My Vegan Day

As I have mentioned since today is the first day of the Great Fast I wont eat any meat or dairy along with the not eating gluten so besides being gluten free I had to be vegan as well.  I think I ate pretty good.  This morning I had gluten free toast with almond butter and distilled maple water.  For lunch it was rice noodles with garlic and onion.  I snacked all day on nuts, vacuum fried pineapple and freeze dried strawberries.  Now for dinner I just had a salad of romaine lettuce, green onions, mandarin oranges, and candied almonds with a homemade dressing of oil, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  With it I had a bowl of lentil vegetable soup from Trader Joe's that Manny just loved.  I have to say what I missed most today was a cup of coffee from our new Keurig coffee maker.  But there is no way I could have coffee without cream.

Starting Weight is.......

140 lbs!  Ugh, I have gained about 5 lbs back since I ate so many wheat based products this last 2 weeks cause I knew I was stopping today.  Pizza, hoagies, cakes and cookies.  You don't really realize how many things have wheat in them until you try and stop eating it.
Oh my gosh, I just measured my waist right now- right above my hips and below my belly button and it is 39 and 1/2 inches!  That's just ridiculous for not having a baby in there and not one since 2 years ago.  I know I have carried 5 babies to term and that my belly is stretched but, come on, I'm not gonna live this way, its not healthy.. 
OK, so to sum up my "wheat belly",
140 lbs- weight (I'm about 5'5")
39 1/2 inches- waist at rest

I can't believe I'm posting this but it should keep me accountable!

22 inches- thigh
12 inches- upper arm

Now I'm not really going to "diet" or even do much exercise- even though I should- I'm just going to give up wheat and gluten and fast from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays for the Great Fast (Great Lent) and see what happens.  I want to FEEL better more than look better.  I have 5 beautiful children to take care of and I want to be at my best for them and my husband. 

Wheat Belly

Wow, I have been reading this book and I highly recommend it.  It has inspired me to give up wheat and gluten during the Great Fast.  Its not going to be easy considering I LOVE bread, baked goods, pizza, you name it.  But I'm gonna do it and try to track my progress here to help keep myself accountable.  I'm going to do my weight and measurements in the morning and try to resist the temptation of weighing myself often and only do it once a week.  I hope I'm much healthier physically and spiritually by the end of the Fast.  If anyone has any good gluten free recipes please comment with them.

Mmmmmm

I gave up two things for the Great Fast.
1- Baked goods-
Still trying to drop that baby weight.

2- Buying cloth diapers-
The second may sound silly to you but its addicting and can be very expensive.

So anyway, I went to Aldi's yesterday and they had these big, yummy strawberries just asking to be dipped in chocolate.



They are soooo good and better for me than a piece of chocolate cake.
Baby is now 3 1/2 months old and I have lost nearly 40 lbs. but have another 25 to 30 to go. I weighed in at 162 on Wednesday. Wish me luck.