Instead of having meat/sauce and noodles or rice, try having it over veggies instead. Grated or mashed cauliflower makes a good rice substitute.
I like to keep hard boiled eggs and cheese in the fridge for snacks. I also make dips (cheese and creme fraiche is a current favorite) to have with cut up veggies.
I often make soups and stews which are easy to do grain free. I do have the odd baked potato as well, but not every day.
When the weather is warmed meat/cheese salads are lovely but I can't face them this time of year.
My usual days meals are eggs for breakfast (like an omelette with veggies and cheese), soup for lunch and a meat stew or curry for dinner.
How about a chickpea cake to indulge your sweet tooth without gluten (provided your baking powder is gluten free). It is very tasty and easy to make.
Honestly it takes a bit of time to get used to not eating grains regularly (or at all). I find it easiest to plan a weeks meals at a time, that way I have lots of ideas and am not thinking on the fly!

HTH

 

Well, today I'll be having the leftover porkchop from last night for breakfast. I'm allergic to eggs otherwise I'd be having having a piece of crustless quiche or an omelet.

Lunch will depend on my being at work or at home (might have a snowday today). If I'm home I'll probably have soup otherwise it'll be leftover salmon with vegetable medley.

It's my husband's birthday tonight so I need to find out if there's anything special he'd like for dinner before I make plans but stir frys (without the rice, but plenty of veggies) stews, curries, and meat and potato meals are common. I often sub another veggie for the potato or use sweet potato. I like using julienned veggies or even just green beans as a pasta substitute.

Snacks and desserts include fruit, cheese, and baked goods made with nut or bean bases.

It can be a challenge but taking it slow rather then jumping right in might work better for you.

 

We're low grain and lower carb, but definitely not grain free. Pretty much the only grain we eat is bread -- either Ezekiel or whole wheat sourdough, and my DS eats soaked oatmeal.

A meal for us is usually either a piece of meat (roast chicken, bunless hamburgers, grilled fish . . . ), a green vegetable, and either a white vegetable (somehow some roasted fennel or creamed cauliflower, or cauliflower "fried rice" feels like a good potato/rice substitute to me), or a nice big salad. Or it's a bowl of soup or chili (white beans and rutabaga can both make nice potato substitutes), or it's a big salad (e.g. all the taco fixings on a salad instead of a tortilla). I also do "breakfast for dinner" with bacon and hashbrowns made of brussel sprouts in bacon grease, and pizza with portabella mushroom caps for the crust.

I should point out that I'm much more low grain than my child so I might make me mushroom pizza and him whole grain crust pizza, or I might give him a slice of ezekial bread french toast instead of the brussel sprouts hasbrowns. He also takes a sandwich for lunch almost every day.

We keep things on hand for low carb/low grain snacks:

Cheese
Applesauce (not that low carb, but I don't restrict fruit I think it has too many nutrients)
yogurt/kefir
frozen blueberries
carrot sticks
grape tomatoes
meat (a roast chicken to pick at, or a cut up piece of flank or skirt steak).
hummus and veggies
chicken salad (I make mine with chicken, buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing -- yum!) on sliced cucumber rounds.
nuts

For breakfast we do eggs, or yogurt with frozen blueberries.

Good luck!

 

If your naturpath suggested you cut back on gluten, I would guess that means you can have some gluten, just not as much gluten as you have been having?

Do you need to go gluten/grain-free? Or cut back?

I am not sure, but I think quinoa and rice have less gluten, but the women who eat gluten-free would know.

I have just cut back on refined carbs and am trying to limit my servings of carbs due to some blood sugar/weight issues.

For me, I am doing 2 to 3 servings of whole grains per day.

I LOVE me some Italian bread from our grocery's bakery, but that will be a rare treat now.

I guess my personal issues aren't with gluten, but with refined grains.

Since your new diet involves gluten amounts, it will be a little different for you.

Chocolate and breads...my favorite things. I have ALWAYS loved breads...the staff of life.

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Good luck!

 

typical day for me:
meat and stir fry veggies for breakfast (broccoli, peas, carrots)
green juice(celery, beet, lemon, kale)

snack:
nuts, orange

lunch:
leftover stir fry w/ grated cauliflower or just by itself

snack:
seed and nut balls- almond butter, coconut, cocoa nibs, sesame seeds

supper:
roast chicken , corn on the cob and mashed potatoes

Lately I have been indulging in corn tortilla chips for a snack. I feel ok with them and they don't seem to adversely affect me, athough if I get a good nut cracker perfected I would like to drop them.

 

If you're just going gluten free, then there are grains you can have: quinoa, corn, rice, buckwheat, sorghum, etc.

If you're going grain free, then yes, you have to change your thinking. A meat, with 2 veggies, and a fruit. Viola, no grain. We're gluten free (and DS can't do rice, and DD2 can't have corn, and DS and DD2 can't do quinoa) so we are limited on grains and gluten. But we still eat (alot). It's just a different way of thinking. But gluten free isn't that hard if you can still do other grains.

I guess it depends what your intent is: gluten free, grain free, or low carb?

 

It definitely depends on your intent. I've done low carb, I've done grain-free, I've done low-grain. Right now I need to get back to grain-free, since that's when I feel the best.

As for how, the best advice I can give you is to make a commitment to it for 3 weeks. Have clearly defined what the change you're going to make is, and don't allow any cheats for those 3 weeks. Meal plan at least one full week at a time, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, every morsel of food. Get someone to be your support system, whether that's your DP, or your BFF, or someone online, you need someone you can be accountable to. Then get the forbidden foods out of the house. If that's not feasible, designate one spot for them (like a high shelf or a cabinet you don't use), and stick them all there so you don't have to see them every day. And then just do it.

I recommend three weeks because it takes 3 weeks to form a habit. 3 weeks without cheats will allow you to get accustomed to this new way of eating and this new way of thinking. You also have to expect that you'll go through detox in some form, depending on what foods you cut out.

HTH

 

i dont eat grain free by any stretch but i dont eat 'em at every meal, or even every day. try salads with lots of protien (beans, cheese, meat) for lunch or soup, and for dinner replace your starch with a second veggie. i eat slices of cheese on cucumber pieces as a snack... pretend the cuke is a cracker. or hummus and veggies. or a banana and nut butter.

make tacos but replace the tortilla with a crisp lettuce leaf.
bake a spaghetti squash to have with pasta sauce instead of wheat pasta.

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I don't have any goal in mind other than reduction of wheat, but I really couldn't wrap my mind around what that would look like without just substituting other grains. It took me four years to get completely off soda, two years to get almost entirely on to whole grains -- it could take me a while to reduce grain intake.

But at least those changes are permanent.

Even just getting to the point of not having grains (esp wheat) with every meal would be good. I have a high risk of becoming diabetic, and I just don't think basing the diet on grains is all that healthy.

Looks like the key is adding lots more veggies and healthy fats. Thanks! (Feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

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You need to have lots of protein and fat to feel full without the grains. And it takes time for your body to adjust to a lower-carb diet. If you decided to go completely grain free starting tomorrow, and ate tons of protein and fat and low-carb veggies, you'd likely feel very hungry the first few days and probably go through a few days with flu-like symptoms while your body adjusted. I really don't recomend this approach unless you have acute medical needs that must be addressed quickly via an abrupt diet change, or if you have an "all or nothing" kind of personality. For everybody else, I recomend more gradual changes.

I would start by cutting out grains at snacktime, and reducing the portion sizes of grains at mealtimes. Then I'd cut the portions sizes even smaller and/or cut out grains at one meal per day, while keeping grains in the other two. Then cut out grains at a second meal. You can decide at what point you feel you've done enough- you may end up going completely grain free, or be happy having one serving of grains per day. You can make that decision later, when you see how you feel with reduced grains.

I personally find that eating grains/carbs early in the morning leads to cravings for more carbs or the rest of the day, so it makes more sense to have the extra carbs at dinner rather than breakfast. If nothing else, my carby cravings won't last as long (the rest of the day is shorter if the day is half over already.) Plus I find that too many carbs make me sleepy- a much more desirable effect in the evening than in the mornings! Other people have different experiences and prefer carbs earlier in the morning rather than later in the day.