My daily weekday diet has always been a variation on a theme. Cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and then chicken with sauce and rice for dinner. During the day I would snack on cereal bars, chocolate and cake.
Following what I discovered about heartburn being caused by a lack of acid, too much carbs and a relaxed oesophagus muscle I decided to try a change in my diet. At a high level this meant cutting out some carbs, increasing my protein intake and cutting out the crap as much as possible. So breakfast turned into whole wheat cereal and an egg. I completely removed sandwiches from lunch and replaced snacks with healthier alternatives. I exercise about 6 hours per week so it’s important for me not to lose too many carbs and keep my calorie intake up.
The first week of this provided some interesting results. I always thought that eggs gave me heartburn, they don’t, it’s the toast I used to have with them. You don’t have to feel tired and bloated after lunch – again the bread! Only once did I experience heartburn in that first week and that was after eating too much in one go, but since then it’s been fine. I’m at the end of my second week and still no heartburn. I’ve also gradually introduced some treats into my diet but still no bread or crisps. I’ve stuck to very dark chocolate and even made some almond flour based donuts.
I’ve basically taken aspects of the Paleo diet. It’s interesting when you remove a chunk of carbs from your diet it forces you to look for other food to replace the calories and this tends to be more nutritious. The more nutritious food you eat, the better you feel. The better you feel, the more you want to eat well. What a great cycle!
I’m going to stick with this longer and see where it takes me, I’ll keep the blog updated.
Swim Zen 