How Many Do Whole Foods Only?

[heathenly]

As a newbie, my friends are nice enough to keep buying me packaged, processed gluten-free stuff, but I'm starting to feel I can live without almost all of it. Everything except pasta, maybe. Do many of you do nothing but whole foods? I can see how it could be done... a little more work, but doable...

[eatmeat4good]

Wow! Good for you!

I found that I have to eat mostly whole foods but it was a bit of an acceptance speech that I had to give myself.

It didn't come that easily to me even when I knew it was best to eat that way.

You seem to be adapting very well!

[Adalaide]

I haven't made the switch, mostly out of pure laziness. I find it far too convenient to have at least some packaged foods. I also could simply never see myself giving up pasta. I like being able to pour a bowl of cereal on the mornings I don't want to cook. Sometimes I just want a hot dog. Mostly though I do find myself eating more or less whole foods. My biggest exception to this rule is my nightly milkshake, I'm just too cheap to pass up the ginormous tub of ice cream with a few unpronounceable chemicals and my strawberry syrup.

[fantasticalice]

Convenience is the enemy! I feel way better w/o packaged food!?

How do I do it? Nuts(I carry them around with me)boiled eggs, chopped meats for lettuce roll-ups(I knew I was

on to something when my co-workers were jealous, while eating their breaded sandwich)lots of small containers

with all kinds of 3-bite foods. Olives.(YUM!) I bake cookies with nut butter, NO FLOUR! I think the gluten-free stuff

is just as bad as the gluten, in a different way.

Read the book "Wheat Belly", he's on you-tube too!

[tom]

I don't always stick to only whole foods anymore but I would've counted pasta & simple cereals as whole when there are very few ingreds. Isn't TJoe gluten-free pasta just rice & water?

[GFreeMO]

I do whole foods only. I eat meat, fruit and veg. The processed things that I do use are coffee, olive oil, salt and pepper. Thats it. It's simple and the only way that I can feel good.

[heathenly]

Hmmmm, I hadn't been thinking of things like oil, salt, pepper, etc. as processed foods. Guess I need to read up!

[bartfull]

Now that I can eat more veggies than I used to, I don't eat much rice anymore. So it's whole foods only EXCEPT for my Blue Bunny All Natural vanilla ice cream. Milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. I suppose I could start making my own ice cream with organic ingredients, but why bother when the Blue Bunny doesn't bother me and it tastes SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD?

[heathenly]

Looking online, I don't see much agreement as to what constitutes "whole food," so I'll just stick as close to unprocessed as I can. Realistically, I'll be using oil and butter and simple seasonings like salt and pepper. And dairy will still be included (cheese, butter, cream).

Also, vodka probably not a whole food...

[tarnalberry]

As a newbie, my friends are nice enough to keep buying me packaged, processed gluten-free stuff, but I'm starting to feel I can live without almost all of it. Everything except pasta, maybe. Do many of you do nothing but whole foods? I can see how it could be done... a little more work, but doable...

Mostly. I cook fairly simple, but my husband doesn't like standard prepackaged stuff, and I'm mostly dairy free too, which takes out lots of items. I buy things like tamari and ketchup (what household with a toddler could be without ketchup!?) and so on, though I usually make my own salad dressings (my husband uses the storebought one ). I buy rice cakes and corn tortillas, because making corn tortillas just takes too long right now. I do sometimes buy gluten-free bread, but not all that often. I do buy pasta too, but we don't eat it as often as we use rice or potatoes or beans or a wide variety of veggies. I buy jams, nut butters, and other things like that which I could make from scratch but, again, don't have the time usually. (I do not, however, buy pasta sauce or chili premade. Those are too easy to make from scratch and I'm too much of a food snob to buy it premade. )

I think there's a REALLY wide variation of how "whole foods" you can go and how much cooking it has to be.

[~**caselynn**~]

I try to stick to whole foods most of the time, I do eat some processed things once in a while, but I feel the best when I stay away. In fact, I've considered going raw vegan, we'll see how determined I am haha

[dilettantesteph]

I do whole foods only. I eat meat, fruit and veg. The processed things that I do use are coffee, olive oil, salt and pepper. Thats it. It's simple and the only way that I can feel good.

Same except for the pepper. I never liked pepper.

It takes some getting used to, but isn't really that hard.

[peacefirst]

I am trying to do that. Actually, the first thing I did was to eat unprocessed for 2 months after my bouts of indigestion,tiredness and it helped somewhat, but then on some days I would still feel awful,and I noticed a funny thing -I was getting thinner in my thighs and buttocks, but my waist was still tight, and then I decided to try gluten free. I am eating this way for a week and feel pretty good, less tired and my belly went back to normal size after about 3 days, which was quite a miracle. I might be still eating small amounts of gluten in my spices and such, but nothing big.

I am definetely not going back to eating refined sugar - it is just not worth it - I like having more even energy and feeling full after small portions of whole foods - I noticed, that I don't need larger dinner now since I am quite satisfied after lunch.

[freeatlast]

Eating only whole foods? I'm thinking that's gonna be me for the next two, three months as I have gained 7 lbs. in the last 6 mos. and my clothes are tight. For a short person, 7 lbs. is probably equal to 20 on a taller version:) Eating whole foods only is the only way I can take it off. No sugar, coffee, wine.

[heathenly]

For a short person, 7 lbs. is probably equal to 20 on a taller version:)

Preaching to the choir. I'm just under 5' tall. My 15 lb weight gain has been devastating.

But cutting out wine?? Don't get carried away!

[freeatlast]

Preaching to the choir. I'm just under 5' tall. My 15 lb weight gain has been devastating.

But cutting out wine?? Don't get carried away!

You'll lose faster with no alcoholic beverages and no coffee. Fortunately, those are easy for me to do without, but it's hard to break the coffee habit in the morning at first. The sugar part is a no-brainer, hehe. Can't do that.

[fantasticalice]

MOMS! Make your own! You can do it, it's really very easy.

Open Original Shared Link

[fantasticalice]

Nobody has to tell me it ain't easy doing it yourself but if you

knew what goes into your food. It takes a LOT of JUNK to keep

this kind of food on the shelf for months & months!!??

You really want to put that into a kids mouth?

[gatita]

I'm eating pretty much all natural foods now too. It's just so much easier and simpler. And after so many months of gastric distress, I'm finding I really like the taste of something simple much more than before -- especially if the food is good to start with, like a real garden tomato. Hitting up the farmers' market and my friends with gardens a lot lately.

I'm very lucky because my housemate mainly eats natural, whole foods anyway so when I went gluten-free he only had to give up his homemade famous garlic bread! (We're going to try it sometime on the gluten-free baguette at my local Whole Foods, but at like $7 for two loaves, I'm in no hurry).

I'm also planning to start the Eat-Clean Diet to lose a few more pounds. Just got the book and cookbook. It's mostly gluten-free anyway but she also has a gluten-free menu plan in the book, which is nice.

I actually feel like I'm eating better than before I had to give up gluten. Fresher,better-tasting stuff. It helps that I love veggies and live in California "produce country."