Almost One Month Gluten Free. My Diet Has Become Junk Food Binges.

[asickdaddy]

This thursday will be one month, gluten and dairy free.

I just realized I am not getting much vegetables and I seem to have zero desire to eat vegetables.

It seems since I have gone on the diet, I get through most of the day eating healthy stuff, like fruits, nuts, turkey and beans.

Then at night I seem to just crash, I sort of mini binge and crave salty and sweet junk. Like potato chips and snickers bars, sweet iced teas, coca cola, and fatty salty meats like proscuitto.

I think it is the void, the loss of the comfort foods and maybe withdrawal..

At times I feel improvements and better and then at times I feel like I am starving and needing to rush to the store to get junk. I guess Bloodsugar levels are not evenly being maintained.

[ravenwoodglass]

I tend to do this also.

There are a couple of things I started doing after I realized I was doing this. I stopped eating snacks out of the bag as I will mindlessly eat a whole bag of chips while reading or watching TV. I take pretzels, chocolate chips, rasiens and nuts and put them in snack bags to grab when the 'junk food munchies' hit. That way I am at least getting some protein with my salt and carbs.

During the day I cut up fruit and/or veggies and package them and keep them handy and I always keep a bag of tangerines on hand. I grab 3 of those before I go up to bed and eat them while reading or watching TV instead of a Dark Milky Way or a full bag of pretzels.

If you think BS issues are leading to this then do make sure that when you eat a carb you are also eating a protein and try to insure that you are getting enough enough good fats in your diet.

I stopped having sugared soda, I am a Pepsi fiend, in the house and instead go with flavored carbonated water with no sugar or artificial sugars added.

[Elfbaby]

Then at night I seem to just crash, I sort of mini binge and crave salty and sweet junk. Like potato chips and snickers bars, sweet iced teas, coca cola, and fatty salty meats like proscuitto.

I am exactly where you are. Well, almost. Today I am 3 weeks gluten free. I eat well through out the day. I start out healthy, with good cereal and milk and healthy sandwhiches and salads for lunch. Then, for dinner I usually eat a meat, a vegetable and a carb. Right afterwards I feel like binging on junk. Its gotten pretty bad. One night I sat there and finished half a bag of Ranch rice cakes (which are pretty much chips) and then last night, I was jonesing for cookies really bad and so I got up and made a batch of gluten free peanut butter cookies and then ate like, half the batch. I have gained weight on this gluten free "diet" because my will power is like, zero now.

I badly want to fix this, but even now, everybody ate cinnamon apple cake for breakfast and it makes me sad to the point where I want to go an binge on food that I CAN eat.So, I dont really have any suggestions for you but, If anyone else has any suggestions on how to repair the will power (without just telling me to "get over it") it would really be appreciated.

[domesticactivist]

I felt that way a lot at first. Fortunately my partner was really committed, and I had my little boy to think about setting an example for. We also had friends who were aware of our dietary changes. The social pressure helped me stay on track as I got through my withdrawals.

Is there anyone in your life who will act as someone to hold you accountable? Just knowing you'll be checking in with that person every day can make a big difference. If you don't have that person in your irl community, you could use this forum that way.

Another thing that helped for me was that we drew a line in the sand regarding processed foods. It wasn't "OK" just because it was gluten-free. If it came out of a factory, it wasn't food any more as far as we were concerned. If it wasn't food, it wasn't for eating. Going in stores full of that stuff was no longer necessary, either.

Instead of thinking of what we were cutting out, we think of it in terms of what we NEED TO BE EATING each day. Bone broths, cooked vegetables, organic, pastured meats, and home fermented foods were on the list. (Eventually we added fruit and cheeses as well - I have to use extreme moderation with them, and that is, again, posing a problem for me). It wasn't appetizing at first, but now I actually crave soup if I haven't had enough of it. Getting through the sugar withdrawals on this diet totally changed our palates. Our daughter especially used to be all about carbs and nothing else. She was also a vegetarian and would only eat a couple vegetables, and was picky about how they were prepared. Now she eats all sorts of healthy foods!

[GlutenFreeManna]

This thursday will be one month, gluten and dairy free.

I just realized I am not getting much vegetables and I seem to have zero desire to eat vegetables.

It seems since I have gone on the diet, I get through most of the day eating healthy stuff, like fruits, nuts, turkey and beans.

Then at night I seem to just crash, I sort of mini binge and crave salty and sweet junk. Like potato chips and snickers bars, sweet iced teas, coca cola, and fatty salty meats like proscuitto.

I think it is the void, the loss of the comfort foods and maybe withdrawal..

At times I feel improvements and better and then at times I feel like I am starving and needing to rush to the store to get junk. I guess Bloodsugar levels are not evenly being maintained.

I go through cycles where I have this problem. I have found for me it helps if I make a rule that I must eat a balance meal BEFORE I have a snack. Most of the time that works and I don't want a snack anymore. If I do still wnat a snack then I do portion control and put some in a bowl like Raven suggested. I would be lying, however, if I didn't admit there are days when I have a bowl of popcorn for lunch. Some days thats all I feel like eating/making. There are also other days however when I just have no desire for food at all. If it were not for my husband doing this with me when at home (everythign I cook at home is gluten-free but he eats gluten at restaruants/parties) I would probably rarely make entire meals. I notice a lot of your foods seem to be conveinence and not really cooked meals. Is your family still eating seperate gluten-laden meals? While they don't need to go 100% gluten-free for you it could help if you could get them to make more meals that are naturally gluten-free--things like chili, tacos, soups, potatoes, stir-fried veggies and meat over rice, etc. If my spouse were still eating gluten food in the house I KNOW I would have trouble not pigging out more on the few things I CAN eat to compensate for him eating stuff I can't have. If this is your problem in any way you really should talk with your family about it. You may want to direct your wife (I think you said you were married in another post, correct?) to the blog: Open Original Shared Link She makes a lot of "normal" meals and everything is gluten-free. If your family won't cook meals that you can have with them then perhaps it would help you to learn to cook a bigger variety of meals you can eat.

[asickdaddy]

I am doing good with cooking and buying healthy non processed stuff. I mean even my binges are not really processed crap except for the recent snickers bars and coca cola. I buy organic kettle cooked chips, everything else is very healthy its just these sugar and salt evening cravings that i can't escape. I know I know I need to have a little will power but I am sort of rewarding myself for the days efforts at night, with junk.

I will break through this. My wife and kids, unless they start getting ill I highly doubt they will do gluten and dairy free, especially my wife who is from rome italy. She practically lives on bread and cheese. Fortunately I am not tempted or craving and she certainly doesn't mess with or CC me, but I am on my own on this one for sure. She does pick me up smoothies and gluten free items so she is great about it, but she will never join in. She is also pregnant at the moment so there is no pushing or prodding her to join me for sympathetic reasons, lol.

I have done the gluten free before. The last time I craved bear and drank a ton of redbridge. This time redbridge is yuck to me and I crave salty meats and sugary snacks. Its a hump, I will find my way through it.. fortunately I am not gaining weight, nor losing any. I am just stable.

[eatmeat4good]

I went through the Snickers and Coke in the evenings Phase. I just decided it was OK with me for a while...and it was OK. Later when I felt better, I made a rule that I have to eat a whole bag of frozen vegetables (or equivalent) and 3 servings of meat per day in order to "earn" my Snickers.

Think I was not eating enough food and this way, I was mainly filling up on nutritious food and then really full when I went for the Snickers. It really helped...some days don't even want them now. Had to teach myself how to eat aAgain. Craving fats now....butter on everything. wow... Not gaining, so I guess it's ok.

[Takala]

Try taking a gluten free vitamin B complex, multivitamin, and calcium and magnesium. Cravings can be caused by vitamin/mineral imbalances as the body attempts to regulate these things in the blood.

Also, try adding more good fats to your diet, such as coconut milk, olive oil, avocados. Fat is a slow burning fuel. You didn't mention eggs, if you can eat them, having hard boiled eggs in the fridge is a better snack than junk food. What about peanut butter ?

The candy is spiking you up, blood sugar wise, and then making you crash again and again.... my 'candy rule' is that candy must be real chocolate and not a lot of sugars, and it should be accompanied by some nuts and a glass of water.

Pick a time of day to eat the cup of vegetables you are going to add to your daily diet and Just Do It. It doesn't have to be dinner. To the vegetables, to make them more tasty, you can add a sprinkle of olive oil and lemon, balsamic vinegar, or gluten free mayo (they also make soy free mayo if you are avoiding that). You can also try being generous with the cinnamon sprinkled on things like sliced fruit and even things like canned pumpkin or broccoli. Cinnamon helps regulate blood sugars.

Canned pumpkin is this amazing stuff that is another sneaky way to add The Vegetable. Not only can it be mixed with coconut milk and agave or honey or artificial sweetener and heated up for a snack, it can be used in chile and soups and stews as a thickener.

If you are eating a lot of rice/tapioca type gluten free baked goods or sugary cereals, you may want to experiment with other types of carbohydrates that are higher protein and denser nutritionally - you are on the right track with beans. You can experiment with using other kinds of gluten free flours or meals such as nut meals or amaranth, buckwheat, teff, quinoa, sorghum, bean flours, etc and make yourself a skillet flatbread with olive oil- these are going to take a lot longer to digest than the rice type things.

[Judy3]

I go through this too. Not as often as I did at first but still enough that I think to myself "What are you doing?" For instance, over the weekend I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chips cookies. This was the first time they turned out perfect and I think my brain went into overdrive. I couldn't stop eating them yesterday... My non gluten free son liked them so he ate the rest. I had to pretend they were regular cookies so I didn't binge on them again!!

I've been gluten free 6 months and this weekend I craved everything I can no longer have. Don't know why, don't know what triggered it, but it seems to have passed finally. Now that I think of it, I'm sure that was the reason for the cookie binge because I remember saying to my son earlier in the long weekend that everything I can no longer have seems to be calling my name. KFC, Burger King, Pizza and I know there are gluten free substitutes for these things but I didn't want those!!!

So it's Tuesday AM and I'm having coffee getting ready to go to work and I'm not craving anything.. lol so hopefully it has subsided.

Whew!! What a long weekend fighting demons!! Have a good week everyone