Home > Lifestyle > The Evolution of Cheat Day and All You Need To Know About Gluten

The Evolution of Cheat Day and All You Need To Know About Gluten

A little over a year ago I set out to learn all that I could about ancestral health. I read a few books, a million blogs, and spent many hours doing internet research. The Caveman Diet, The Hunter Gather Diet, Paleo, Primal, Anti-inflammatory, Anti-aging– all of these diets  made a lot of sense to me and have at least one thing in common– how our ancestors ate, in turn setting the stage for our genetic make-up.  I created a way of eating, for myself, my family, and anyone else who was interested  based on  the many things that  I learned all based in  ancestral health.  Over the last 16 months I have gained so much knowledge  about how sugar, grains (which includes gluten), and dairy  effect the human body. I put the research to work.  As part of my new  routine, I  was given  one cheat day a week. On this  day I was allowed to eat anything and everything that I wanted after breakfast.   This idea, given to me by Tim Ferris, author of a fantastic book, The Four Hour Body, was brilliant! When you eliminate grains, sugar, and dairy from your diet you quickly also  eliminate most things that we, as Americans, keep as staples in our diets.  Understandably, at first, you feel pretty deprived. That’s where cheat day comes into play.   Knowing that  cheat day is  right around the corner  helps tremendously to  keep you on the straight and narrow. I don’t think I would have been able to get  where I am today without the security blanket of cheat day at the beginning.  Although, I had my doubts–at first I was actually scared of cheat day.  I thought I would ruin my whole week of clean eating in one day.  However, I really believed  in the science that backed the idea of  this awesome day.  In doing many experiments, Tim Ferris  figured out that spiking caloric intake once a week (when sticking to this said plan all other 6 days of the week)  actually boost metabolism through a host of hormonal changes.  I was convinced, so  I set out to eat clean and have my cheat day too. Weeks and  then months went by and big changes happened to my physical and emotional self.  As time continued on,  I stopped wanting those really bad junk foods on cheat day. So,  here I am, 16 months later happily  letting go of my security blanket known as cheat day.  My cheat days used to consist of doughnuts, pizza, hamburgers and fries, ice cream– lots of ice cream! and a slew of whatever else  I could get my hands on. Most of the time, by the end of the day, I was totally sick.  Even so, every week, I went back for more because It was awesome  knowing  that I could do that and seemingly  NOT ruin all  my hard work.  It also allowed me to eat  “normal” around others   and at social gatherings as I transitioned to this new way, even if it was for just one day.  The option was nice. It served its purpose– brilliant! Cheat day  got me through those tough weeks and months  at the beginning of this huge change that if I would not have had I would not be in the excellent health I am in  now. I would not recommend going about this transition any other way, unless you are just a glutton for punishment.  I have now been sugar, grain, and dairy free for about 80% of the last 16 months and it feels better than anything I have ever done for myself.     Oh! how cheat day has evolved.  Here I am, having gluten free hot cereal with an apple in place of doughnuts and ice cream  on “cheat day.” I don’t really care so much  about all that junk food I used to want on cheat days in the past.  I’m over it, my body did what it was supposed to do, it  has adjusted to this clean diet– i just don’t crave those terrible junk foods anymore.  That being said, don’t get it twisted, every blue moon I want pizza and doughnuts and I have been known to indulge, just not on a weekly basis anymore.  Amen!  Now, lets touch on gluten.  It’s super trendy right now to be “gluten free.” I saw a program on the news this morning that was “debunking” the myths on gluten. It did hardly that.   As in usual TV fashion, they  danced around the subject.  Most unsuspecting viewers would have probably walked away with the wrong message. However,  I will say that  the media is starting to report  on  all of this new science, but unfortunately  they are not fully there yet.     The  long story short is that gluten is bad. Why?  It is derived from wheat, barley, and oats in which we, as humans, were not made to digest.  Some people have a severe reaction to gluten, other wise known as an allergy, where as  others show no physical signs of an allergy; but that does not mean it is not harming you.  This is the jist of  what I have learned: Grains, which include wheat,barley and oats, among other bad things cause inflammation levels  to rise in the body which in turn  causes uric acid levels to rise.  Over time, this becomes a breeding ground for cancer, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, gout, and arthritis to name a few.   Over many years of bombarding your system with not only grains ( to include gluten) but  sugar,  and dairy products as well, on a regular basis, keeps your body inflamed and puts you at a higher risk to develop these popular diseases. Food manufacturers are jumping all over this by stocking the grocery store shelves with gluten free foods.  There are a few  problems with most of these foods; they are packaged  processed foods, they are usually  higher in calories than the regular gluten ridden ones, and loaded with carbohydrates.  Carbohydrates affect your body in the same way sugar does; it  causes inflammation, that we are trying to stay   away from, to rise.  My advice is to stick to anti-inflammatory  foods six days a week and allow yourself one cheat  day  with the long term goal in mind to become adjusted and not need that security blanket of cheat day any  longer.  Here are some examples of anti-inflammatory foods: Meat, fish, veggies, nuts and seeds, dark berries, dark beans,  and plain Greek yogurt.  Slow and steady wins the race!

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