In all fairness, it's a totally legit question even if it did come from the mind of a 3-year-old: How does something change from one very specific thing into something else, entirely? I've been pondering this very question lately as my 30-something self is so noticeably different than my 20-something self seemed to be, and I'm having to re-learn how to get along with... well... me. (Don't worry. I'm not suddenly getting deep and contemplative here, I'm taking this in a very literal direction so hang with me.)
As it turns out, 30-something Steph simply doesn't put up with gluten. Ugh. It even looks depressing reading it. But there it is... it's officially out there. "Hello, blog world: I'm over thirty and I can no longer handle my wheat." But it gets worse. In trying to sort out what it was that was waging war on my innermost being after each meal, I cut back to the bare basics to do a 2-week "detox" of sorts, and I used an established model that is rich in fresh produce and pure proteins. Before I knew it, I was actually volunteering to deprive myself of so much YUM in pursuit of protecting my tum.
I removed not only gluten but all grains in general (bye-bye rice, bread and beloved pasta), kissed all sugar goodbye (except for the very occasional indulgent dash, but only unrefined), sliced lots of my dairy intake (keeping only my cottage cheese, yogurt and skim milk), said Cheerio to cheese and chocolate (guess you could have figured as much from the low-dairy/no-sugar thing, but cheeses and chocolates were such a huge part of my life that they deserve their own shout-out on this list), and last but not least-- Corked the red wine. (I kept Coffee, of course -- She and I have a long, co-dependent history and it just wouldn't be right to let her go.)
Somewhere along the way, the 2-week detox turned into a bit of a lifestyle... and without any awareness of what I was doing, I have apparently climbed into my own self-made cocoon as a cheesy and chocolatey caterpillar, and have emerged on the other side as something entirely different-- a healthier eater. (Whaaaat?!) Truth be told: I've only been eating this way for a little over 2 months, so I'm no expert and still absolutely learning/modifying as I go. Another truth?... I feel better. I still don't know which of my little monsters was beating me up so much, but removing *it* has made me a new woman.
So I thought I would do a simply fun blog post to share some of the new foods that regularly tempt me and keep me from craving my old munchies. (I hope you like the new graphically-enhanced format I've tried... I just got a little overzealous I think, but what can I say? I'm a bit of a Photoshop fan.)
