Posted by Amy | Posted in Food, Mind Games | Posted on 05-02-2011
Tags: Fab Girl, Fat Girl, Fit Girl, food, Tasty Treats
“Are you INSANE!?” Fat Girl’s cry of horror reverberates off the walls. “What the hell are we supposed to eat then, huh? ‘Wheat-FREE’? What the hell is wrong with you?” Fit Girl and Fab Girl give each other knowing looks – Brace yourself for a two-year-old style tantrum when Fat Girl starts cussing.
“Look, it’s just for a week OK? Just a week.” placates Fit Girl, as she slides off her spin bike.
Fat Girl snaps her Lay-Z-Boy back to it full upright position. Kind of hard to wag your finger and recline at the same time. “Bread is a staple. Pasta is a staple. S-T-A-P-L-E. That means you’re supposed to eat it every day.” Counting off on her fingers, Fat Girl continues, “They eat pasta every day in Italy. They eat noodles every day in China.”
“Baguettes in Paris!” Fab Girl cheerfully chirps from her chaise.
“Why are you doing this to us!?” Fat Girl faux faints into the fully reclined position. Eyes like laser beams go right to Fit Girl’s core. “Torturer. Witch.”
“Oh, they have croissants in Paris too.” Fab Girl moans dreamily.
“I’m doing this for US OK?” Fit Girl brandishes her own exclamatory finger wag. “You’re fat. You’re not in Paris. And my tummy hurts!”
And with that, Fit Girl, Fat Girl, and Fab Girl all fart in unison to underscore the point in classic sitcom perfection. Cue laugh track.
“Mon dieu!” giggles Fab Girl.
Snapping open her Food Tracker to hide her embarrassment, Fit Girl scans her notes with air of coming doom. “Let’s see what did we eat today? Toast for breakfast. Sandwich for lunch. Pasta for dinner.”
Fat Girl adds “Cake for dessert.”
Fab Girl adds “Mini Bagel for a snack.”
“What!? That’s not on the tracker!” panic one-two-punching Fit Girl. Fat Girl and Fab Girl shrug in response.
“Well, That’s a lot of carbs to digest.” grumbles Fit Girl. “I’m not saying we’ll never have cake again, but this is about balance.” Waving the tracker as Exhibit A. “There’s nothing balanced about this.”
I’m almost done with my Wheat-Free Week. I can’t say that my feelings of health and well-being have skyrocketed as a result of not eating wheat for 6 days, but I have had far fewer tummy issues this week. Going Wheat-Free has brought back an awareness of what’s going in my mouth and that’s a trend that needs to continue. I don’t just pop things in my mouth anymore, I have to stop and think if it has wheat in it. At the salon, they were celebrating someone’s birthday with a glorious chocolate cake. I had a knife poised over it to cut a little sliver for myself when I remembered that cake has wheat in it. I had to stop and consider that food and make a choice about whether or not eating this bite of food was in my best interest. The answer was surprisingly no. Yay me.
This whole journey is about finding a balance in life. A balance in work, in food, it fitness. I don’t think I’m going to continue being wheat-free after this week, but rather make very calculated choices on where I want to indulge. Keeping pasta and more importantly, bread to the realm of “special occasion” food like bacon and fried food, could do me worlds of good. Well, that’s the theory anyway.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Amy, Amy. Amy said: Fit Girl vs. Noodles http://bit.ly/fCfXAD The voice is my head duke it out over Wheat-Free Week. [...]
Great post. Like you, I don’t think wheat is bad but i find that if i decide not to have it for a few days I’m more imaginative with my food choices. It’s not hard to slap something between two slices of bread but making an nteresting lunch without wheat is harder – but usually more rewarding.
I think some informed trial-and-error is the way to go. I haven’t seen going wheat-free as worth my time, but I certainly have experimented with what makes me feel good and what doesn’t by eating strictly according to a pattern for a while and then seeing how I feel. What I have personally learned like that is that I cannot eat a very low-carb diet even while not working out daily. I need at least 400 Cal worth of slow carbs a day or I bonk and I feel like my IQ drops 50 points. Hard to work when your IQ drops 50 points.
I also now know that I feel better eating closer to 20% of calories from fat rather than 30%. And 40%+ makes me feel first weird in a subtle sort of way and then at some point my stomach gets upset. I didn’t bother researching at what percentage that is, I just avoid eating a lot of fat so my stomach won’t be upset. I won’t go into the fiber research. You get the idea
I’m sure those numbers can’t be true for everyone. It would be absurd if they were. The point is, I discovered what works for me by intentionally testing out various dietary ideas and using how *I* feel – not someone else’s book or article – as a go/no go decision gate. If I feel better, I continue. If I don’t, I go back to what I used to eat.