Commit 2 Fit | Challenge six - It's all apart of life's pageant

So sorry this post is late! Had a super busy weekend - full of food, music and running. WHEW- we are moving on to week six! You are going to replace all white flour/grains (processed flours with WHOLE GRAINS.

Why are we going to do this?
Processed flour (grains) will sabotage your efforts to burn body fat. Whole grains are filling, contain nutrients, and are higher in fiber. So much better for you!

White flour + Eggs + Sugar = fatty thighs, hips and stomach

Be careful this week with labels - it can get very tricky, what we think is 'whole grain' may very well not be or have other ingredients that we are trying to stay away from. For example a bran muffin... has white flour, eggs and sugar. For many of us we are thinking how bad can a bran muffin be?? It's brown and brown is good for you, right? Here's the truth - we want to be successful, we want to get rid of body fat that we don't like, clean out our arteries and BE HEALTHY!

Be a LABEL LOOKER - check labels for 'unbleached' and 'bleached flour'. See the above label for Wheat Thins (I love these crackers!) they look and sound pretty good right? "Wheat Thins crackers harvest five-grain". But look a the ingredient list...the first few ingredients are the unbleached and bleached flour. Also take a look farther down - malt syrup. This adds to the taste but also gives the cracker the nice brown color.

Look for whole grains this week - 100%! There are a lot of products out there that taste so good we are not going to have to sacrifice taste. Here are some more labels to review and a few good products to look for

Stoned Wheat Thins - Again like the Wheat Thins, these 'look' okay but when you read the ingredient list there are two things that stand out Enriched Flour and Partially Hydrogenated oils. This is NOT something that we would want to choose.

Ezekiel 4:9 bread - This would be a great choice and you can find this bread in the health food store or health food section in the cold storage.

Brown Rice Spaghetti noodles - good choice! I have slowly switched all of our pastas over to brown rice or whole wheat.

Honey Whole Wheat bread mix - Sounds good right? Remember to always read the labels and my rule of thumb - the shorter the list and if I can pronounce everything on it, most likely it's going to be a good choice!

Make it Happen

Start by throwing out all processed flour products (muffins, crackers, bread, white pasta, chips, tortillas, white rice)
Choose whole grains, preferably those foods made from brown rice and whole oats.
Corn products made without additional processed flours are okay (i.e., corn tortillas)
READ labels!
Skip any bread and croutons served at a restaurant...even if it's 'brown', this doesn't mean it is whole wheat. Molasses is used to create color. Wheat sprinkled into white flour isn't a whole grain.
Remember, starches are fuel, and aren't the only carbohydrate source. Fruit is a great option for your carbohydrate sources.

GLUTEN - There are many of us that are gluten intolerant and don't even know it! Seven out of ten people are adversely affected by gluten. If you want to find out if you are sensitive to wheat and other sources of gluten TAKE IT OUT and choose only rice and oats (and gluten free products) and re-introduce wheat gluten after 4 to 6 weeks. Watch for the return of symptoms. There is a difference between gluten intolerance and celiac disease. Here are some symptoms of gluten intolerance: