Tip for managing cravings on a gluten-free diet

I have heard for many years that breakfast was the most important meal of the day but I never really believed it. When you have a massive change in diet (like going gluten-free) and/or you are dramatically cutting down on the number of calories that you are targeting for daily intake, it becomes very clear how important that meal is.

Having a good start with a healthy, balanced breakfast is critical to getting the blood sugar levels on the right path for the day. One of the tips that Dr. Mehmet Oz has in his book, Your Diet and You, is the concept of eating two of the same meals every day and then only varying the third. I have a variation on that which I use for breakfast. Here it is:

Day 1:

Cheese and Mushroom omelette
side of ham
black beans

Day 2:

Two eggs scrambled with cheese
side of bacon
black beans

Day 3:

Two eggs over medium
side of ham
black beans

I then rotate back to the top of the list. This is hugely helpful for getting your day started right. I then do a small snack (equal carbs and protein) at about 10:30am to set me up for lunch.

On the few days that I have not followed this menu routine I have noticed a MAJOR difference in my ability to make it through the day. Just a thought.

 

Great site to help log and track your eating and exercise

I found a fantastic site for tracking what you eat and your exercise level. It has tools that let you select the food by brand or type and calculates the estimated nutritional contribution of each. It also provides you ingredient information so that if you have specific diet needs you can see if the product has the ingredient. They offer a free version and a Gold version.

Here is a screen shot of what you the registration page looks like:

The website is: www.thedailyplate.com.

Definitely worth checking out.

Tags: diet, info

 

Eating Gluten-Free (and generally healthy) at Fast Food Restaurants

Given my schedule I frequently find myself needing a quick meal. Today, for example, I was out by myself doing errands and I realized that it had been five hours since I had last eaten and I needed to get some food. The really good news is that three weeks ago I would have been hungry in two hours. Now it’s more like 4-5 hours. I didn’t have time to go to a sit-down restaurant and I was struggling with what to do. There was a Wendy’s on the corner and I pulled over and typed in ‘Wendy’s Gluten-Free’ on my web-enabled phone. Sure enough, a list of gluten free offerings came up. I pulled in and got a double cheeseburger (no bun) and small side of Chili. Obnoxiously I told the cashier that I had a gluten allergy, but i did it to ensure that they didn’t just pull a bun off of another hamburger and give it to me. The food was good, filling, and inexpensive. I was wondering what other choices there are. Turns out, not much – but here is a link to another article on eating gluten free at fast food places. If you find other good ideas please comment on them here.