Wheat Belly????

Have you heard of it?

Let me start by saying that part of me is afraid that I'm about to tell you I'm falling into the latest diet fad.  This may be true.  I have no idea.  I'm just in the beginning stages of my research and decided that instead of waiting till I've made up my mind, I'm going to include experimentation as the main part of my research. 

Everyone knows that I'm a huge advocate for Weight Watchers.  That hasn't changed.  I believe that it is the best way for someone to lose weight with minimal deprivation. 

Part of the key here is "to lose weight."  I don't know if it is with age or the different type of people I surround myself with, including what fills my newsfeeds, but I've crossed the line from it being about losing weight to it being about a healthy lifestyle. 

Back to Wheat Belly possibly being a fad.  Its the same way that I have seen the Atkins diet up until now.  I did Atkins.  I was very successful on Atkins the first time I did it.  I lost 60 pounds.  But the minute I diverted, I gained it all back and then some.  And no one I knew that had done the diet had lost the weight for good.  They all had the same experience as me. 

First Reason I'm Willing To Try This Possible Fad:

What I've been doing hasn't been working.  I should rephrase this to say that what I had been doing from October 2011, until January 12, 2014, hadn't been working.  What happened as of January 12?  I gave up soda for good.  I have only had one since.  Then, on January 20th, I started a low carb diet.  I did not do this as strict as maybe I would have hoped I would.  But for the most part, at least throughout the week, I was pretty good at sticking to it.  The weekends were a little shakier, but I didn't gain weight through them, so I consider it a success. 

Since January 20th, I have lost 9 pounds. 

From what I've read so far, Wheat Belly is just taking my low carb eating to a new level.  I will be eliminating wheat and all forms of it from my diet.  When some read this, they will think this is just a matter of eliminating bread.  But what I'm learning is that it also means eliminating close to ALL processed food from my diet.  I will have to be very careful to read labels of the food that have them and make sure that there are no wheat ingredients listed...by the name wheat or any other name. 


Second Reason I'm Willing To Try This Possible Fad:

Sometimes, fads turn into something more.  I honestly believe that people are more health conscious than they were 10 or 15 years ago.  True, there are people that have already been leading healthy lifestyles.  But don't you agree that in the past 5 years, the number of people that you work with that run or workout on a regular basis has grown.  That there are more and more people in your life eating clean or, at the very least, cleaner?  Lets face it, if you are reading my blog, then more than likely this is the case. 

Even if you are the person that has always lived a healthier lifestyle, I'm sure that you can say that it has become easier for you to convince friends to come out and join you, whether it be run a race or do an aerobic class. 

Since the number of friends leading a healthy lifestyle has grown for me, I'm seeing more research on how what we eat affects us.  I believe that the chemistry of what we put in our bodies has an affect on us. 

Combine Reason 1 & 2:

Can you think of people in your life that you SEE go to the gym on a regular basis or walk every night that are still overweight or even obese?  Can you think of people that you really don't see eat exorbitant amounts and actually eat what looks like pretty healthy food, but are still overweight or even obese?  I would be shocked if you said you didn't know ANYONE like that.  There are a lot of athletes that are overweight. 

Atkins may have not been a fad if people were ready to listen.  At the time that the Atkins diet was popular, I believe people were only looking for a way to lose weight.  I know I was.  I don't remember ever thinking of getting healthy.  I never thought of lifestyle changes.  I thought of getting myself to the right size quickly so that I could then eat what I wanted. 

Plan:

In the spirit of not continuing to do what's not working and hoping for a better result as well as the knowledge that some things look like fads when they first start and turn out to have longevity, I'm going to try out this Wheat Belly plan.

I am going to start a 30 Day Challenge tomorrow.  I have purchased the Wheat Belly book to read and help with motivation as well as do my research during the 30 days.  I have also purchased the Wheat Belly 30 Minute or Less Cookbook to aid in making sure I have the tools to plan ahead. 

I will be blogging about my experience and posting what I've learned as part of my research.

Through my research and experiment, maybe we will learn whether we should consider this a fad or something to start living by.