Sugar Detox - Days 10-12

Adding new meat has been a major help with boredom.  It is still a bit annoying that it takes longer to prepare our meals, but we're getting used to it.  I'm finding that my appetite is starting to shrink, as I think I'm eating for hunger instead of for sugar cravings.

On Thursday (Day 10), I ate my first sweet potato since starting the detox.  It was INCREDIBLE.  It tasted like candy.  Before the detox, I would've put butter & salt on it, but it was great with just salt.  Also, I decided to "bake" it in the microwave instead of making fries in the over, because, not only was it faster and easier, it was also incredibly hot in our non-air-conditioned kitchen.  We ended up having green beans (with salt & garlic but no butter) as our other side, just for something different, and they tasted really good to me, too.  I actually only ate half of my chicken, because I just didn't want anymore chicken.  I used a homemade ranch seasoning on the chicken.  I expected to get hungry quickly, but I was ok.  It also felt really good to have an easier prep meal.

Thursday evening I got a salad from Subway with ham.  I took it "to go" as I went to visit a friend.  I ended up getting on the wrong metro train and then having a hard time finding the Uber that I requested (poorly placed pin).  It took me 1 1/2 hours total travel time to get to my friend's apartment.  Before the detox, I would've been panicked because I didn't have any snacks with me AND I didn't have any cash to buy a snack.  But I was surprisingly ok waiting until I got there to eat dinner.  The ham was SO GOOD.  I used to always double my meat, but I took a gamble and just got the regular serving.  Also, it helps that Subway has avocado.  I was expecting to need a snack of cashews to compliment the salad, but I found that the salad was enough food.  I did eat a few cashews & almonds when I got home from visiting a friend, but the salad filled me much longer than it used to.

Friday (Day 11) I met a friend for lunch at Subway.  In case you're wondering, I ate Subway about this frequently before the sugar detox, too.  But I also used to get a hamburger meal frequently at McDonald's, and the McDonald's salad doesn't have avocado.  Anyway, the worker forgot to ask me if I wanted cheese.  I decided not to make a big deal about it and just ask for parmesan.  It ended up not really being enough food.  I was still hungry after eating.  I had a bag of cashews in my purse with like 5 cashews left in it.  I was a bit panicked, because I had a doctor's appointment and not enough time to buy a snack.  I was hungry, but not weak/lightheaded like I used to feel if I didn't eat enough.  I was actually ok to wait all the way until I got home from the doctor without feeling like I was going to pass out.  This affirms my theory that it was a blood sugar spike and crash that was my problem.  If my blood sugar doesn't spike, it also doesn't crash.  This is really relieving to not be constantly worried if I have a snack with me at all times.  I can actually make it without one.

For dinner on Friday, we made the same sweet potato and green beans, but changed to a steak.  This time I was able to give Cameron a good medium-rare like he likes, so I didn't overcook it.  Unfortunately, the steak was still tough.  It had a really good flavor, but it was hard to chew.  I don't know if we are going to try to keep buying steak, since both times it has been tough.  I really don't feel like searching other grocery stores to try to find good steak.  I'm sure it's possible, but I don't know if it's worth it for us right now.  Also, the fruit tea was really good, even without sugar.

Today (Day 12), I ran at 12:30PM.  It was really really hot.  I ate some cashews and drank coffee and water before my run.  I felt like adding an apple would be too much, but I stuck it in my fanny pack just in case I felt like I needed it.  During and even after my run, I still didn't feel like I needed the apple.  Just water was enough.  When we got home, Cameron asked if I would like to have just an avocado & tomato salad for lunch.  I really didn't think that would be enough food, but it was really hot, and I figured I could always get a snack later if I got hungry.  About an hour later, I ate a small amount of cashews and one slice of ham, but that is still a smaller portion for lunch than I would've served myself before the detox.

By far the greatest part of having meat other than chicken is GROUND TURKEY.  We used to get it all the time, but the grocery store we use for delivery doesn't have it.  They also don't have shredded cheddar cheese, so Cameron went to the other big store to get several of both to keep in our freezer.  We had been just ordering the ground beef/pork mix, which is pretty fatty, then we would drain the grease as best as we could.  It was incredible cooking the ground turkey today to see that there was basically no grease.  Then it was incredible again the texture of eating ground meat instead of grilled.  I chose yogurt instead of cheese (I could only have one serving of dairy since I used my other serving to put milk in my coffee), and it was SO GOOD.  Also, last time we had taco salad, we didn't have any corn, so that also made it really good. 

So my main takeaways from the past few days are: loving new meats (deli ham and ground turkey), and realizing that I don't need as much food as I used to eat.