Goodbye Gluten!

Yes, that's right. I have officially gone gluten-free! I am on day #4 today and loving it. In fact, I love it so much that I'm considering starting a separate blog for all the good recipes I find, helpful tips I come across, and to brag about the weight I will hopefully be shedding and the health benefits I will hopefully be feeling. :) But for now I'll just post on here about it from time to time.

After having baby #2 and being about 50 lbs heavier than I was before baby #1, I was getting pretty depressed and frustrated with my weight and other health issues I've been dealing with for years. Over the past 5 years or so I have joined a few gyms, bought different workout DVDs, tried numerous diets, etc and have had basically no results from them. For about 6 months straight I was going to the gym 5-7 times a week for 1.5 hours at a time and eating "well" and didn't lose a single pound! After that I started running 3-4 times a week with my mom for about 45 minutes at a time and again... not a single pound lost. I always end up just getting frustrated and give up after a few months of not seeing results.

A few months ago, my sister called and asked if I'd ever considered going Gluten-Free. I never had. She told me about a friend of her's that has had great success from being Gluten-Free. I spent night after night researching and thinking about it, but really wanted to get tested for Celiac Disease (gluten intolerance) before I started. I finally just dove in before getting tested and am glad I did!

I posted on facebook that I could use some help from anyone that had helpful advice for me and was expecting only 1 or 2 responses. Instead, I received message after message from people that I had no idea were gluten free or gluten intolerant. Each of them told me about the same thing: that they feel great all the time after giving it up, that they highly recommend it, and that it's hard at first but easy to get a hang of.

I felt a little overwhelmed and almost wanted to cry as I made my first 'gluten free shopping trip'. Basha's has gluten free tags up on their shelves, pointing out the very few things I had to choose from. I would walk down entire aisles and not see a single tag. But it's really not so bad. I've come up with some really yummy and creative meals and haven't had to go out and spend a fortune on all the health store-specialty made gluten free products.

Oh, and I was trying so hard to wait an entire week to weigh myself, but gave in this morning. I am down 2.5 lbs in 4 days. Hard to say how much of that is just a different outfit, different time of the day weight and how much is really lost weight, but still encouraging! And I'm feeling A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!