Can you believe that I have been on this dairy, grain and sugar free lifestyle for almost a year already? I can’t. It seems almost impossible actually. But it’s true, I started just after my birthday last year and despite falling off the wagon quite considerably in Italy, I have pretty much stuck to it hardcore style.
This post is brought to you in conjunction with Faithful To Nature – I’ve been using their site for a couple of months now as it makes this whole healthy journey so much easier.
Funnily enough, the question that I get asked most often (after, “Why would you do that to yourself?!”) is…
What do you eat then?
And I get it. As a person that prided herself in eating burgers and pizzas whenever possible, what even is a life without cheesy pizzas or burgers topped with all the trimmings? And cheesecake. And chocolate. And Nik Naks. Or even just like, a flat white. Yoh, how Cape Town did I just sound. Anyway.
It’s been hard and as you will know if you’ve been around here for any length of time, I have struggled with the change. It’s intense. Mostly because you have to rethink EVERYTHING you put in your mouth because some form of sugar, grain or dairy is literally hiding in anything that hasn’t grown directly from a plant. Even bacon. They put freaking sugar into freaking bacon. I was absolutely gutted when I found out.
What’s changed since cutting out dairy, grain and sugar?
It’s so easy to focus on the hard parts of this journey. How much I long for pizza etc. But the good outweighs the bad exponentially. So here’s the great things that have come with this new lifestyle:
- My skin. Obvs.
- I am the lightest I have been since hitting puberty. Since starting this way of eating I dropped about 6kg and it has stayed off with ease.
- When my kids have been sick, I’ve managed to get out alive without picking up their germs. This is HUGE as I usually get it way worse than them and take longer to recover.
- My um, bowel movements are fairly consistent now.
- So much more energy than I had previously.
So to answer another question that sometimes pops up…
No – I don’t follow a particular diet.
I’m way too fussy for that. There’s no way that I can deal with them telling me that I have to eat a can of dry tuna on top of a bed of kale. It ain’t going to happen. I just make up my own thing as I go along and that meant having to literally start from scratch in how I thought about my food.
You’re not going to get that food is fuel so I literally eat kale for breakfast crap from me. Because although it totally is fuel, it’s so much more than that for me. It’s nostalgia, it’s comfort, it’s a pick up after a tough day, it’s a social gathering and for me, it’s TOTALLY got to be full of flavour. Not the crappy kind of flavour where it literally tastes like you’re eating soil. The good kind.
OK Cool, but answer the question, what do you eat then?
It might help to give you an idea of the bulk food that we eat a lot of and then break that down into individual meals. To be clear we do still eat the following: POTATOES, RICE (trying to make this brown and mixed with quinoa wherever possible), BUTTER (in moderation), ALL VEG, ALL FRUIT and MOST MEATS AND EGGS. I am also not super strict when they are very small trace elements of these forbidden foods hiding inside other foods. So like if wheat is the very last ingredient in something that is predominantly something else I won’t fuss to much. Like if chicken is coated with flour before it’s crumbed with potato or something like that.
A typical day would look like this:
BREAKFAST
I’ve never been a big breakfast eater, but when I do get a chance to make myself something it’s always one of these options:
- Rice cakes with egg/avo/bovril/some kind of nut butter
- A banana and a handful of peanuts and raisins or almonds
- A nutribullet smoothie – this usually consists of two handfuls of baby spinach, a banana then either other fresh fruit or blue berries, vegan protein powders (available on Faithful To Nature here), a combination of cocoa powder and a nut butter.
- On the weekends we have a good old fry up with eggs, fried onions and tomatoes, mushrooms and often a piece of meat.
LUNCH
This is hard because it varies so much depending on how my day is going. Often I go out and grab something but if not I’ll make something at home between taxi-ing the kids around.
- Leftovers from supper. This was a life saver in the beginning as it stopped me going out to find something unhealthy to eat. Making more supper and bringing it to work is so worth it.
- Some kind of salad. Mostly chicken with all the nice bits that make eating salad worthwhile (avo, carrots, tomatoes, onions etc)
- Getting in protein is key for me as I like feeling full. So a chicken friend rice from our local asian takeaway also works.
- I’m a sucker for chips, so if I’m not feeling like a salad I will have steak with chips and veg.
- Sometimes if this is my first meal of the day then I have breakfast options for lunch.
- Rice cakes with healthy mayo and tuna.
SUPPER
This is probably the hardest because now I’m not the only one eating it. And let’s just say that cutting pasta out of our supper routine was devastating to our children. Nevertheless we persevere with these options…
- Curries. Give me all the curries with rice mixed with quinoa. We make it mild for the kids but we’re slowly building it up in heat.
- Bunless burgers with salad.
- Mince in a tomato sauce with the rice/quinoa mix.
- Roast chicken and veg. This is probably my go to option. Chuck everything in a tray, glug some olive oil on it and some spices, chuck it in the oven for an hour and bam, it’s done.
- Soups – butternut with coconut cream, vegetable soups etc. Eaten with rice cakes usually.
- Roast chicken with salad
- Stirfried rice with whatever veg I have in the fridge and some sesame seed oil.
EATING OUT
Eating at home is easy. You generally tend not to buy the things you can’t eat so that you aren’t tempted when you’re feeling weak. But going out for a social gathering is where I find it exceptionally hard to stay on track. So what do I order when we’re out?
- I love a really good fillet steak and I just can’t make it as nicely at home. So I tend to order this when I’m out. With fries, salad or veg depending on my mood. Usually fries.
- Sushi. Although someone once told me that they soak the sushi rice in sugar water but I am refusing to believe that, so therefore it is untrue.
- Salad. So great.
- If the restaurant really has nothing on offer then I just order a burger and take it off the bun. Easy peasy and usually much cheaper than a steak.
SNACKS
My life would quite literally fall apart without snacks. I need to feel like I’m indulging or else I will cheat hard. So very hard. Which means that every now and then, I cheat with something “healthy”. More every now than then to be honest. Here’s what has replaced Nik Naks in my life…
- Woolies lightly salted Hand Cooked Crisps. Sometimes dipped in avo.
- Other crisps but I try not to get the flavoured ones because there is always something hiding in that flavouring.
- Home made date balls.
- Lindt 70% dark chocolate (but only one or two blocks).
DRINKS
Another real problem for me changing to this lifestyle was giving up milk. I LOVED a milky coffee and would actually take half my coffee with milk and only half with actual coffee. I LOVE milk. So when I had to stop taking milk I hated coffee so much that I stopped drinking it altogether. But who can live that way? Instead of trying to go it without, I started drinking it black. It took about a month of only drinking half cups and only proper coffee for me to truly enjoy it again. Which in hindsight was perfect practice for the Italian espressos!
- Black espresso/Americano
- Still water
- Kombucha
- Various teas
- Wine – very rarely now as I’m sure it makes my skin react, so I indulge in a glass only when I’m out at a social gathering every now and then. No more home drinking. It’s hard.
And that about wraps it all up.
Is there anything that I missed here that you still want to ask me?
21 comments
Really enjoyed this post and it came at a good time. I started a very similar change a few weeks back of omitting sugar, grains and dairy and its great to see how you have made it work long term especially with family and kids who may not be eating the same. I was trying to figure out how to make this work with my food choices and not be bored eating the same thing while still feeding toddlers who cover everything in tomato sauce. They actually think the chocolate smoothies (which are delicious) are a punishment if they have to drink it. Anyway great insight and great post!
Hey Steve, welcome to the everything free life 😉 Yeah it’s hard and I know what you mean, my kids had one chocolate smoothie that I accidentally made slightly chunky and now they won’t touch it again. Sigh. I’m so glad that it’s helped a bit going through this post. It’s not an easy change to make but hopefully will be worth it in the end for you (and your kids).
Well done!
Thank you!
Hi, this type of eating is wonderful. I also did it before i got pregnant. Where do you buy the cocolicious powder. Can you please post your date ball recipe. Thank you
Hey Cheree – I got the Cocolisious powder from Faithful To Nature (they have a really wide range of these types of things). I’ll try and get the date ball recipe up the next time that I make them 😉
Thank you for sharing this journey. It is inspirational and so real… I am processing this all and considering this in a massive way – primarily because of my skin, but also because I am totes all for BEING HEALTHY. I am hoping you will share your date ball recipe please “for the sake of the children” 🙂 ? I have one that I use as well, but am keen on your version. I am substituting e.g. sugar for xilitol at present and adding some protein powder, but it still has marie biscuits and rice crispies…
Hey Monique, I know what you mean, it’s a huge adjustment but it might be worth trying for a month or two, checking the results and then seeing if it’s worth continuing? I’ll defs do the dateball recipe the next time I make it. It’s a real winner
So interesting and some useful ideas, Im trying to drop some baby weight (from the first baby 5 years ago!!!) and eat cleaner in general as a family – thanks Cinds 🙂 x
Anytime! Also, YOU CAN DO IT!
My heart goes out to you for giving up wine to that extent. It must be so hard!
Have you tried that Almond Breeze Barista blend of almond milk? You’re apparently able to froth it up so you can have cappucinos? Not sure how true this is or how tasty, but it might give you the fake feeling that your coffee is ‘milky’?? xxx
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Yeah it’s rough! But I have tried the Almond breeze milk – it’s great for the every now and then, but it’s a lot to handle every day. So I treat myself to it every now and then when I’m in a coffee shop that makes them.
I too have started a similar diet although I haven’t omitted dairy, I struggle to live without that. I must admit I find it incredibly hard with a family and kids. Especially when carbs are such a big part of our meal times.
Totally! The family part really makes it a challenge. Because on your own there’s less temptation or complaints
[…] some as we were leaving but I’m not sold on it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been off bread for so long but it didn’t blow my socks off or […]
The hardest part is always starting then it is maintaining which you have done beautifully!
This does make one look at food differently when you are aware of what you are actually eating. I have recently changed to a vegetarian diet and I am having such fun exploring and eating this way. Won’t have it any other way!
Totally – there is such value in being convicted about something and then seeing it through in your every day life.
Glad u did this post i always wondered what you where eating since i saw u had to give up DAIRY, GRAIN OR SUGAR, remember following and reading about it on ur twitter feed glad you manage to stick to it
It’s been really touch but worth it in the long run 🙂
[…] we’ve covered what we eat on this whole dairy, grain and sugar free life, but what about our kids? Do they toe the line […]
Love this post. As a rule, my skin is really good, but I have started to notice (since hitting 30) that my skin really reacts to red wine & sugar. My tummy also doesn’t like pizza & bread. So, you’ve motivated me to remove these from my diet – as far as possible at least! x Thanx for the lovely blog.