Change Your Food
The theme for October is change. Today’s post is about changing your food choices. Thinking about making dietary change can seem impossible if you have no idea what you would buy and eat to replace the foods you want to eliminate.
One of my biggest asks of people is to eliminate grains from their diet. For the first few minutes people seem fine with this then reality sets in and they realize that means no bread. I then have to really explain what no grains means. Yes, no bread but it also means no pasta, no crackers, no cookies, no bagels, no pizza, no cereal (another big one that rocks worlds), no cake, croutons, rice, oatmeal or even quinoa. I didn’t say no gluten, I said no grains which means, even the ‘gluten-free’ grains are out.
The second big ask is NO MORE SUGAR. Grain-free, sugar-free is how I roll. They are equally as important to me but if you’re like most of my clients one resonates more than the other. Some think grains are too hard to give up others think sugar is. Really, they’re the same thing. Your body identifies both as SUGAR.
What To Eat
I will admit, a lot of people tend to push back against the idea of no grains. I do believe the resistance comes from a place of fear. Fear that perhaps they’ll feel constantly hungry. For a lot of people, once the grains are gone there is nothing left in their diet. Tip, if this is you, you are precisely the person that NEEDS to remove grains.
So, what do you eat? The easy answer is vegetables, protein and healthy fats, a little dark chocolate, some nuts and seeds. This tends to calm people down a bit. As soon as I say ‘have bacon and eggs for breakfast instead of cereal’ people start to smile. They like the idea of someone giving the thumbs up to eggs, bacon, steak, chicken with skin, fatty lamb etc…
The euphoria of yummy real food last for a few minutes. Everything is rainbows and butterflies until it isn’t. Those rainbows and butterflies implode as soon as the thought of pizza resurfaces followed quickly by thoughts of bread and dessert. I get it, I too love pizza and cake. What to do???
Quick side note – I want to be clear if you are someone who eats whatever you want and happily maintains a perfect weight, with perfect blood lab markers and enjoys perfect sleep with perfect gut function, I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU. You’re good, keep doing what you’re doing. For the rest of us, yes, eliminating grains and sugar is a good idea. We need to clear the ‘muddy waters’, calm the body down and get a taste of what good feels like. If you’ve been dealing with nagging health issues like excess weight, increased fasting glucose, high triglycerides, IBS, heartburn, headaches, maybe even some depression and anxiety it’s hard to remember what good feels like. Why not give grain-free, sugar-free a try? Wouldn’t you love to feel good or even great?? Read on to find out why it really isn’t that hard.
Wondering if removing sugar from your diet might be a good idea? Take my sugar quiz. Please add your name and email below to recive a downloadable copy of my Sugar Quiz in your email.
Transition Food
An ideal client would be that person who drops the grains and sugars and dives into the veggies, proteins and fats and never looks back. I still haven’t found that client ; )
So, in this not so ideal world of sugar and carb addiction we have to get creative and that amounts to transition foods. How do you still eat pizza without overloading your blood stream with sugar? What about dessert? You can’t possible live the rest of your life without dessert. I agree!
I’ve been living grain-free, sugar-free for a long time. When I say you CAN have whatever you want without a debilitating rise in blood sugar I mean it. I’m not saying you should but you can. WHAT??
If you’re really committed to changing your lifestyle and getting healthy you need to eliminate junk food. Non-nutrient dense, high calorie foods. Making cakes, pies, breads and the like with flour and sugar substitutes can be helpful while transitioning to your new, healthy, real food lifestyle but living on those foods will just keep you stuck in the same place. You may see some positive progress at first but it won’t last. You can’t live healthy on treats and junk.
So, yes, ‘transition’ foods are a great thing. By transition I mean, occasional foods. These foods are going to fill a hole. I want you to enjoy grain-free, sugar-free treats while your body is adjusting to nutrient dense food. If you NEED pizza then please, have pizza but have a grain-free pizza crust. If you know you’re going to need dessert, you can just feel it, then please have dessert but make a grain-free, sugar-free dessert. Have your treat but don’t derail your progress by throwing your blood sugar out of whack.
The How To
Pizza The Old Way – Pizza with a flour crust either frozen from the grocery store or fresh and hot from the take-out pizza place.
Pizza The New Way – make your own!
- Cauliflower Crust – you can make a cauliflower pizza crust or better yet look for a Cali’flour Foods pizza crust. Follow that link to their website and check out the store locator area. Hopefully you’ll find a store near you that carries these pizza crusts (if not you can order online). SO EASY and so yummy. You can also google how to make a cauliflower pizza crust to find a recipe you can follow at home. I will admit, being able to buy pre-made crust is awesome. Buyer beware – if you see a ‘cauliflower’ pizza in the frozen food area at your grocery store READ THE INGREDIENTS. I know Trader Joe’s has one but it’s full of other gluten-free grains (sugar). I also know Whole Foods carries cauliflower crust pizzas – they also have more than cauliflower in the crust. Please read the ingredient list. Grains = sugar.
- FatHead Pizza Dough – this is a very popular dough recipe that you can easily find on the ‘interwebs’. Here’s a recipe. This is actually a really versatile dough. You can use it for a lot of things. I’ve used it to make a baked Philly Cheesesteak Braided sandwich . You can also make crackers and ‘hot pockets’. Get creative. Fathead dough is all about the cheese. If you’re dairy free, this is not a good choice. If you’re trying to cut back on cheese, not a good choice.
- Pork Rind Pizza Crust – You can find my recipe for this individual sized pizza crust here. The one thing I really like about this crust, it’s FILLING. Between the fat and protein from the pork rinds and the fat and protein from the cheese, wowza, you really don’t need more than a small serving.
Flour The Old Way – grain based flour like wheat and rice
Flour The New Way – nuts!
- Almond Flour – It’s typically made with skinless, blanched almonds and easy to find at grocery stores. The recipe below for Almond Cookies is one of my favorites and is a yummy example of using almond flour instead of wheat flour. Another yummy use for almond flour, my Fudgy Avocado Brownies.
- Almond Meal – Not as finely ground as almond flour and may contain almond skins. You can grind your own almond meal in a food processor or buy it at your local grocery store. If I’m buying, I’m going to go for the almond flour over the almond meal.
- Coconut Flour – made from dehydrated coconut. You can make really yummy pancakes with coconut flour
- Ground Pork Rinds – you need to make your own in a food processor.
- Pecan or other Nut Flours – you can grind any nut into flour/meal in a food processor. I would try to stick to the lower carb nuts – pecan, macadamia, brazil nuts which are actually lower in carbs than almonds but the convenience of pre-made almond flour is hard to pass up.
- Seed Flours: Sunflower Seed / Pumpkin Seed – same as above, if you don’t see it in the store you can make your own.
- Psyllium Husk Powder – I tend to use this in combination with some of the other flours above. An example would be my Grain-Free Hamburger Buns.
- Flax Meal Powder – I would use this in combination with other flours, similar to the way I would use psyllium husk powder. It is NOT a substitute for psyllium husk powder. I don’t add breadcrumbs to my meatballs (obviously) but sometime I do add flax meal.
Rice – cauliflower rice which you can make yourself in your food processor or buy pre-riced in most grocery stores.
Sugar Substitutes
- Please read my blog post Sugar-Free Sweeteners
- A great low-carb, grain-free, sugar-free dessert is my Cheesecake. I have two versions of this recipe Regular Cheesecake Recipe and The Video Recipe.
Other Substitutions
- Unsweetened Almond Milk (I love Califia Farms brand) or Coconut Milk (in cans) instead of Cow’s Milk
- Kelp Noodles, Miracle Noodles (Shirataki Pasta), Zoodles (zucchini noodles), Spaghetti Squash instead of traditional pasta. Roasted Spaghetti Squash or Spaghetti Squash in the Pressure Cooker.
- Coconut Aminos instead of Soy Sauce
Dairy Free?
- Lard, Coconut Oil or maybe even Ghee (for some) instead of Butter
- Nut Cheeses or Nutritional Yeast instead of regular cheese
- Coconut Yogurt or Yogurts made from Nut Milks instead of traditional Yogurt
The flour and sugar substitutes are going to make a world of difference. You can find a low-carb/keto recipe for whatever you desire. Have you checked out my Pinterest page? Do I have low-carb/keto recipes for you! I have a keto bread and cracker board, I have a keto dessert board, I have a keto breakfast board, there’s even a Instant Pot Keto board. If you need recipes you’ll find them.
For Now, Not Forever
Let me just reiterate the idea of ‘transition’ foods. These are the foods that will help keep you on track. Yes, eat them, enjoy. Even with these treats your sweet tooth will diminish because you aren’t spiking blood sugar. As your sweet tooth diminishes you’ll typically eat less and less of these treats. Perfect. That doesn’t mean you can’t eat them occasionally, of course you can and you should. If you need dessert or a treat please don’t jump back into the high sugar / high carb foods, it’s a slippery slope. Once that sweet tooth starts humming it’s really hard to reel it back in. Best not to get it humming in the first place and with all the alternative baking options there’s really no reason to.
Almond Cookies
Notes
This recipe is from I Breathe I'm Hungry.com, I love her recipes. The original recipe is for Almond Crescent Cookies.
I prefer little round almond cookies, they remind me of the Italian almonds cookie my mom makes at Christmas. You can do crecents or balls.
I changed the sweetener to Allulose. This is a new sugar-free sweetener for me and I like it. My family, who tend to be sensitive to swerve really like the Allulose, no after taste. Tastes like sugar. You can use any alternative sweetener of your choice.
The other thing that I do differently is the size of the cookies. The original recipe makes 12 cookies. They're a pretty good size so much so that I really like them about half that size hence the 24 count. Two cookies is a serving.
IMPORTANT: Let these cookies cool. When they first come out of the oven they are crumbly. Once cooled, they hold together well and stay soft on the inside.
2 Cookies: 185 calories, 11 fats, 5 proteins and 2.5 net Carbs
Ingredients
- 1 stick of Butter, softened
- 1/2 cup Allulose Sugar-Substitute or Swerve
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Almond Extract
- Pinch of Sea Salt
- 2 Cups of Almond Flour
- 1/3 Cup Sliced Almonds, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- Using a standing mixer or hand mixer, beat the softened butter and sweetener until fluffy.
- Continue to beat the butter-sugar mixture while adding the salt, vanilla and almond extract and continue mixing until well combined.
- While the mixer is running, add the 2 cups of almond flour - I like to add in 1/2 cup scoops
- Continue to beat until the mixture turns into the consistency of stiff cookie dough. This happens quickly.
- Divide the dough into 24 little balls
- Roll each cookie around in the sliced, chopped almonds.
- Place each cookie on a cookie sheet lined with either parchment paper or a non-stick silpat
- Bake for 15 minutes or until browned to your liking
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely before serving. (see notes below)
I hope this blog post took some of the fear out of going sugar free. If you eat well, (nutrient dense, real food) you really won’t feel hungry. If you add in some yummy transition foods when needed you won’t feel deprived and before you know it you’ll start to feel really good.
Be Well
I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!