Sugar Detox - Day 7

One week down, three to go.

I was thinking that some people might find it boring that we eat the same thing for breakfast every day, but we've always eaten the same thing for breakfast every day.  Now it's just a slightly different thing.  We used to eat scrambled eggs with bacon bits and bread with cream cheese (me)/peanut butter (Cameron).  Now we eat scrambled eggs with spinach and tomato slices.  Although we did sometimes eat pancakes on Mondays, so maybe we can try to figure out how to mix it up a little once a week with our new diet.  It's very comforting to know our routine, though.  Usually around 6AM, Sara starts moving around in bed and says, "Hey" with a big smile on her face.  We get up and I feed her while Cameron showers.  Then we all head into the kitchen and Sara and I "help" Cameron fix breakfast, i.e. we sit in a chair while he does everything.  Sara has gone from loving to touch the crinkly bread bag to loving to touch the crinkly frozen spinach bag, so not much has changed in her world.

Today Cameron told me it looked like I was running faster than usual.  I ate my apple right before my run, and I think I'm going to make that a habit.  It was good to get a little boost before my run.  I might skip it on the days I don't run, though.  We'll see.

For lunch we had leftover soup from yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture of it again, so no picture.

For dinner we had STEAK!!!  Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as it could've been, because I overcooked it with our new George Foreman grill.  It's been a long time since I've used one, and I forgot how fast they are.  But it was still really nice to have something other than chicken.  Maybe one of these days I'll get up the courage/make the time to ask a butcher to make me some lean ground beef, but who knows when that will happen.

We made our menu for week 2!  On week 2 we can add berries, another serving of dairy (making 2 servings per day), and starchy vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, squash, and corn.  The first few days we will have to make due with what we have, since I didn't order groceries yet, but we tried to make it work.  We probably could've been a little more creative, but we are also working with some meals where we will be out of the house.

Here's the menu:
Tues. June 20
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch: Taco salad w/ chicken, lettuce, tomato, avocado, corn, black beans, homemade taco seasoning
Dinner: Cam: our normal lunch salad w/ buffalo sauce instead of Italian, Jess: out

Wed. June 21
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch: Cam: Buffalo salad, Jess: Italian salad
Dinner: Leftover taco salad, berries for dessert, fruit tea to drink

Thurs. June 22
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch: Grilled chicken, sweet potato fries (baked), avocado & tomato salad
Dinner: Cam: Buffalo salad, Jess: McDonald's salad + avocado at a friend's

Fri. June 23
Breakfast: (same)
Snack: carrot sticks and hummus
Lunch: Cam: Buffalo salad, Jess: Italian salad
Dinner: (same as lunch from Thurs.), berries for dessert, fruit tea to drink

Sat. June 24
Breakfast: (same)
Snack: carrot sticks and hummus
Lunch: salad w/ Chinese spices - ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce
Dinner: Steak, baked sweet potato, avocado & tomato salad, berries for dessert, fruit tea to drink

Sun. June 25
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch: McDonald's salad + avocado
Dinner: (same as Sat.)

Mon. June 26 (same as Sat.)

Sugar Detox - Day 6

Psychologically, today was the hardest for me.  I really wanted sweets.  I even had a dream that I had one drink of my sweet tea, and it was so wonderful, then my alarm went off.  Obviously, I woke up disappointed.

There is this sweet lady at church who brings cake every week, and I always have a piece of it (along with everyone else).  But I resisted.  I didn't stay in the entryway (where all the snacks are) talking before church.  I walked on into the sanctuary.  I had my cashews and water bottle in my purse.  I was ready.  I even was able to eat some cashews towards the beginning of the service.  Then during the sermon I had to go out in the entryway with baby Sara...usually I grab a piece of cake or a pretzel or a cookie or something while I'm out there, but today I couldn't.  And I had to watch other kids getting cookies and snacks.  But I resisted.

On the way home from church, we decided to get salads from McDonald's drive-thru for lunch.  I picked out the croutons (and peppers) from both salads and picked out the cheese from mine.  I added a whole avocado to both salads.  As I suspected, the vinaigrette dressing that I love has sugar in it.  So, I put our usual oil and Italian seasoning on the salad.  It was pretty good.  And it was less work than making the whole thing from scratch.  I think if we were ever in a pinch, I wouldn't feel too bad about eating a salad from McDonald.'s, even with the vinaigrette dressing.  I just felt incredibly unsatisfied and wanted sweets more and more.  But I resisted.  I just ate a bunch of cashews a little while later as a snack.

I also was feeling really stressed this afternoon while I was working on our finances.  It really bothers me how behind I am, and I realized a few things that I had missed and was really beating myself up about it.  Naturally, I really wanted some chocolate.  I had started working on the finances after lunch, thinking that it would distract me from wanting sweets, but instead I saw receipt after receipt from McDonald's, Subway, milkshakes, spaghetti carbonara, etc., and that made me feel worse.  But I resisted. 

I also had an apple as a late afternoon snack, and I have the same problem I've always had with apples - I get hungry again really quickly.  Maybe it is better as a dessert.  I don't know.  So I ate more cashews again as we were putting Sara to bed.

I'm really starting to think that I maybe I am one of the 10% of Americans that the article says are addicted to sugar.  I eat sugar and I feel good, then I crash and feel like my blood sugar is low, so I eat more sugar, and the cycle continues.  My dad is diabetic, so it could run in the family.  I've always felt I was a bit hypoglycemic because of how I get extremely weak if I don't eat.   So far I've felt pretty good without sugar (except for the first day).  Maybe this change will really help me.

For dinner we made the soup we had originally planned for lunch.  I have my groceries delivered, and they only brought one steak instead of two like I had ordered (they were big and I was planning to eat half of a steak per day), so we will just split the one steak tomorrow for dinner.  The soup was actually much better than I thought it would be.  I had no idea how to season it without using some kind of a base, so I just kind of threw some spices in (salt, garlic, oregano, and parsley).  For the crackers, I didn't know what would be a "high fiber cracker", but we had some saltine-like crackers that had fiber and no sugar, so we just ate those.  I googled what would be a serving, and it is only 5 crackers!  I almost put them all in my soup, then I remembered that we would probably have a second bowl of soup and saved three of them for the second bowl.  It was really good.  I think the addition of the crackers helped as well, even if it wasn't as many as I would've normally used.

Here it is now, the end of the day, and I'm feeling pretty good.  I'm proud of myself for not giving into the temptation to eat sweets out of habit or as a coping mechanism for stress.

Sugar Detox - Day 5

Today I ran for 22 minutes straight.  While I was running, I was thinking about how I could possibly be embarking on a huge, transformational, possibly even inspirational, life change.  At first I was thinking I could be at a crossroads, but that implies just one big decision.  This is more like an interstate highway.  I'm moving.  I can't stop and stay on the highway - if you stop, you have to get off an exit.  I keep passing exits, like Dairy Queen, McDonalds, "I'm too tired", "This is too hard".  I have to continually choose whether I want to stay on the highway to better health or get off an exit.  Sometimes I feel like it is inevitable that I will be even more overweight as I get older, especially if I end up having more kids, but I'm realizing that I can choose my own destiny.  I can be at a healthy weight, have more energy, be active - if I want to.  I can also give up at any point.  It's my choice.  For today, I choose to keep moving.

Sugar Detox - Days 3-4

Highlight of my day: MILK in my coffee!!!  It was AMAZING!  My original plan was to keep drinking black coffee and have cheese in my salad, but since I was going to a coffee shop with a friend this morning, I decided to splurge on a latte.  It was incredible.  Before the sugar detox, I would've put a packet of sugar in a latte, but it was SO GOOD to me with just the coffee and milk.  Since I can have one cup of milk per day, I've decided to spread it out to my usual three cups of coffee throughout the day for the rest of the week.  I really do not like black coffee, but I think I might be able to live with just milk in my coffee and no sugar.  The guy at the coffee shop said the latte had a shot of espresso and 200 ml of milk, so I put 50 ml of milk in my coffee this afternoon.  It wasn't as good as the latte (which was almost all milk), but it was a definite improvement.  I'm hoping that 1/3 cup of milk in my coffee will be perfect for me.

So, we had the same breakfast (which is tasting better and better and getting more filling each day) and almost the same lunch.  The only change to our lunch salad is that we added grated carrots and Cameron also added shredded cheese.  It was interesting how I didn't necessarily taste the carrots, but the salad overall tasted much better to me with them.  It really did taste sweeter. 

For dinner we made a stir-fry, which was pretty good.  It had chicken, broccoli, carrots, peas, sesame oil, soy sauce, and ginger.  It was surprising how good it tasted without added sugar.  Normally when we would make Chinese, we would include noodles/rice, teriyaki sauce (lots of sugar), and honey.  I could still taste that it wasn't super sweet, but it was really good.  It was funny that I had been looking forward to my first fruit, but after I ate dinner I was feeling full.  I decided to eat the apple anyway, but it wasn't as good as I had anticipated.  I think maybe tomorrow we will try having the apple as an afternoon snack instead.  It does get a little old eating only cashews for our snack.  I'm also thinking about getting some hummus, since we can eat it with carrot sticks now.  I've also considered making my own peanut butter to eat with carrot sticks, but we'll see.

Overall on day 4, I'm feeling pretty good.  I am looking forward to adding more dairy and fruit options.


Day 3

I was too tired last night to update the blog, but it wasn't too different from days 1 & 2.  The main difference is that I ran with my C25K plan for the first time since starting the sugar detox.  I was worried that I may feel lightheaded, so I even kept a granola bar in my fanny pack, but I was fine.  It was about as difficult as it usually is for me to run, so I thought that was pretty good.  I did eat a few more cashews at my next snack after the run, because I was feeling more hungry, but it wasn't overpowering.

Sugar Detox - Day 2

Today was much better.  I ate exactly the same things as yesterday, so I didn't take any pictures.  I still felt somewhat unsatisfied with my meals, but not as bad.  We took Sara for a routine check up today, and I was concerned that I might have trouble speaking in Romanian (we always speak to our pediatrician in Romanian), but actually it was fine.  The chicken lentil soup was a lot better, since I actually followed the recipe this time.  I still don't like it that much, but it was better.  Black coffee is still disgusting to me.  Overall, I feel pretty ok, just a little bored with the food.

An important note from a friend of mine: make sure that if you follow a diet like this that you don't forget to include HEALTHY FATS.  I ate an entire avocado in my lunch salad, a ton of cashews for a snack, and also the egg yolks have fat in them.  Without the healthy fats, you can have major health problems.  But if you are wanting to try this diet, please read the actual article with the details to make sure you follow it properly.  http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/09/health/sugar-detox-food-drayer/index.html I'm not a nutritionist - I'm just writing about my experience.

We made a menu for days 4-7.  Starting day 4, you can eat one apple and one serving of dairy (full fat) per day.  You can also add sweet vegetables, such as carrots and sugar snap peas, and you can add one serving of high fiber crackers.  Lean meats other than chicken are a little hard to come by here, but I found a sirloin steak that doesn't look too fatty, so I'm super excited to have that.  That also goes with some advice I received from friends to make sure to include foods I can get excited about.  Here is our menu:

Days 4 and 5 (Friday and Saturday):
     Breakfast: Eggs w/ spinach, tomato, black coffee (same as days 1-3)
     Snack: Cashews, black coffee (same as days 1-3)
     Lunch: Salad with lettuce, tomato, avocado, black beans, CHEESE, CARROTS, chicken, olive oil, and Italian seasoning
     Snack: Cashews (if needed), black coffee
     Dinner: Stir-fry with chicken, CARROTS, PEAS, broccoli, eggs, sesame oil, soy sauce, and maybe cinnamon.  APPLE for dessert and black tea to drink.

Days 6 and 7 (Sunday and Monday)
     Breakfast: Eggs w/ spinach, tomato, black coffee (same as days 1-3)
     Snack: Cashews, black coffee (same as days 1-3)
     Lunch: Soup w/ chicken, CARROTS, PEAS, broccoli, CHEESE, and CRACKERS
     Snack: Cashews (if needed), black coffee
     Dinner: Sirloin steak w/ garlic, boiled CARROTS and broccoli.  APPLE  for dessert and black tea to drink.

Sugar Detox - Day 1

Overall, it was pretty much as miserable as I expected.  It was a really odd feeling of having a full belly, yet feeling lightheaded and unable to think clearly.  During my morning snack, I felt like I needed to eat, yet I wasn't hungry.  I felt the difference between hunger and a sugar craving.
Here are some pictures and comments about meals and how the day went:

For breakfast, we ended up putting spinach in the eggs and having the tomatoes on the side.  Although it tasted good, I felt very unsatisfied without my usual whole wheat bread and cream cheese.  Black coffee is really disgusting, but I drank it because I wanted to keep my caffeine intake the same as usual so the withdrawal wouldn't be doubled.  I also drank a glass of water.

Midmorning, we had a snack of cashews and black coffee.  This is when I felt the worst.  I felt very faint and was a big worried about watching Sara while Cameron did schoolwork, but I pushed through.  This was also when I felt the difference between being hungry and having a sugar craving.  I considered making myself another egg or cutting a tomato, but I told myself that my belly was full (which it was) and that I could make it without sugar. 

Lunch was salad with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, black beans, chicken, olive oil, and parsley.  We ended up adding Italian seasoning, which helped a lot.  I had pretty much the same feeling as breakfast that, yes it was good, but it just wasn't satisfying.  My belly was full, but I wanted more.  I drank just water with lunch.

I had planned another optional snack for the afternoon, but I could feel that it wasn't food that I needed - it was sugar that I wanted.  I ended up having a cup of coffee around 3:30PM, and I felt quite a bit better after that.  Those are my normal times for coffee: breakfast, midmorning, and midafternoon, so I wanted to keep that the same.  I still didn't feel good or normal, just not quite as woozy as earlier in the day.

For dinner was chicken lentil soup with added broccoli and black tea. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough lentils, so I decided to make a half-recipe that we would eat all tonight.  Then in my brain fog, I forgot to halve the recipe.  So it had half the lentils and chicken, but all the water and spices.  It was horrible.  But I didn't really have any other option, so I just ate it.  Plus, I normally put bread or crackers in my soup.  It was so watery.  Also, I don't even really like lentil soup that much.  It's just hard because I really like food, and I feel like I have eaten today, but I haven't liked any of it.  After dinner I said to Cameron, "I really want dessert."  He replied, "You can have some water."  Sigh.

Sugar Detox - Day 0

Day 0 "Fat Monday"

Tomorrow Cameron & I are starting a "Sugar Detox."  I had been thinking about cutting down sugar for a while, but now that I'm finished breastfeeding, I feel like I can.  A friend posted this article on Facebook a few days ago http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/09/health/sugar-detox-food-drayer/index.html and I decided it was time.  I've been running for 6 weeks now using a C25K program, but I haven't lost any weight at all, which is really disappointing.  But I have felt better and I have more energy, so I still feel it has been worth it.

Basically for the sugar detox, you have NOTHING sweet for 3 days.  No bread.  No dairy.  No fruit.  Not even sweet vegetables, like carrots.  No artificial sweeteners.  So then the question that follows is: what can you eat?  We made a list of acceptable foods and created a menu.  We ended up deciding to keep it simple by eating the same thing all three days.  Here is our menu:

Breakfast: Eggs with spinach and tomato, black coffee
Snack (optional): cashews/peanuts, black coffee
Lunch: Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, black beans, chicken, olive oil, and parsley for flavor
Snack (optional): cashews/peanuts, black coffee
Dinner: Chicken Lentil soup, black tea

And of course we will drink plenty of water to stay well-hydrated.

So, since Monday is our sabbath day anyway, we decided to make it our last sugar hoorah.  We usually have pancakes and eggs on Mondays, and I wanted to keep the tradition.  :)

For lunch, we had leftover Subway sandwiches and leftover chocolate cupcakes I had made for church on Sunday.

I had my favorite my last cup of coffee (with milk and sugar) and cereal for an afternoon snack.

And for dinner was the ultimate grand finale: Pizza Hut!  I've only had pizza once since Sara was born, and it gave her horrible gas pain.  I wanted to have Pizza Hut as a celebration of being finished with breastfeeding/pumping, but then it worked out well to do it also right before the sugar detox.