Day 1 Friday August 19th - A New Beginning

Today starts my journey of eating gluten free.

For breakfast, I had my green drink. The first one I had was one my friend Jenn made one for me. She made it with water, a banana, spinach and parsley. It was good. For today, I tried using chocolate almond milk, a banana and spinach. It was so thick, I had to add water. I felt full after drinking it. I usually eat cereal (which I love) but then would be starving by mid-morning. After the green drink, I wasn't hungry, but I still ate a handful of almonds to keep me satisfied until lunch.

Now I needed to get organized. I started to make a list of food and meal ideas that I could have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For dinner, I wanted to make meals that the whole family could eat. Lunch ideas were just for me. I came up with some great ideas. It will just take some extra planning and preparing to make it work. I typed up my ideas and put it in my cookbook holder.

For lunch I ate chicken salad that I bought from Fresh and Natural Foods (they have a wonderful deli). I also ate veggies and dip and some sweet potato chips. After I ate, I didn't feel bloated. Great feeling. So I decided to keep a journal of what I have eaten followed by how I felt afterwards.

For dinner if was just Lia and myself. I ate Quinoa (a highly nutritious gluten free seed - whole grain) I bought it from Costco and it's Organic. It is very easy to make. It's like making rice. 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa. I added cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and feta cheese. To make it even better, I added balsamic vinegar. I good eat this every day it is so good.

Before dinner, Lia and I went to the grocery store. I was craving Noodles and Company. My favorite dish is the Penne Fresca with chicken. I had called the restaurant to see if I could substitute rice noodles instead of penne noodles and they said yes. But...I ended up not stopping. At least I know I can still order my favorite dish.

At the end of the day, I felt great. I am very excited about this new way of eating. It is not as hard as I thought it would be.