Bread Challenge!
 

Aaaahhh. Bread. The bane of carb and calorie counters alike.

Anyone else feeling really chained to their bread problem and want to do a bread challenge? One week, then two, then maybe the rest of April without bread, breading, etc? (I can't think of it as just "all of April without bread". That's just a little too daunting...)

Stuff I've been caught eatin':

• Indian garlic flatbread (this is my biggest problem. It's a perfect bed for pretty much everything I eat... you can tear it up and soak up soup... use it as a sturdy fajita wrap...)
• breaded chicken
• wrap ("it's just one... HOW MANY calories??" :x)
• toooooast
• and today... wheat-related... macaroni and cheese D:

I know that if I got this crap out of my diet I could have lost, like, 5-10 more pounds by now. So, join me if you'd like. I'm going to post a daily status report. Expect much whinging and griping. ;)

Eh? What do you think?

I think this sounds like something i really need to do! I'm such a carboholic, though. I honestly don't know if I could go a week without! lmao

Are you counting pastas too, or leaving it strictly to bread?

i also need to get on this!!! bread is definitely my weakness.
especially a thick piece of rye bread toasty warm with butter.... sheessh... im drooling as i type this!!

can i start by having it only once a week?!

I definitely need to get in on this--carbs are kind of ruling my life right now. The thought of going a whole month without bread kind of terrifies me, but I will at least pledge to go one week (4/4-4/10) without any bread/pasta/baked goods!

I will pledge no bread or potatos (by biggest weakness) for the entire month of april. I am not going to look at it as giving these things up but as proving to my self I can be happy without them. I know I can do this (fingers crossed):)

linalin, bellaella: :D It's a goal to set for *you*. If you have a set amount of bread and bread products that you want to incorporate into your diet, I think that can be just as healthy (see: joyfulloser and her pumpkin raisin muffins!) I'm doing a low-carb almost primal diet, so I'm going without, but I don't want to encourage anyone to take up a diet that's unhealthy for them. ;)

linalin, if you have some whole-grain pasta just chillin' in your cupboard, just count your calories/carbs, you're your own best/worst policewoman. Expunging it from my diet is just supposed to get rid of the cravings, for me. It's an addiction, you know? Apparently if you avoid breads, pastas, and other stuff with gluten in it for long enough, you can kick the craving. But I have no problem with other people joining in on the challenge for different reasons, to cut down on the carby intake and so on.

bellaella, I love your piccy :)

GreatPerhaps: That sounds like a fantastic start :)

milliej: I have such a french fry problem... you know, the really gooey soft greasy ones x_x lol, I know I should outright make a commitment to no more of those, too, but idk if I can do it all at once!

Anyone else just feel a honking rage to eat cereal occasionally? I work nights, and I can scavenge free cereal at work... I may have done that a couple mornings ago. :x I also have access to really good homemade granola, it's so hard not to just chomp down on it!

I'm nomming down some Birdseye steamfresh vegetables (broccoli, caulis) right now. Pretty tasteless, imo... but then again, I'm a seasoning ho, so maybe I should rip it open and tap some garam masala in next time :P

I also have some homemade vegetable soup in the fridge... and I'm gonna make some breakfast for dinner (chicken sausage/roasted onions/peppers hash, eggs) in a couple hours. What other tricks do you guys have to make avoiding bread tasty?

:) Ill try this, though that will take like 500 calories out of my diet or so a day....I need to find more food to make other then chicken and tuna sandwiches! :lol: this will give me the kick I need!

I'm in!
I actually made myself a little note this morning before I read this post that says NO breads, pasta, or rice for the month of April. I've been stuck @ 260 for 30+ days... so freakin annoying! Nice to be skipping out on some carbs with a group of people though ;-)

I'm in!!! I have a serious bread addiction! I'm going to allow myself 1 pasta a week.

ok, count me in too. I've been a plateau here and am going a little nuts. :?: I'm going to try calorie counting this week and also am trying to cut back a lot on dairy/carbs so this sounds like a great way to do it! :D

I should do this too!! but what does it intail? just bread? or like oat meal? i love oatmeal.. and bagels. uh oh..

off topic but what is onederland? I see it on a lot of sigs?

haha had the same question so I googled it.. It's when you hit 199 and are out of the 200s! :)

nightwasp thanks!!! i think he is adorable. i wish i could get a pet/dog that looks like him!

i am actually pretty good with no bread although i do admit that i eat starchy veggies like potatoes and yams sometimes. i dont always feel that bread is that nutritional since most of the white breads are processed. but it would be nice to cut it down to only eating natural unprocessed food..it is just a little hard to maintain!

This is funny because its exactly what I've been trying to do with my weightloss lately. No refined carbs. IE: white bread, rice, pasta. I can have a piece of wheat bread first thing in the morning and rolled oats but nothing white unless its cottage cheese or mushrooms.

Everyone -- I'm so glad this interests a lot of people! What I'm thinking for this is daily accountability in the thread. This can also be a place where we can ask each other questions, give NSVs (non-scale victories!) and support each other! Also, griping (I was dead serious about that one...)

redliss ah ah! That is what I should've put -- refined carbs. Yes. That is what I mean. White carbs, anything "refined" (which usually means nutrients are stripped OUT of the food and sugar and coloring are added in), pasta... sounds like you've got it down to a science. Have you made any smashed oat muffins or anything? (here is the recipe I was thinking of: No Flour, No Sugar Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins it still has some splenda in it, but otherwise it's all natural ingredients!)

bellalisa I love sweet potato fries. (Fries... a recurring problem)

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April 3:
I've already had to reject like five different sources of white carb -- and I gave in to one, I'm sorry to say. :\ (Fries. Again... a recurring problem. People offer me food...) I'll just treat it as a last "goodbye!" for April. There'll be no ride if I don't get back on the horse! :P :P

Start weight: 164
Goal weight: 155

Apparently I came back to 3FC at the right time. Last Monday I started a "reduced bread diet" - not sure what else to call it.

Basically I am trying to eat as little, bread, rice, pasta, crackers, etc as possible. I do not want to cut them out all together because that would lead to a major weight gain if I ate them again. So just trying to limit them to 2-3 times a week or something. Not entirely sure yet.

I did have a few this weekend, but scale is still down 4.2 pounds from last Monday when I started. I felt very good last week too. I had some on the weekend though but overall not to bad. To be fair, I have gained - a lot - since my last visit here, so I am sure large part of that was water. This week will be a better indication.

Tonight for dinner I am going to make stuffed peppers, with no rice - to mix things up. I struggled a bit with meat and veggies every night for dinner lol.

okay so i have been so focused on my calories and not eating bread or potatos, I ate bread and did not even realize it. I get the "lunchable" type sandwich kits for my lunch, and becasue I was only focused on the calories of the outside of the box and not the foon in the box, I totally blanked that there was bread. In my food journal it just says "lunch kit 200 cal 4 fat." So I am sitting here enjoying my luch and I realize OMG I am eating bread w/o even realizing it.

I was doing so good! All I had eaten bread wise today was croutons with my salad (only about 10) .. and then my fiance brought home tacos!! ugh but its okay. At least I didnt over do it! I have to do it slowly or I will binge and that will just ruin every thing!

My downfall is a ton of crackers (wheat thins, they're just so good lol) But I definitely want to take part in this. Most of my carbs are oatmeal (every morning I have some for breakfast) and brown rice (usually with my lunch and dinner). I can't cut them out completely but I will definitely try to cut out my snacks like crackers and occasional cookie lol. OH, and these sweet dinner rolls that my grandmother ALWAYS buys lol.

I've been doing this for a while to kickstart my weight loss on my last 15 pounds, but I could definitely use some encouragement throughout this month! Here's what I've been doing:

-Avoiding refined carbs as much as possible.
-If I DO have carbs, they're generally whole grain.
-I 'treat' myself to croutons (homemade with LOTS of garlic...mmm) and 1 lunch w/carbs each week (generally on Wednesdays, which are my difficult days at school).
-Finding really creative carb substitutes!


I've been eating spaghetti squash as a pasta substitute like it's going out of style. It's SO easy, and it's remarkably low-cal! It's easy to make the squash on Sunday and store it in the fridge for the week. When it's mealtime, I just mix some of the squash with marinara sauce and microwave it while I prep a salad. As a veggiesaurus, I used to eat a lot of pasta, but this totally sates my cravings.

Okay... I had a few bites of hash browns today (they were really gross actually) and a packet of oatmeal.. ugh this is hard!!! But its a slow process.

I had a single crouton yesterday (in a salad) before remembering my pledge to go breadless this week...so I didn't eat the rest of them, I just picked them out as I went. :)

This is super hard, though, I agree! Also I'm a college student so I eat in dining halls, and I swear this week every single dish available has had potatoes...sigh.

It's a process!

April 4:
Didn't check in yesterday, I ate half of one of my Indian flatbreads... but NOT a whole one! Still 30g carbs too many but it's going to be the last one for a while!

April 5:
Today I pushed away the delicious moist cornbread muffin in front of me away and just ate my rib tips and green beans and broccoli :P and my eggs and sausage for breakfast, rib tip leftovers and salad for later (I'm a night owl!)

Chalk 1 up for today! :D

GreatPerhaps I totes get it... college dining is so stupid sometimes. :(

dotnsk, I've been dying to do spaghetti squash! Doesn't seem to be in season where I am though :( I presume it's just a summer squash?

Im not TOUCHING bread or Pasta Atm.& it does really help!
The only Potatoes im eating is if my BF has chips & i will have 5 or under!

I do have Carbs for breakie in Branflakes
& i will have Rice if i cook a indian (so once a week)

I dont really miss carbs, My body obvisley cant cope with them.

You can do it, be strong!

So the only carbs I'm eating are brown rice and my oatmeal in the morning. I've been doing pretty well so hopefully I can keep up with it.

No more bread or pasta. My two worst enemies lol.

wow.. i am so not knowledgeable in terms of what is even considered a carb! i totally did not know oatmeal was part of this group.. in that case.. i have been eating oatmeal everyday in the morning!

I have been doing okay. My scale is still down, but I haven't lost nearly as much I did last week. For the most part I am avoiding carbs on a daily basis, but I have allowed myself a couple weeks a week. Tuesday I had pizza and yesterday sushi (bad sushi) - but the scale is still down. :) I have a good weekend planned though, so hopefully I can stick to my plans.

I can not live without bread carbs completely, but 1-3 times a week is doable.

So far so good, I also feel less bloated than usual lol. I haven't gotten on the scale yet, not until Monday at least. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! =)

bellaella, oatmeal can be pretty carby, yeah. If it's a grain -- which oats are -- there's usually plenty of carbs involved. Thus why pasta's usually tough, too -- it's usually made from durum semolina, which is a wheat byproduct. Just hold steady and read the nutrition facts on the side :)

Hah, I put April 4/5 on my last post -- I must have meant 5/6. :)

Yesterday I had some rib tip leftovers (there were a *ton* of them, ohh. Couldn't over-carb it, I know that bbq sauce had plenty of sugar x_x), steamed veg, more soup, and after pushups and situps to failure, and wheezing through 3/4ths of a mile like a little girl, I had some ice cream. Soft serve mmmm. We've got a couple of those little local walk-up ice cream shops and oh goodness... they'll give you like a 5-inch stack of ice cream on a little teeny cake cone (which I discarded) for like $2.50. SO GOOD.

Breakfast today was onion, pepper and chicken sausage in a pan and eggs scrambled with a little water instead of milk.

As for the exercise... my calves are like rocks but I have to keep getting out there to run... :( stretching time!

Weighed in at 161 the other day... holding out for a couple more weigh-ins before I count that, my weight's been bouncing all over the place.

Have a lovely weekend, ladies! :)

Originally Posted by nightwasp:
It's a process!

dotnsk, I've been dying to do spaghetti squash! Doesn't seem to be in season where I am though :( I presume it's just a summer squash?

nightwasp, I think it really depends on where you live. I'm in Arizona, and I've been able to find it in various grocery stores (from Trader Joes and Sprouts to Fry's and Safeway) from fall through now. The sticker on my latest purchase indicates that the squash is from Mexico, so perhaps that makes a difference. I know that we get a lot of produce from South and Central America, so if you're in a different part of the U.S. it's entirely possible that it doesn't make it that far.

I wish you luck in finding it! I haven't been able to find eggplant for WEEKS, and it's seriously bumming me out, so I totally get your 'can't find it!' frustration.

nightwasp thanks!! i totally didnt know that. i had a bit of sushi tonight but i tend to pick off most of the rice when i eat sushi and only eat enough rice for a good fish to rice ratio. but i guess that is preference.

I am also on board for this i dont have a problem with carbs i have an allergy to glutin :( so i have to give up the bread for health reasons, buts its soooo hard becuase its also my weakness but maybe with you guys i can do it

jackiedavis87, oh, jeeeeez. That's a drag :( :( I am so sorry. Glad that you've figured it out, though! Welcome! <3

There are lots of awesome things you can still eat! :) I know the low-carb sections of the website have been helpful for me in scouring for ideas... I look through cooking blogs to see if I can scare up anything good. Here's one I found just today: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/

She does the South Beach Diet, but which one it is is less important than finding recipes you can live with. :)

This one in particular I def want to try -- Chicken Nuggets w/Almond Meal "breading": http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2010/03...-friendly.html

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April 9:
Honey roasted cashews and chicken wings, my friends. The low-carb life. :cool:

Really, though. :P Went on a hike today. My friend and I clocked 8.5 miles... 6 in the woods, the other 2.5 realizing we couldn't go back through the woods and catching the nearest road back to the car. :D

It was mostly walking, but I'll count it for today... my legs needed to be told that I wasn't gonna let up after my last run on Thursday, which was a bit too much... wheezing to the extreme. Almost fell trying to walk down the stairs the next day. It's back to running tomorrow! (No matter what... I'm pounding out a mile. Gotta do it.)

Hope everyone's having a great weekend. :) Keep up the good work!!

Why oh why must chocolate taste so good?!?!

This is my ultimate weakness. I was doing sooooooo well but then at work I just completely caved and ate two whole snickers and dove chocolate. =(

I'm getting back to it tomorrow, and working out extra hard.

Well....April IS the month with Passover lol

Last year during Passover I dropped a bunch of weight because of the no bread thing.

I'm in! Today was my day 1 without bread anyways. Im going to try it for a week. That way mentally i dont freak thinking about a whole month. Im gonna try to do without all carbs. Bread, pasta, potatoes,rice etc. We can do it!!!