Biggest Loser: End of Week 1

Week 1 of my diet ended this morning when I weighed myself. It's been a good week and an interesting one. We've been figuring out how to adjust to gluten-free foods and I'm happy to report that it hasn't been that difficult. Everything we have tried has turned out quite tasty and leaves us feeling a lot less heavy after we eat. We are not 100% gluten-free but we are very close. Everything we buy now is gluten-free except for our FiberOne bars and our Kashi cereal and, once the gluten-type products are gone, we will be purchasing the gluten-free counterparts of things like Ketchup.

Our breakfasts have consisted of fruit and yogurt smoothies or Kashi cereal. We mostly snack at lunch or I've had a small spinach salad. Peanuts and light popcorn are now our favorite snacks. We are eating a lot better and it's only been one week!

Our dinners have been a fun experience! I've really been having fun cooking and we've come up with some great meals. It's funny, I thought I'd miss the ease of going through a fast-food drive-thru or cooking up random crap but I'm having fun cooking. One thing I must note for anyone wanting to try gluten-free cooking: not all gluten-free brands are the same! This may seem like a "duh" comment but we tried two different types of noodles. One was delicious and tasted great. The brand was Quinoa, I highly suggest it. The other brand I forgot the name of but the noodles were smooshy and stuck together. I wish I had written down the brand name but just be warned, they vary greatly! Here are some pictures of our culinary masterpieces!

My General Tso's Chicken on gluten-free brown rice 

was almost gluten-free (the sauce had a little in it).

Bill's Spicy Chicken Alfredo was delicious. We didn't like those
noodles but it still tasted great!

I wish I had taken a picture of the Mac and Cheese. That had to have been the best mac I've had in a long time. The recipe was in Elizabeth Hasselbeck's "Deliciously G-Free" cookbook so I don't feel right sharing the recipe but anyone with access to the book should try it. It was excellent!

We also had fun grilling up some burgers on our new George Foreman grill that we got for Christmas! (Thanks mom and dad!) We bought low-carb buns and had cheeseburgers. This wasn't gluten-free but it was low-carb and we are trying to do less carbs as well. They do make gluten-free buns but I haven't had a chance to get them yet. They are on my "to try" list.

Yay grill!

Now we are getting ready for Week 2 and I'm looking forward to cooking and eating even better. I'm happy to say that we both lost weight this week!

Bill lost 8 pounds!

I lost 8.8 pounds! (Yes, very specific, thank you Wii!)

We are making great progress! If I have done my calculations right, and I think I have, this puts me at a 4.32% weight loss. My mom and sister both lost great amounts (4 and 6 respectively) but so far I'm in the lead for our contest. It's a 6 month contest so I have to keep it going in order to win. It's still any woman's game but I'm invigorated by my first week's success! On to week 2!

I still can't do much with exercise, because of my back, but I hope to work my way up. Have any comments on eating better or any great recipes? Leave a comment below! Here's to another great week!