What Happened When I Gave Up Gluten, Dairy, Sugar & Grains for a Month
January is always a good month for diets.
I kicked off the year with a simple plan of attack:
- No gluten, dairy, grains or added sugar
- One glass of wine a night
- 6-7 servings of fruits and veggies a day
I figured there was no better time to start a nutrition reset (yay for postpartum weight loss!), get my energy back and shed some of the 15+ pounds of baby weight that had yet to come off.
The Results
Starting weight: 142 lbs
Ending weight: 138 lbs
Total weight loss: 4 lbs
The Bad
Four pounds. It’s not terrible, but I was expecting more.
If you look at the chart below, I spent the majority of the month fighting for two pounds.
I knew that I’d be retaining extra fluid, thanks to a combination of postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation. But I also assumed that since I’m exclusively breastfeeding and burning an extra 500-700 calories per day, more pounds would come off. Instead, I was constantly RAVENOUS and looking for ways to replenish those calories (my goal of 2200-2400 calories/day factors in activity level and nursing).
It’s not easy for a person of my size to eat 2000+ calories when those calories can’t include bread, pasta, yogurt, sweets and the like. There were days when I couldn’t be satisfied, when I couldn’t bring myself to eat another bite of kale salad or carrots or walnuts. And that’s when I’d reach for the off-limits foods (and wine).
Most days I was perfect with my eating choices, sometimes even operating at a caloric deficit. The “seeming” lack of small wins coupled with my constant fixation on food made it extremely difficult to stay positive and motivated.
In short, the entire month was a struggle and I’m glad it’s over. Fortunately, a lot of really good things came out of it.
The Good
1. I lost inches. While the numbers don’t look so hot, the photos tell a very different story, as do the way my clothes fit. I clearly shed several pounds of fat and gained it back in muscle (I did not track body fat). Yay!
2. I was proactive about my meals. I planned, to the best of my ability, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and it made all the difference in the world.
3. I ate 6 cups of vegetables (almost) every day. I found a lot of creative ways to get my veggies in including lots of smoothies, sautéed spinach or guacamole with breakfast, homemade kale chips, and colorful salads.
4. I’m more energetic. I’m feeling stronger, sharper and more vibrant.
5. I finished! It’s so easy to throw in the towel and give up, especially when you fail and struggle, again and again. I proud of the fact that I always found a way to pick myself up and start over.
What Now
Now, I keep going.
I’ll be tweaking the diet (slowly), ramping up the workouts (enthusiastically), tracking results (meticulously) and listening to my body (obviously).
I hope to continue to reinforce the habits that allow me to eat well 90% of the time. If I can do that, the rest of those pesky pounds will come off… eventually.
Rosanna, this is an awesome study of your month of living paleo-style. I’m just about to start on this exact same type of regimine (doctor’s orders, no less!), so very timely for me. Your photos are the main thing, not the pounds lost. Fascinating that CLEARLY you were gaining muscle the whole time. Would be great to know your body fat % now and at the start. 🙂 Keep it up and thanks for a motivating post!
Thank you. I have to go search for my body fat calipers now because I’m very curious as well. Good luck with your regime!
One I was going full-on Keto (which meant no fruits either, but some dairies were ok), I lost quite a lot.
All-in-all I think my biggest change was avoiding refined sugars and fructose altogether, it was really game changing for me. Nowadays, I reached my ideal weight so I no longer stress too much about it, but usually I won’t have refined sugars more than once a month, I just don’t need it any more.
That said, I think each one of us should test and pick the diet that works best: we’re all different and we all react in our own way to different diets.
Good luck with your tests!
Thanks! I’ve never tried full on Keto. Would like to one day, but since I’m still nursing I can’t go too low on carbs!
Very inspiring! It’s so easy to get hung up on the numbers on the scale, but great that you had results with inches and fat loss which is most important. That and feeling more energetic and stronger is what helps motivate to keep the changes longer term. Keep it up!
This a great case study. You look great BTW and I see a real difference in the photos. I would love to attempt something like this but I have such a sweet tooth and I LOVE bread too. Do you think for a first-timer that it would be best to try a shorter time frame such as as a week?
Thanks Shae. I’m feeling a lot better. You can look at Tim Ferriss’ slow carb diet (https://fourhourworkweek.com/2012/07/12/how-to-lose-100-pounds/) which allows for a weekly cheat day. I also wrote about how to nail a diet on the first try because food cravings are no joke and it’s hard! You can check it out here: https://hackerella.com/how-to-lose-weight/
I love people who are real about their struggles and triumphs. Thank you for being an inspiration and showing us that there is more to the story than lost pounds.
Andrew McDonald
https://www.possessyoursuccess.com
Thank you 🙂
Feeling very inspired – well done. If only the kale salad and walnuts were as appealing as the bagels and biscuits hiding in my cupboard. I will be following your journey
I have to blend kale into a smoothie to eat it. I really don’t like the crunchy texture. Thanks for following along!
Hi Rosanna! I am a gluten addict and have absolutely no willpower! How do you deal with that? Just remove any sign of gluten in the house?
It’s hard, but mostly it comes down to getting rid of all the “bad” food and meticulous meal planning. I wrote about it here: https://hackerella.com/how-to-lose-weight/
Enjoyed reading this, Rosanna! It’s a helpful reminder for me to re-boot a bit.
I gave up gluten for weight loss and was surprised that so many other minor health irritations went away. I was even more surprised that I don’t miss it that much. Dairy, it turns out, is harder for me to give up, but it also helps me feel better.
Ultimately, it’s the sugar craving that’s the hardest to kill. 😉