Bread And Butter

Early this week, my sister, Abby, told me about something called, simply, “The Plan.” It’s a system developed by Lyn-Genet Recitas for figuring out which foods really work best with your body and which may be causing inflammation that causes weight gain.
I’ve always been athletic and relatively active. My body has shown that. I’ve been in decent shape most of my life though never really skinny. But for the past couple of years I’ve been working on the computer almost all day long and my body has changed. Not only my body, but my motivation to get up and walk every day let alone do a full-out hour-long workout. As you can imagine, I’ve put on fat and lost muscle.
I’m not very good at dieting as I don’t like to be hungry and I don’t like diet food, it tastes like warm cardboard and upsets my tummy. When Ab told me about The Plan, I thought it would be worthwhile looking into it.
It’s a 20-day program that starts with a three-day detox, to reset your body and get it ready to test different foods and see if your body likes them or not. The detox foods are okay, lots of vegetables and such. You can read all about it on her website: http://lyngenet.com/. I did my research and decided to give it a try.
I’ve been going to a holistic nutritionist, Sandy Waters, (She’s excellent, by the way. Check her out if you really want to get your body working well.) for a couple of years and have a good handle on what foods cause inflammation for me and which ones are most favorable. The trouble I’ve had has actually NOT eating those foods that I know I shouldn’t.
Have you ever had something that you know you shouldn’t do but you keep doing it anyway? Yeah, me too. In my case, it’s anything made from wheat.
I love bread.
Not just any kind of bread, though, I love the kind you get fresh from the bakery with seeds and nuts and I love it when it’s warm, just out of the oven, with butter. I started baking my own bread when I was about 10 years old and I loved it. My father baked his own bread, too. I think mine was better but his was a close second.
Unfortunately for me, most diet plans say no to bread. They also say no to butter. And, again unfortunately, with wheat being one of the highest genetically modified foods, aside from corn, it’s hard to find anything made from modern wheat that my system can actually handle without bloating and inflammation.
This doesn’t mean, however, that I stopped eating it when my nutritionist told me it didn’t’ agree with me. No. Well, let me rephrase that. I did try. I started eating spelt bread and rice crackers. I did well with them for a time but wheat always crept in, whether it was because we were eating out or at a friend’s house, I wasn’t keeping it strictly out of my diet.
Enter “The Plan.” I figure going through this 20 day program, including the detox, will help re-set my eating habits and make it easier to stick with what really works well for my body. Yes, people have lost a lot of weight using this plan and I’m sure I’ll lose weight, too.
The main thing is, I’ll have established a new habit and way of eating and, hopefully, it’ll be easier to stick with what I know is best for me. I already feel a reduction in cravings, which is fantastic, even though I haven’t eaten any wheat products or any meat since Monday. Yes, I am a meat eater. I was vegan for a time and a vegetarian for years but I found that I really needed to add meat back into my diet about five years ago. It’s made a great difference and I’m very glad I made the switch.
If you’re interested in finding out which foods might cause inflammation, there’s a ton of info on out there. Check it out, do your research, then use The Plan to help you find out which foods work for you in particular, as everyone is different physiologically. Wheat might not work for me but your system might be fine with it. Good luck and good eating!

Let me know how it works out for you.