Experiment: No Flour, No Sugar

Lately, I've been kicking around the idea of trying something different in our "food lifestyle".  I use the term food lifestyle instead of diet because of the negative connotations of "going on a diet."  We are not going on a diet but rather I will be eliminating certain unnecessary and unhealthful portions to the way we eat.  Actually, this isn't even a completely new concept.

Several years ago (before we had children and I had time to think about such vanities as my waistline) I eliminated "white" from my diet.  This meant that I ate little to no white flour, white sugar, white rice or white potatoes.  This was also during my running days and I would frequently run 8-15 miles every Saturday morning at 6am.  Driven? yes.  Crazy? At least a little.  But it's the crazy people of the world that keep life interesting, right? (As long as you're not directly related to too many crazies- unfortunately I come from a long line of crazies and come by it natural).

Anyways, here's my plan:  For 30 days I will essentially eliminate all "white" from my diet.  This includes the obvious culprits such as sugary sodas, cakes and snacks but also the less so obvious such as flour tortillas as well as the hard to avoid variety such as white rice and potatoes. 

I found a health food store near our apartment that sells wonderful whole-grain goodness in the form of whole-wheat flour, whole-wheat tortillas (haven't tried them yet, hope they are good), and organic brown rice. 

This is a new experiment on an old food lifestyle and I'm curious to see what effect this will have on my waistline (which seems to be ever increasing with children and age) and my triglycerides level which also seems to be ever increasing.

In addition to this new food lifestyle, I will be maintaining my current exercise pattern of running at least 3 miles three times per week, yoga once per week and an additional cardio/ab workout once or twice per week.

Today is Day One and here's the rundown on the grub:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup Oatmeal with raisins sweetened with honey and just a little salt, 1 cup milk.

Lunch:
4" Subway whole wheat sandwich (Ava ate my other 2"), Tortilla Chips and Salsa, Banana.  I sure wish I could get baked Lays here.  :(

Snack:
Homemade applesauce sweetened with just a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon

Dinner:
Mediterranean Chicken (You can find this recipe on my other blog at www.intentionallyliving.blogspot.com), 1/2 cup Brown Rice and a yummy glass of unsweetened Lipton iced tea.

Exercise:
Run 3 miles (twice around the park by our house)

I can't promise to update this everyday but I will definitely share milestones a few times per week.