Doing Better

Today is only day 3 of my gluten free diet and already I am feeling so much better. Usually, I just drink coffee and Dr. Pepper throughout the day and then have dinner as my only meal. This is completely unhealthy...I know. I have never been much of a breakfast person. I can remember being in middle school and eating breakfast and the first thing I would do when I got to school was race to the bathroom. After a while, I just gave up on the whole breakfast thing. If I was super hungry in the morning, I would eat some apple sauce or maybe a banana if we had them at the house, but for the most part, I would just drink a soda to curb my appetite until lunch time. Anyway, the first day, I had a Kefir berry smoothie, the kefir is 99% lactose free, and I had a little bit of stomach grumbling and very mild discomfort, but no sweats, no doubling over in pain, no race to the bathroom! Halleluiah! Yesterday, I had yogurt, granola (I had to switch from my usual kind because it had wheat and barley in it :(, but I found one that is tasty and gluten free! YAY!) and a handful of grapes and some strawberries. Again, no pain! This morning I made the smoothie again, and nothing...no grumbling, not even moderate discomfort. NOTHING! I started thinking...geez, I wonder if this is what normal people feel like? Anyway, we are doing the 17 day diet plan again, because JR has put on some weight in the last two years and wants to drop it again. If you remember he lost nearly 100 pounds 2 years ago. Since then he has gained back about 25...which isn't terrible in 2 years, but he doesn't like it, so he wanted to start the 17 day diet again, and to help me...any recipe ingredient that contains gluten is swapped out for a gluten free product. I will say that on both say one and day two I had one Dr. Pepper, but now they are all gone and I am going to try to go the day without it. I figure since I dont have them in the house anymore I wont be tempted! I usually drink 4-5 a day so, going without them is a little hard. Because of giving up the soda, I have dropped 3.6 pounds already. It could be what I am eating, but I am pretty sure the intial weight loss is due to not drinking the sodas. I weighed myself this morning and was at 131.4. The diet calls for three meals a day plus a snack. I have not yet been able to eat the snack. I think it is because my body is still adjusting to eating 3 meals a day instead of just one and I am hoping to eat it today...but I really dont want to eat if I am not hungry. It's hard enough to force myself to eat breakfast when I am not really hungry. I will say my appetite has increased. Maybe it's because eating healthier has increased my metabolism. Maybe its because eating 3 meals a day has increased my metabolism. Or maybe its all in my head, and since I am not in pain after eating, it is more appealing to me now! Who knows...all I can say is that I feel much better, and I am proud of myself for finally taking matters into my own hands. I can't believe I let myself get so bad. The one thing I am concerned about is that I started a new app that I have heard about from friends called My Fitness Pal. I decided to do it just so I could track what I was eating...kind of like a food journal. the app calculates your calorie intake and I was a little shocked to see I only consumed 1020 calories yesterday. I dont think that is very healthy either, but I am being optimistic that I will increase that over the next week as my body adjusts a little more. I can add another 300 by simply eating my snack, and not every meal will have so few calories. Eventually, I want to get out there and start running again. I used to love it, but my knees dont handle it very well, so I am going to try some yoga for a couple of weeks before trying to run. Plus, Logan started this program at school where they encourage the kids to walk a marathon throughout the school year. So we are going to start walking after dinner as a family. obviously, walking with a 2 and a 5 year old isn't a strenous activity, but it gets us all up and on our feet! I think it will be a great thing for all of us! Before I start any activity though I want to consume more calories. I don't think it would be healthy to start any type of work out right now. The few calories I did consume were mainly from vegetables, fruit, and chicken so it already takes my body quite a few calories just to digest the food. Anyway, so that is how I am going so far, I am hoping to continue feeling good!!!