Last week I ate bread, a lot of bread, I’m a big fan of the stuff. I like grainy, seedy, crusty whole grain bread and I like plain white bread; bread is my friend….bread is my foe. After eating a more than usual amount I felt bloated and consistently full – my gut felt hard and undigested. I swore off bread and all carbs. by the end of the week. As I cleaned up my bread habit I felt good, I could bend and breathe easier and the scale subtracted 1.5 pounds – I’m not overweight, I could lose 5-10 lbs. for more comfort but I’m healthy.

As I went through the weekend eating clean and almost carb-free, not completely, I felt much better than I did last week. As I write to you now I’m putting my thoughts and my nutritional education into action. While I swore off all carbs last week, I know in my heart and mind that carbs are necessary; the right kind of carbs are necessary for nutritional value. Complex-carbs are the carbohydrates we get from vegetables, true whole grains, and fruit. Whole grains is the key word here – our body burns whole grains slowly and evenly like it burns proteins. True whole grains are things like quinoa, barley, farro, millet, sorghum, brown rice, and such; when most people think of whole grains they think of wheat and wheat bread, that’s too simple of a carb, leave it out of your diet.

Beginning a new week with a new foot forward and a new attitude, let’s decide on healthy, whole food meals and smaller portions of everything we eat. Let’s snack on walnuts, pecans, almonds, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, and 1-2 pieces of fruit a day. Choose to drink more water, eat more vegetables, a small amount of true whole grains and portions of protein with each meal whether it’s vegetable proteins or lean animal proteins.

Begin this week with a good intention and follow through reminding yourself every day of your intention, your why and your plan. Plan tomorrow’s foods today and be prepared.

What you feed your body most, it will crave most, feed it well! Happy, healthy living!