Grain Free, Sugar Free - Getting Started

I've been spending the last week learning more about what you can eat on a grain free and sugar free diet. I am hoping that being grain free and sugar free will help keep my system balanced while I am on antibiotics. I am also planning to eat plenty of plain yogurt, take a probiotic supplement, and trace minerals.

This is going to be a big challenge for me. For those that know me, I love to make my own bread (yes those are my own homemade rolls pictured above), and grains make a big part of my diet. I think giving up sugar will be fairly easy for me, but grains! Luckily this is just a 3 week experiment.

So far, I have found the "Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner" by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass to be a great reasource! I am also perusing "Going Against the Grain" by Melissa Diane Smith and have "The no-grain diet : conquer carbohydrate addiction and stay slim for life" by Joseph Mercola on the way. Love the IMCPL public library! All 3 books are a part of their collection.

Day 1 Menu
Breakfast: hard-boiled egg, plain yogurt with plain berries, orange juice, tea
Snack: apple with natural no-sugar peanut butter
Lunch: spaghetti squash with fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic and parmesan cheese
Snack: celery & hummus
Dinner: shepherd's pie made with butternut squash (instead of potatoes)
Snack: 100% dark chocolate, tea

I was a little worried about finding enough food to eat to completely substitute all of the grain that I eat on a normal day, but I think this might be more than I can eat in a day. However, if I find that I am still hungry, I plan to have some nuts and dried fruit (without added sugar) on hand.

Wish me luck!

Proud of Doc

Swimming or Drowning in the Information Stream

Anyone else struggle with trying to keep up with e-mail, RSS feeds, e-mail groups, and social media sites? (And now I want to add blogging to the list, am I crazy?) I saw a quote the other day on The Rapid E-Learning Blog, titled, "How to Navigate Social Media (and Avoid Information Overload)" that really hit home...

No one goes to a library and complains that there are too many books. That wouldn’t make sense. You want as many books as possible in the library. You just don’t want them all at the same time.

I think the trick to keeping up is to quit trying. This quote reminded me that the important part to having so much information is learning to find what you need, when you need it. That's the easy part. The hard part is figuring out how. So far, I've been using Google Reader to help manage my RSS feeds, using filters and rules in my e-mails to filter out the e-mail I don't need to read, and trying not to worry so much about missing something and trust that the information I need will be there when I need it. So I need to learn to swim in the information steam and not drown in it.

Do you have any strategies that work for you?