Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (29 page)

ARE YOU REALLY TOO SKINNY?
Or are you normal but just look too skinny in a world of overweight and obese people? Don't laugh: It's actually quite common on this lifestyle. Take a look at an old movie from the 1950s, for instance, and notice that Doris Day, Lucille Ball, Spencer Tracy, and everyone else is “skinny,” just like you. They are normal. Many people who believe they are too slender have really just lost perspective because of the peculiar times we live in. And don't believe the people around you who practice the principle of “misery loves company” and might try to convince you that, because you no longer look like them, you are unhealthy or unacceptably thin. You're normal, and you should be proud of it.

DON'T LIMIT CALORIES.
The Wheat Belly approach does not limit calories, fat, or protein. You will not find a single word in
this
book telling you to cut back on calories, even if you have 100 pounds to lose. We don't count points or push the plate away or use smaller plates and bowls, etc. If you feel that you have lost too much weight, eat more avocados, more coconut oil, more fat on your meat or poultry, and more raw nuts. Go back for seconds and ignore all the envious looks.

ADD BACK MUSCLE.
Weight loss is unavoidably a combination of fat loss and muscle loss. If you lose 30 pounds in total weight, 10 pounds of that lost weight is typically muscle. (In my experience, following the Wheat Belly lifestyle results in less muscle loss than with typical diet plans, but it still happens to some degree.) The muscle is easily regained through strength training. Concentrate on rebuilding large muscles, such as your thighs, chest, shoulders, and upper back, for best effect. You don't have to be muscle-bound; just regain lost muscle by devoting 15 to 20 minutes twice per week to some form of strength-training exercises.

Take comfort in the fact that, minus the appetite stimulant in modern wheat and related grains, most people gravitate back toward a healthy weight. Modest adjustments in perception, diet, and exercise might be necessary, but you will not—provided you are eating real, single-ingredient healthy foods and not sweating calories—become emaciated and disappear into a pile of dust.

PINCH YOURSELF

By now, I hope that you begin to understand that so much of what you had come to believe about health and nutrition was really just awful advice, the misguided beliefs of health care practitioners, bad science and misinterpretation, or just plain dishonesty and deceptive marketing. Once you hear the truth, a lot of things begin to make sense, and many missing pieces fall into place. No, you are not overweight due to sloth and gluttony. No, you are not taking multiple prescription medications because of
bad
genes and bad luck. No, you are not feeling awful with pain and swelling while aging rapidly because of some mysterious illness that no doctor has been able to diagnose. No, the ideas of a “balanced diet” and “everything in moderation” and “just a little bit won't hurt” are not recipes for success. But now you know.

I hope that the information you've encountered through the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox has enlightened you, much like shining a bright light into a dark room you were trying to navigate, blind and helpless. You finally are empowered to take back control over so many aspects of health and weight—slender, flexible, happy, pain-free, likely drug-free, and looking like you turned back the clock 10 or more years in the process.

CHAPTER

9

AFTER THE DETOX: GRAIN-FREE AND REBORN

By now, you have reorganized your kitchen to be confidently grain-free; shopped, cooked, and eaten your way through the menu plan; added the essential nutritional supplements and prebiotic fibers; and are starting to feel really terrific. You may be well on your way to reducing or eliminating prescription drugs or obtaining relief from joint pain, gastrointestinal turmoil, skin rashes, headaches, or other health struggles. Perhaps you've baked a dish or two that have begun converting your family to this new and healthy way of living.

I hope that the changes are becoming so visible and obvious that friends and family are sneaking admiring glances at you, wondering just what you are doing to look so good. Surely you snuck away for a quick tummy-tuck, round of liposuction, and face-lift! But you know better, understanding that it is the detoxification from a potent and ubiquitous dietary disrupter that has permitted your body to undergo changes that are far better and
healthier
than the crude and superficial results achieved through such procedures.

Now it's time to continue what you've started and enjoy your rebirth—I don't believe it is an exaggeration to call it that—taking your new journey of amazing health, performance, and appearance to higher levels that were not possible before your detox experience. It's also time to set the example for others, so that they learn your new health, vigor, and youth were no accident or the handiwork of some skillful plastic surgeon; it was the result of setting diet right.

You have learned that the wheat and grain detoxification process is most certainly not a matter of cutting carbs or calories. The Wheat Belly lifestyle succeeds on such a grand scale because we are detoxifying from a dietary poison. Just as the destructive effects of cigarette smoking can only begin to be reversed by not smoking cigarettes, so the body cannot begin its healing process unless the grains that taste so good but hurt so bad are removed. Wheat and grain elimination, followed by the correction of all residual abnormalities, is in many ways bigger than quitting cigarettes, as it touches such diverse aspects of life and health.

Yes, by eliminating the foods that we are told over and over again should dominate every meal, we experience benefits for health and weight that are unmatched by any weight-loss program, exercise, nutritional supplement, or drug, even outdoing the benefits of such awful practices as inserting a gastric band or undergoing gastric bypass surgery. And, yes, you had to spend a bit more on your grocery bill to restock your kitchen with a new set of ingredients, but think of what you will save by not having to take two, three, or 10 prescription drugs, not having to take anti-inflammatory and pain medications day after day, and not having to be hospitalized and subjected to medical procedures. So I see wonderful things ahead for both your health and financial life, as you will be spared the crippling
health
costs that burden so many people as they age, as a result of eating all those “healthy whole grains.”

Are you also beginning to grasp the magnitude of the blunder we've made as a society in incorporating wheat and grains into the human diet? To make matters worse, agribusiness magnified their destructive health impact by introducing some extreme changes for its own purposes. Then, doubly worse, we are advised that wheat and grains should dominate our diets and be the go-to foods for every meal, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, while food manufacturers packed grains into virtually every processed food. We may not ever get the USDA, other agencies, or Big Food to admit to their enormous mistake, but we don't have to wait for them to own up: We can just take on this dietary correction ourselves and enjoy the tremendous health benefits that follow.

I truly mean it when I say that, after you complete this 10-day detoxification process, you will begin to think about your life as “before Wheat Belly” and the “rebirth after Wheat Belly.” I am often astounded at just how much misery people endure for decades until they discover that the pain, suffering, ceaseless hunger, and “need” for medical care all began with the innocent bagel for breakfast, whole grain sandwich for lunch, or pasta for dinner. But this 10-day experience has begun the process to undo all of it, starting you on a new chapter of life and health.

The detox process was intended to get you started on the right path. Unlike other detoxes that end with whatever detox strategy was involved, this detoxification requires that you stay away from the toxic source—wheat and grains—for a lifetime. For the rebirth of ideal health, I would also encourage you to continue the nutritional supplement program and eating style that you learned about throughout this process.

I'd therefore like to close with a challenge. Now that you have accomplished this entire starting process, I would challenge you
to
continue it for a lifetime. I would like to hear that you have gotten healthier and stronger, that you have achieved your weight-loss goal, and that you have reversed most, if not all, health conditions that you endured during your wheat- and grain-consuming days while shortening the list of medications or eliminating them entirely. I would also like to hear that you look and feel like you haven't looked and felt in decades, serving as an inspiration for people around you who cannot get over your transformation. I want to hear that people cannot believe you are 55 years old because you don't look a day over 35. I challenge you to continue the momentum you've built up in this 10-day process to take your health even further.

Should you desire more support and resources to stay on course, start by engaging in the conversations on the Wheat Belly Facebook page (
facebook.com/OfficialWheatBelly
), where you can relate your detox experience along the way, ask questions, share food and recipe ideas, and post your stories and photos of success. Even as a newcomer, you will learn that everyone loves hearing about new successes or coming to your assistance with help and suggestions. You will see that you are far from alone in this experience; you'll be part of an international movement to take back health and share in a powerful and enlightening lifestyle now followed by people on every continent. Our shared experiences in reversing the crippling effects of conventional advice to eat wheat and grains bind this community together, along with an eagerness to help cultivate this message. By participating in these conversations, you will recognize that you have become part of a large community of people who are enjoying impressive levels of health, day-to-day functioning, and physical performance. You will find it engaging, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining.

If you desire additional recipes, see the
Wheat Belly Cookbook
and
Wheat Belly 30-Minute (or Less!) Cookbook
. And, if you are looking to take health several steps higher, including further
undoing
complex health conditions or further trimming your reliance on medications, as well as gaining better understanding about a wealth of other health issues, see
Wheat Belly Total Health
.

Imagine your children and your children's children learning about this message of empowerment early in life—and being spared all the weight and health problems that you have suffered for decades, not having to submit to medical testing, not needing all the prescription drugs, and not having to endure all manner of symptoms as you may have done for many years. I hope that you use the lessons learned through this detox process as the launching pad to bring change to your own life over many more years, as well as to the lives around you.

Now go have some cheesecake!

APPENDIX
A

Wheat Belly Detox Shopping List

If you were
to equip your kitchen with just about everything you needed to create the recipes in the Wheat Belly 10-Day Detox Menu Plan, as well as other dishes that fit into a Wheat Belly lifestyle, this is what it would contain. I would not advise you to use this as an actual shopping list, however, as not all ingredients are used in the 10-Day Menu Plan; they are included more as a reference to determine whether an ingredient fits into this lifestyle or not.

Your shopping list, the one you actually bring with you to the grocery store as you proceed through the detox, is best compiled on the day(s) when or immediately preceding the day you will actually make the dishes, to ensure freshness of your ingredients. The day-by-day shopping list follows this more comprehensive list.

Almond milk, unsweetened

Baking powder (aluminum-free)

Baking soda

Cauliflower

Cheeses (preferably full-fat, organic)

Chia seeds

Chocolate—100% chocolate, 85% cacao or greater

Chocolate chips, dark

Cocoa powder, unsweetened

Coconut,
shredded and unsweetened; coconut flakes

Coconut flour

Coconut milk—canned for thickness; carton for drinking

Dried fruit, unsweetened

Extracts—natural almond, coconut, vanilla, and peppermint

Flaxseeds, preferably ground golden

Ground nut meals—ground almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts