet and probably stress coming from my diet. The end photo you can see towards the end of the 30 days (6/24/15-7/24/15) where you see a drop in heart rate as I ate more carbs, because I was adamantly getting a handle on my diet. WHEW. Momma's happy again to see those numbers :) Still interesting, aint it?

As if I wanted more to do, right? Online schooling, social media responsibilities, family responsibilities (actually that should be first to mention), spiritual responsibilities and work responsibilities. NOW I have to learn new habits, learn to like new foods (like eating lots of veggies every day), and I can't just "wing" the occasional meals like before. I have to be prepared. Which THANK YOU Trader Joes!! Prepackaged salads came in REAL handy during vaca in Cali!

(One time I ate a chocolate caramel candy at a family members house that was yes, gluten free, but manufactured on machinery that processes wheat. I fell into previous habit of enjoying a small piece of chocolate first, THEN flipped the bag around and read that little diddy. While I was hopeful I would be okay later that night, I was not. My poor stomach and my poor kids in the car ride back lol).

So these days I've learned to be prepared. Have plenty of fruit around, I've had to dabble in baking (you know I hate baking, right?), I'm filling up my shopping cart with potato varieties, and if I'm going to be out I have to have to bring food with me. Grabbing a spinach feta wrap at Starbucks like I used to do if I was out of the house and wanted to eat is no longer an option. It fan-diggity-tastic!!

For the most part, the body at rest utilizes more fat for fuel but during HiiT it shifts towards burning stored carbohydrates. I am eating more potatoes these days to support training because HiiT (my favorite style of training) relies mostly on carbohydrates during the process for fuel. Which veggies are not (really) the most preferable source of carbs to fuel High Intensity Interval Training. And to get enough carbs for the day you'd have to eat like 1,000 cups of chopped kale - YUMMAAY.

While I'm writing this article on vacation and I've worked out like 4 days in the past 8 days, I'm not noticing energy "tankage" and I'm not sure if that's because I'm deliberately sitting on my butt enjoying the company around me. As opposed to being home and up early busy busy, kids, kids, running around until 9pm at night...every day. So when I get home and back into the swing of things I'll be sure to update on training, soreness, tiredness, mood, sleep, etc. Oh and yes, I did feel flabby, soft and flat removing so many carbs in the beginning. :(

So even though some days I cry as I just want a good ole fashioned PB&J, and you'll find me reaching into every shelf, freezer, cooler and picking everything up in the grocery store really, checking to see if it has "manufactured in a facility that processes wheat..." written on the back, and saying at many a gatherings "oh, sorry, I'm gluten intolerant" declining their food hospitality and yes, likely getting sideways looks and many questions and opinions from skeptics and the like...my stomach is happier, and my world smells a little (okay a lot) better these days. Oh and my workouts have seemed to improved. Which is good. :)

If you read all of this I LOVE YOU! And until next time...

I wish you health, happiness and heavy lifts!

PLEASE NOTE: Just randomly going on a gluten-free diet without a valid reason isn't the wisest approach to food and nutrition. And in fact, if you have no reason to shun gluten then you may just end up filling up on all of the delicious gluten-free foods but not necessarily getting the nutrition you need for good health. Gluten free foods (foods processed without gluten) are like niltch in the nutrition department containing little to no vitamins and minerals. Not to mention, if you think you have celiac disease, going on a gluten-free diet before getting tested can interfere with the accuracy of the tests (and yes you should be tested and then follow a strict gluten-free diet if you have celiac—avoiding gluten in supplements, medications, lip balms etc.). If you have a valid reason for going gluten free, stick to eating whole, minimally processed foods (ring a bell?) and if you're going to eat any food without wheat, make it from home featuring other flours that do have nutritional content in them. :)