^ Basically, this is me right now if I got my hands on some sugar. ^
One month without sugar is now in the books. I can honestly say that I didn't think I would make it this far. With Easter only two weeks away, some of the BEST candy is out (in my opinion) and its hard to resist that temptation. I'm wayyy past feeling good and I'm ready to cave and eat everything in sight. Right now, my dream cheat meal would be a Turtle Waffle Bowl from Dairy Queen with a Penn Station chocolate chip cookie and Cabury Creme Eggs piled on top. And a Moonpie on the side. And an Ale-8. Oh, and a Reese's egg. I think you get my drift here.
Actually, that gave me a headache just thinking about it. But I miss the sugar. I miss chocolate. Banning sugar from my life has changed my eating habits drastically. Not only are my food choices obviously healthier, but I'm getting fuller quicker, and my portions have become smaller. One thing that has happened that I know isn't good is that I'm actually forgetting to eat. I never thought I would be that kind of person. I am CONSTANTLY thinking about food and planning my next meal. But when it comes to lunch, there have been many days that I will look up at the clock and see that it's past 2:00 pm and I haven't eaten yet. So that is something that I need to work on. But I've also noticed I've become more of a 'grazer' and less of a 'three large meals a day' type of eater. And as far as my weight goes, I've lost a total of 15 pounds since I started four weeks ago.
So I've got two weeks left. I am hoping I stick with these healthier habits, with a little bit of sweetness here and there. I'm ready to try something sugary just to see how much my taste buds have changed. Going without sugar for so long can drastically detox your taste buds making them more sensitive. Eating foods high in sugar content can dull your senses, and by cleansing yourself from that sugar you are able to taste and have a better appreciation for REAL ingredients. I can vouch for this. I have a new love for fruits and vegetables without feeling the need to douse them in sugary dips and dressings. Even meat tastes better without being smothered in A-1, Heinz, or Baby Ray's. And I don't even like meat that much to begin with.
Aside from these ridiculous cravings, I'm loving all the positive changes so far. We'll see how the next two weeks go.
After college, the whole "Oh crap, I better start taking care of my body" feeling set in. I don't remember how I stumbled upon Fooducate, but I sure am glad I did. Fooducate is a really useful app you can download on your phone that can help you make smarter choices while grocery shopping.
This app is so easy to operate. Once running, all you have to do is scan the bar code of your item.
And it pulls up tons of information about the item. I used peanut butter for this example.
Fooducate will 'grade' each product based on how nutritious it is. You can also review other user's comments. This is useful if you're curious about a product that you haven't tried yet.
I love the fact that it provides you with warnings. You can get detailed information by clicking on each one above.
It also gives complete nutrition information including ingredients.
You can also click on the alternative tab and see healthier alternatives to your food product. This is so great when you are trying to eat healthier!
Below, I scanned some obviously unhealthy cookies so you can see how it handles junk food.
You can see it gave them a D+ rating.
But what I loooove about it is that is gives you some nice alternatives if you MUST satisfy that sweet tooth!
There's also daily tips and articles to help you along the way. This app is great for people who want to start eating healthier but just aren't sure where in the world to start. It doesn't all happen with the snap of a finger. Start taking baby steps and you'll soon see that healthier choices get easier every time you go shopping!
Do you have any nutrition/health apps that you find useful? I'd love to hear all about them!
I think we can all agree that it's something that should be consumed in moderation. There's natural sugar, and then there's added sugar. Natural sugars are the ones found in things like milk (lactose) and fruit (fructose). While these foods may contain sugar, they also provide us with essential nutrients. Added sugars are simply added to foods to make them taste sweeter. So why are added sugars so bad? They pack on the calories and provide zero nutrients. These are the ones I am trying to avoid.
A major problem with 'junk food' is that it is loaded with added sugar and can become crazy addictive. Sugar releases dopamine in the 'reward' center of the brain, much like cocaine does. So the more you reward yourself with sugar, the more your brain is going to want to be rewarded
So how much is too much? The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of added sugar a day for women, and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men. Most of us don't even realize how much sugar we are actually take in each day because it is literally in EVERYTHING. Take a look the next time you go grocery shopping and try to find something that doesn't have some form of sugar in it. From the obvious cakes, cookies and candy bars, to items that most wouldn't even think about like bread, salad dressing, ketchup, peanut butter, and processed meat. And it's not as easy as reading the nutrition label and looking for the grams of sugar. I learned this myself last week at the grocery store.
Take mayonnaise for example:
Just looking at the nutrition facts, you can see there are zero grams of sugar. But what is that sixth ingredient? Sugar? Why are you lying to me, Hellmann's?!
Obviously the amount of sugar isn't significant enough to report, but it's still there, and that is why this whole process has been so difficult.
I am in no way an expert at this. I came into this 'experiment' knowing it was going to be tricky. And sugar isn't always easy to identify because it has a sneaky way of hiding under a slew of different names. Needless to say, I did a lot of Googling on my phone in the aisles at Kroger.
...and this was my cheat sheet.
I knew giving up sugar was something I wanted to do for quite a while. I had a giant box of Valentine's chocolates staring me down - and I can't lie, I ate that whole thing in the four days leading up to Lent. Talk about a glutton.
So here's to the first twelve days of no added sugar. How does it feel? Physically, it hasn't been nearly as hard as I expected it to be. The hardest part without a doubt, was the first four days.
Day 1: Wednesday comes and I am so not prepared. Being snowed in kept me from being able to go grocery shopping so I had to improvise with whatever I could find in the house. It was brutal. I was coming down from a Valentine sugar high and wanted nothing more than to eat everything in sight. I tried to fill up on fruit and salad, chicken, popcorn - whatever. The fact was without the sugar, I never felt satisfied.
Day 2: Thursday was the WORST. I am thankful that I didn't have to be at work early, because I don't think I could have made it. I woke up with a terrible headache and was convinced I had the flu. Let me just emphasize that... I had FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS. Unsweetened tea was my saving grace and got the headaches to subside. I was also finally able to go grocery shopping that night, so it made it much easier to meal prep.
Day 3: Friday, I was still waking up with headaches, so I kept the tea close. However, I noticed that my constant cravings for food had gone down dramatically.
Day 4: Saturday, I could definitely tell that I had been sleeping better. I wasn't tossing and turning the in the middle of the night. I was waking up feeling well rested and ready to start my day. And at night, I wasn't feeling sluggish and miserable by the time 10:00pm came.
As of today, all cravings have pretty much completely subsided. I don't crave junk food - it just doesn't appeal to me. If I feel like I need a snack, I grab a piece of fruit, cottage cheese, or some nuts. You don't realize how miserable you feel until you start to feel better. My skin looks so much clearer, and what's even more awesome is that I've managed to drop 8 pounds in the process so far!
I'll get more in depth with things later, but this has been what's been going on so far. If you haven't seen the movie Fed Up, I highly recommend it. It goes into detail the dangers of sugar far better than I ever could. Here's a video with Katie Couric, who helped produce Fed Up, doing the ten day sugar challenge. It's a little lengthy (7 mins), but worth a watch if you're thinking about cutting back on the sugar.
