“When I finish this book, we are going on this diet” said my well-meaning husband. \u00a0The book was by Dr. Asa Andrew. \u00a0The diet: \u00a0no wheat, no dairy. \u00a0How long? \u00a04 weeks. \u00a0My first thought? \u00a0“You have to be kidding me. \u00a0What are we going to eat?”<\/p>\n
The diet not only excluded wheat and dairy, but we were not allowed to have refined sugars, table salt, and canola oil. \u00a0We could only cook with butter. \u00a0We could flavor our foods with sea salt, pepper, herbs, honey, and other unrefined products. \u00a0We were allowed to have almonds, but peanuts were out. \u00a0 We also were to drink half of our body weight in ounces of water per day. \u00a0Of course, soda was out.<\/p>\n
Once Steve finished the book, we went on the diet. \u00a0The first few days were really difficult. \u00a0There was much planning involved for meals, and I had to learn a whole new way to cook. \u00a0There was no more quick sandwiches for dinner, and no more could I just call Steve and have him pick up something on the way home. \u00a0It was amazing how much thought had to be put into each and every thing we ate. \u00a0Thankfully we could have dark chocolate over 70% cacao.<\/p>\n
Not only did the preparation for the meals take getting use to, but the actual flavors were a shock to the system. \u00a0Before the diet, Steve and I were pasta-aholics. \u00a0I had to find something to replace for noodles, and I had seen on Dr. Oz how one woman replaced noodles with Spaghetti Squash. \u00a0It was different but great.<\/p>\n
We would eat organic scrambled eggs cooked in butter with no salt or pepper for breakfast, roast beef with honey mustard and veggies for lunch, almonds and chocolate for snacks, and whatever I could figure out for dinner.<\/p>\n
As of today, it has been 2 days shy of 4 weeks. \u00a0Steve got home from work and said, “It is time to cheat. \u00a0We are going out to eat, and we are cheating in a big way.” \u00a0Excited, I agreed and almost tripped over myself to get out the door.<\/p>\n
We had to go to Costco and pick up our “good” foods with a few other things, and afterwards, we were going to a fried chicken tenders joint. \u00a0It was once my favorite fast food place. \u00a0I was so stoked about this eating experience. \u00a0As we left Costco, I could smell the tenders cooking. \u00a0We barely got the baby in the car before we were jumping in and racing over to the tender’s restaurant. \u00a0We were like lions going to a feast. \u00a0I was overwhelmed with complete and total ecstasy.<\/p>\n
We walked in and placed our glutinous order and found a place to sit. \u00a0I had packed Asher his dinner, so I started to feed him as soon as we had him settled in. \u00a0The food came out, and I couldn’t wait! \u00a0This was the thing I had dreamed of for the entire diet. \u00a0Ah…fried food. \u00a0My heart’s desire.<\/p>\n
My first bite was a french fry. \u00a0I had taken a french fry from a friend once while on the diet, and was quite disheartened. \u00a0However, these were crinkle fries. \u00a0These were my favorite. \u00a0As I bit into the fry, I stumbled over my vision and fell flat on my face realizing it tasted bland. \u00a0There really was no flavor. \u00a0Then, I realized that in order to get flavor, I was going to have to pile on the table salt. \u00a0“Ah,” I thought “maybe I should just cover it in sauce!” \u00a0I did. \u00a0Still, it was bland. \u00a0The sauce had lost it’s luster.<\/p>\n
As I stared down at my half eaten plate, it hit me. \u00a0It is all a lie. \u00a0A lie conceived by brilliant men and women to feed Americans junk and get rich in the process. \u00a0I had blind folded myself to the truth all of my life. \u00a0It was as if a veil had been lifted. \u00a0I could see the wizard.<\/p>\n
Four weeks ago, I would have had a good belly laugh at a blog such as this. \u00a0As I downed my cheeseburger, I would have thought, “Yeah, but if you only had this burger, you would be changing your tune.” \u00a0My taste buds have taught me so much about not buying into something just because it is popular and easy.<\/p>\n
Steve and I discussed the matter in the car on the way home. \u00a0I felt as though I would vomit, and he, after loosing 20 pounds, gained 2 inches in his waistline in one meal. \u00a0We thought about how much money we were saving by not eating junk, and how much money it would cost us to get a quality meal if we were to go out to eat.<\/p>\n
From one recovering junk food enthusiast, I challenge you to take on this diet we were on. \u00a0I challenge you to learn a new way to eat. \u00a0There is no room in our bodies for lies and much room in our bodies for truth. \u00a0Don’t buy in to the lie. \u00a0The truth tastes so much better!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“When I finish this book, we are going on this diet” said my well-meaning husband. \u00a0The book was by Dr. Asa Andrew. \u00a0The diet: \u00a0no wheat, no dairy. \u00a0How long? \u00a04 weeks. \u00a0My first thought? \u00a0“You have to be kidding me. \u00a0What are we going to eat?” The diet not only excluded wheat and dairy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet","category-family","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autumncalvert.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}