Wheat-Free…Again

My social calendar for May consists of two professional organization lunches, two graduation parties, one graduation ceremony, Mother’s Day dinner, an office retirement party, an office going away party and one birthday party. In other words, May is the perfect month to give up wheat, don’tyathink?

I wasn’t going to tell you about this until I’d completed 30 days but I want to create some accountability for myself, so here goes. I am once again trying to give up wheat. Let me rephrase that. One day at a time, I am choosing not to eat wheat.

I’ve blogged quite a bit about my wheat allergies and addictions. People must be interested in the topic because my site’s analytics tell me more people find me by using search words “white flour allergy” than by any other search.

I’ve given up wheat in the past only to tell myself “one bite won’t hurt” and succumb. The bite hurt. It hurt in the form of lots of continued wheat consumption due to cravings, lethargy, blue moods, sneezing attacks, allergy eyes and achy joints. It hurt because there was a substance that was controlling me and I didn’t like that.

I guess this spring I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. There was a time when I would have looked at May’s social calendar and decided to wait until June to kick the habit. Then June would come and I’d have another month’s worth of excuses to put off the inevitable withdrawal symptoms I so dreaded. I didn’t want to do that any more.

Today is May 15 and I am 15 days ALMOST wheat free. In the spirit of transparency I must share that I had a fork-full of what I was told was rice, only to discover it was wheat. I was at one of the aforementioned professional lunches and it didn’t seem appropriate to spit it out. Yes, I had a sneezing fit about 30 minutes later. I had the tiniest communion cracker on Sunday. But other than those two instances, no wheat.

I white-knuckled it through the first week of cravings. Now I feel fantastic. I wake up each morning without feeling groggy, my eyes barely water, I don’t have afternoon slumps, brain fog is gone, and my mood feels pretty even.

I’ve been studying behavior modification and I’m using some of the tactics I’ve learned in this wheat-free adventure. I’m so impressed with how they are helping me, I’ll be sharing them with my coaching clients. They’ll work with most any desired change.

I mentioned earlier that I decided to go ahead and write about this as a means to create some accountability. I plan to write a post in early June and give you a full recap of May. I still have quite a few of those social gatherings to attend. I plan to concentrate on the people and the conversations…and the fruit and veggie trays… rather than the wheat.

If anyone wants to join me on this path, I’d love the company.

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