no wheat, no gluten?

While waiting for summer weather to arrive, I found myself eating more, exercising less. My brain thinks it’s fall, so it sends my body into comfort food craving mode. In other words, a few extra pounds found its way onto my body, so I need to make a few changes. I’m starting with what I eat.

Due to a fast metabolism, that has allowed me to eat whatever I want without gaining weight, I’ve never dieted (please don’t hate). I’ve heard a lot about gluten-free or wheat-free diets in the last few years. So I decided going wheat-free would be a good place to start.

Four days into it, I’m in the trying-to-figure-out-what-to-eat, or not-eat, stage. I’m still finding the whole no-wheat versus no-gluten thing a bit confusing. Is there a difference between the two? I don’t even know if wheat is the reason I’ve put on a few pounds, but I’d rather start with that instead of say, chocolate! I did find a few blogs on the no-wheat/gluten subject ... glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com, heatherstrang.com/wheat-free (Heather lives in Portland), glutenfreegirl.com

Wish me luck. No doubt I’ll be posting a few of the delicious, no-wheat recipes I try here.

Right now I’m enjoying the fresh fruits and veggies of my small backyard garden. Despite it’s rather uncommon blend of ingredients, this smoothie was really good.

Place one peeled, ripe banana into your blender

Add frozen blueberries, spinach leaves, yogurt, protein powder and lowfat milk

Banana, Blueberry, and Spinach Smoothie
Serves 1-2

1 ripe banana
3/4 cup frozen blueberries (you could also use fresh, but I like the icy quality of frozen)
1 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
3/4 cup lowfat milk
1 scoop whey protein powder (optional)

Blend it all up until smooth and creamy.

Trust me, you won’t even taste the spinach!

If anyone has knowledge and/or information about eating wheat-free, please share. I hope you have a happy, safe 4th!