Initial afterthoughts

Since going wheat free last month, I'm pleased to say that I've (thus far) lost a total of 11lbs! Hurrah! However, rather annoyingly, I've only dropped about 1 to 1.5 inches from my waist. I suspect this is due to he initial big drop in weight coming from 'water retention.' I've been reading about this in number of publications that promote low carb eating. There are a number of other unpleasant side effects too, which I'll go into later.

This new lifestyle has now morphed into a rather obsessive health quest. As I mentioned in my first post, I've had some health issues since the birth of my son (Jan 12) and these are things I am keen to start trying to correct, if that's indeed possible with changes to diet / lifestyle. These include joint pain and stiffness, weight gain (although this is longer term, perhaps 5-6 years of increasing weight gain, particularly on the waist), skin issues as well as a diagnosis of Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which I was given in 2009. I've also had recurrent bouts of extreme fatigue, which can make the normal day to day life of bringing up a very active 7 month old pretty challenging!

So, my wheat-free plans have evolved somewhat. In order to explain this clearly, below I'll list some notes for 'pre and post' diet/lifestyle changes.

Pre change
- mainly vegetarian diet with a little fish once in a while (twice a month maybe).
- quite a high degree of carbs in diet, lots of toast / bread for breakfast and lunch, plus crackers, fruit juices (watered down), lots of carby beans and rice with main dinner meal.
- most of protein / fat came from cheese, dairy, beans, tofu, lentils (I.e. no meat and very little fish).
- lots of veg, including a high quantity of potatoes (new, mashed etc..)
- some smaller quantities of packaged/processed foods like veggie sausages, burgers, gravies, sauces, corn chips, crisps and some alcohol (cider or wine usually).
- I was (still am) taking Fish Oil supplements and intermittently taking Vit B12 as a booster due to no meat etc

Post change
- upped fish intake quite considerably, trying to eat it for breakfast (smoked salmon etc) and for dinner at least 3-4 times a week
- increased egg and tofu intake quite considerably
- increased cheese intake (all kinds of cheese, although trying to focus on the fresher/younger cheeses like cream cheese, mozzarella etc)
- eating more nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado, mayonnaise, butter, cream, olive oil
- drinking less black milky tea, having more green/herb teas and water
- cut out wheat completely
- cut out or vastly reduced most other carbs; cereal grains, sugar, white potatoes, honey, syrups, desserts, cakes, biscuits etc
- cut out processed / packaged meals/ snacks about 95-99% of time (literally having the odd few corn chips or gluten free crisps with a bit of hummus etc)
- reduced alcohol overall, maybe having a drink once a week/fortnight
- allowing myself the odd treat meal / takeaway, usually sushi/sashimi (using tamari instead of standard soy sauce as its wheat free)