So for the past three weeks, going on a month, I cut gluten and dairy from my diet to see how my body reacted. And she is freakin’ thriving right now, let me tell you.
The backstory:
If you don’t know, I have PCOS, which is a female hormonal disorder that causes a crazy imbalance of hormones in your body. Not every female body reacts differently to it so we all have different encounters with our symptoms
Two of my main symptoms that I experience the most with my PCOS are insulin resistance and hormonal acne.
When it started to get warmer here in Texas, I had a little bit of a breakdown. I honestly put off trying on my favorite clothes from last summer because I was scared of the reality that my body changed over the last couple seasons and I was going to have to make another Plato’s Closet trip to get rid of these clothes because I was going to have to go out and buy new ones to fit my body changes.
In that moment, I started to reflect over the past couple of months to January and just realized how poorly I was treating my body. Ordering food way too often, making excuses to not exercise, and eating something I know did not make my body feel good were my the culprits.
I just realized that as much as I was trying to be happy with those things, the more unhappy it was making me.
And I wasn’t upset that I “gained weight” I was just so unhappy that because I neglected to take care of my mental health and my physical health for so long that it made me feel so uncomfortable in my own skin.
After a few weeks of tracking macros, eating clean, meditation, daily prayer/devotionals, and regularly working out, nothing was changing. I didn’t feel better about myself, I was still finding excuses to sit around or feel bad for myself in some way shape or form I had my breakdown pt. 2.
Why wasn’t I feeling better? Why wasn’t doing things that are supposed to make you happy and healthy not making me feel happy and healthy?
So I started doing a bunch more digging and decided to alter my diet by taking out gluten and dairy, which has shown to be one of the top aids to regulating PCOS hormones, namely, my insulin resistance.
And it went like…
How I started gluten/dairy free:
I went to my fridge and pantry and looked at the things I knew had gluten and dairy in them that were staples in my day to day diet:
- Dave’s Killer bread
- Dave’s Killer everything bagels (ugh, rip)
- Whole wheat tortillas
- Whole wheat pasta
- ~Lite~ Hidden Valley ranch (also rip)
- Parmesan cheese
- Cream cheese
Then I popped on the internet and searched “what has gluten in it” because I deadass was super unsure about what has gluten in it.
Like, to me, I was thinking that gluten = carbs. NOT TRUE. I can have carbs, I can have lots of carbs. Turns out gluten is in all of the processed refined carbs that are ~bad~ for you.
Which, thank God, because I love jasmine rice.
So I did a little research on the best gluten free alternatives to some of those things I have in my day to day life and started replacing my bread with gluten free bread, pasta, tortillas, etc.
As for dairy, she was just totally cut. I did not make any replacements for dairy because of one simple reason: I CANNOT FIND DAIRY FREE SUBSTITUTES IN ANY TEXAS GROCERY STORE. Yeah, super irritating.
Is it hard?
A couple days before I started, in my head, I made it seem like it was going to be impossible, thinking that the substitutes were going to suck, and that I was going to crave my Dave’s Killer Bread at all times.
Wronggggggg.
Guys, switching to gluten/dairy free was so freakin’ easy. I thoroughly enjoy my gluten free pasta and my gluten free avocado toast just fine.
While, daily, it is easy to make this switch, BUT I’ve found that gluten free things tend to be higher in carbs a lot of the times and higher in price.
But if you are mindful of the things you’re spending and of your macro intake, you will survive I swear. I’ve tracked macros on and off for a while anyway so it isn’t hard for me to manage that.
Money, no I am not good at managing that. But one thing at a time people.
What it did to my body:
Ditching gluten and dairy did exactly what I wanted (so far), here is that list:
- More energy
- Mental clarity
- SO MUCH HAPPIER
- Literally am never bloated anymore (unless I eat lots of salt)
- My skin. My SKIN is almost cleared & more glowy
- Lost (still losing) fat – 1 inch off of my waist and 1.5 inches off of my hips (in only three freaking weeks)
This is a big list for just 3 weeks. It honestly just put into perspective for me how different everyone’s bodies are and making changes and being consistent enough will make you FEEL SO MUCH BETTER.
Am I going to make this a permanent change?
Damn right I am.
This is the first time that I have been happy and excited to be a work in progress. Whether that’s losing fat or getting a handle on my mental health or just overall making healthier choices to make my body feel good, I’m excited to continue doing this.
Now that’s not to say that I am going to gluten free and dairy free all day everyday for the rest of my life. I mean, I’m going to eat regular pizza sometimes, I’m going to have beer, I’m going to chow down on lots of pasta and bread on my dream trip to Italy someday, but for the most part, I am making this, as the young people say, a ~lifestyle~ change because turns out, it’s better for me.
As always, if you have any questions for me, hit me up on Instagram and fire away. Suggestions for another blog post trial/review? Let me know there too!
Thanks for stopping by ā
p.s. I didn’t have any photos of my food, so enjoy this picture of me really happy sitting on the tennis court as my cover image š
honestly blonde. 