Going without

When I decided to "go primal" this summer I knew I needed to cut a lot of things out of my diet. Mostly grains, beans, vegetable oils, and really anything that was too carb-y. I thought I would really miss most of these things, especially bread. I have always loved bread. And rice. Rice has been one of my favorite foods for a while now, and I usually ate it a few times a week. I have also become very fond of beans over the last few years, and wasn't looking forward to doing without those either. None of these were that hard for me though. I pretty much just stopped cooking starch with my meals and began eating salads for lunch. I'll still eat a little bread or rice if I go out, but that doesn't happen often. And when I do eat grain products (especially wheat) I usually feel gross and bloated afterwards so it isn't that hard to avoid them.

What has been hard to give up, however, are my drinks. I have always loved citrus juice. I drank a lot of lemonade and orange juice growing up (I did live in Florida after all) and had become accustomed to my glass of grapefruit juice in the mornings. Even though grapefruit juice is considered relatively healthy by a lot of people, I decided to give it up. One glass has 22 carbs! I'm trying to stick to around 75 grams of carbohydrates a day and I couldn't justify drinking 22 of them every morning. Anyway, I've pretty much gotten used to the no juice thing. Whenever I have a strong craving I eat half of a real grapefruit instead.

I'm having more trouble on the alcohol front. I just really love beer and wine. And with a wedding, honeymoon, and college football in the mix the last few months the booze has been pretty hard to avoid. I don't really think it's realistic for me to cut it out completely but I am going to try to switch over from white wine to red wine. It has a lot more antioxidants and it's not quite as easy to throw back so I think this might help. We picked up a bottle of Cote du Rhone last night at the local wine and cheese shop and it was pretty good. Plus it had a pretty label:

I also got a six pack of a beer I'd never seen called Pork Slap Pale Ale. It's brewed in New York, which isn't super far but I'm sure doesn't count as local. I need to find a good Virginia IPA that I like and stick with that I think. Anyway, the cans were cute, they have pigs on them!

What has really been killing me drink wise is Diet Coke. I have always loved Diet Coke and drank more of it than I care to admit. I've known for a while I need to quit, but it is most definitely more easily said than done. I weaned myself off of it for a while back in July and August, but started drinking it again on my honeymoon. And now, I just can't stop. It's embarrassing how easily I feel back into the three a day routine. It doesn't help that my office building has tons of vending machines and they all take a debit card, I don't even have to fish for  change. Anyway, I really need to make another effort to quit. I have some anxiety issues and I know the caffeine isn't doing me any favors. Hopefully I'll have an easier time of it this weekend since my husband will be out of town and I won't be going out to eat with him or getting envious every time he opens a Diet Dr. Pepper, his own soda of choice.