Breakfast: The day began with what had become my standard GF breakfast, beans on toast which proved to be just as filling and delicious with gluten free bread. Accompanied by a soy latte and some Dirt Music :)
Lunch: This ended up being a very late lunch as I was out running errands for most of the afternoon. Luckily my rice cake-raw veg snack platter can be assembled in seconds!
Dinner: As we were having a guest for dinner I decided to make a dish that is both homely and comforting but very easy to switch the sophistication levels up a notch - risotto. I have a renewed love and appreciation for rice after the challenge. I'd also been doing a bit of reading about digestion and liver cleansing, and decided to feature some vegetables in the risotto that are very good for the liver. Hence, I present to you a recipe of my own concoction, an artichoke, rocket and chicory risotto:
Topped off with some basil and a tiny bit of mature organic cheese, it was a lovely summery tasting dish too. I did not negate the liver cleansing by drinking too much - just the one glass of sauv blanc :)
Day 5 highlight: I really enjoyed dinner, but I also really enjoyed putting lunch together really quickly. If you have what you need on hand it's very easy to eat this way - I think that would apply to eating healthily as a whole :)
Day 5 challenge: The only thing that springs to mind is more crumbled bread at breakfast before I finally salvaged two whole pieces! I put the crumbled pieces aside to make into breadcrumbs later.
Challenge sum up: As I said in the video, this whole challenge really surprised me with how easy it was. The only thing I can see being an issue, which is why I'm glad and grateful that I don't have to eat a gluten free diet for medical reasons, is eating out but I even managed to find a local country pub in our area that did gluten free options for pretty much everything on the menu, so even that seems very manageable, just with a bit of forward thinking and preparation. I think more and more places are catching on and since taking part in the challenge I've noticed the gluten free options everywhere I've gone and there have been far more than I thought there would be.
As I alluded to in the video, there have been a few aspects of my own digestive health that improved out of sight last week. In fact, it was only once I realised how different I felt that I realised how I must have been feeling before....if that makes sense. I've been doing a bit of research about digestive health and have come to the conclusion that this way of eating is probably going to be beneficial for me for the long term. It's possible that my stomach acid levels are quite low, and hence an overload of gluten or anything difficult to digest in the system will hang around for a while. While my dairy free eating did me the world of good at the beginning of the year, I've started eating yoghurt again and I've noticed the difference, from a digestion point of view! I plan to talk to my doctor about my findings and see if there's anything else I might need to keep in mind, but overall I can't deny just how much better I feel after only a week of eating this way. Everything just feels like it's been cleaned out, as it were.
I have also been drinking a lot of green tea recently, which is excellent for detoxifying the body and the liver. Perhaps I can attribute some of my increased feelings of well-being to that? :)
Overall, I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised by the challenge - both the ease of finding foods to eat that fitted into my lifestyle, my tastes and preferences and how energetic and revitalised I felt. As I've said in a few of the videos, I realise I am in the very fortunate position of being able to pursue gluten free eating as part of a healthy lifestyle as opposed to something that is medically necessary, but I did not expect going gluten free to have such a profound positive physical effect on me, which suggests that perhaps I do have a slight sensitivity after all. Either way, it's definitely made me more mindful which can only be a good thing!!
The challenge made me aware that there are so many gluten free alternatives available which is wonderful but I think it's important to note that there are many foods and dishes out there that are naturally gluten-free, as in they don't need any modification (stir-fries, curries, soups, dishes like shepherds pie, lentil bolognese, etc) so while you don't have to miss out on bread, pasta and cakes, the range of foods you can eat is a lot wider than you might think. I worried about not being able to eat my fall-back vegetarian staples like Quorn or the supermarket brand meat-free ranges, because they all have gluten in them. Actually, all I needed to do was pare my eating back to basics and have the pure vegetarian proteins like eggs, tofu, lentils, quinoa, legumes, all of which are gluten-free.
Even though the challenge is officially over, I've kept going. I even bought gluten-free pizza bases in my grocery shop on Friday! I'm not going to keep going 100% hard core, I don't think, but I'm definitely going to be more conscious of how much gluten I do eat and have alternatives where I can. I am a bit of a nutrition nerd and quite enjoy reading labels and learning new things, so even though it's been a pain occasionally (miso soup, for example!) it's been no worse than going vegetarian or dairy free - you still have to read labels! I'll see how I go. It's been an eye-opening week, that's for sure, but heaps of fun!
Please note that the gluten free challenge posts and videos have been about my own personal experiences with going gluten free for one week. If you suspect you may have a gluten intolerance or wheat allergy do go and get it checked out with your doctor.
I hope you enjoyed the Making Sense of Sensitivity challenge as much as I did! And the rice cake rampage is definitely continuing.....
