Metropolitan Musings: pinterest

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Grasscloth Walls

When my family and I moved into our house in Greenwich almost 8 years ago, I was determined to get the best bedroom. This, in my opinion was the one with it's own bathroom and spiral staircase up to a loft. What wasn't so great about it was the grasscloth walls. They seemed dated and were the wrong color. We decided to paint over them a beautiful seafoamy/light blue color and had to do multiple coats to ensure none of the original color was showing. The finished result was gorgeous especially once we put in a fun shag rug, new headboard and fun ballard design bookcase and desk. Some of my favorite grasscloth walls are not the neutral color that they come in but rather in navy and charcoal and, yes, light blue. Below are some of my favorite uses.

*Images via Pinterest and ElementsofStyleBlog.com

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Gluten Free Detox

As some of you may know, I embarked on a lofty lent journey by giving up gluten for the whole six weeks. I am a serious foodie and rarely does a day go by that I don't indulge in some form of a carb binge, so this was huge for me. And I didn't even cheat!

The first few days were tough learning what I could and couldn't eat (and I initially gave up dairy too which quickly ended when I realized how hard the two would be). In the end, I lost 8 pounds and felt great. What I realized, though, was that it wasn't necessarily the gluten that made me "lose weight." It was more about the restriction of carbs for six weeks that made a huge impact (and yes- no beer was allowed!). I could still eat things like rice and potatoes, which I would normally cut out if I was doing a low-carb or no-carb diet, and I think had I cut out all carbs I would have lost even more weight.

In terms of how my body felt, it felt how it does when I give up carbs -- not bloated. Some people with a gluten allergy or intolerance describe a number of ailments going away but I didn't experience this. I found a lot of great recipes from Paleo websites. Paleo is essentially a "cave man" diet where you don't have to restrict how much you eat but rather what you eat. Processed foods are a no go and dairy, grains, alcohol and starches are supposed to be limited.This is an awesome diet and healthy lifestyle choice and I would recommend it to anyone looking to lose weight, keep it off and improve overall health.

So what do I do now that I'm done? I plan on continuing to eat a limited amount of gluten/carbs and try to adhere to an 80/20 diet (80% of the time I'm good and 20% I can cheat). This way I don't feel deprived and I also don't gain back 8 pounds that I worked for six weeks to lose. You can find paleo recipes on pinterest, Paleo OMG, Nom Nom Paleo, and other websites.

I'm also a huge fan of the Dukan Diet, which is a diet plan split into 4 phases, the first is an all meat and non-fat dairy phase, the second adds in non-starchy vegetables and the third and fourth re-introduce whole grains, full-fat cheeses, fruits and indulgences. This diet has worked the best for me in the past and I was never hungry on it. Have you tried any successful diets recently or gone gluten free?