DAY 21: Three Weeks Down

Well, it has been 21 days! I would be lying if I said I was perfect all the way through, but I can say with confidence that these past 3 weeks I have taken in less sugar than ever before. Ever before meaning, in the past 5 years or so.  While I did make some slip ups ( bite of a cookie here, or piece of biscotti there) I did not have ANY CANDY!

To treat myself I purchased a small Pinkberry original flavor frozen yogurt. I had a few bites and actually could not finish it because it was way too sweet. As for now I plan on staying low sugar. I am hoping that these three weeks have helped with my sweet tooth and the cravings I have after every meal. One treat a week seems appropriate, and if I feel like my cravings are creeping back, I will definitely try three weeks again.

What next do you ask? Low Carb diet! Aiming for 14 days of low carbs = no bread. Will be tough I am sure, but the sooner your start the sooner it is over! Stay tuned for more healthy recipes and dieting ideas.

Day 17: Struggling With A Diet

It happens to most of us. You start a diet or exercise program and get super excited about it. You start out doing really well, and then as the days or weeks go on you start to lose interest. I have mentioned struggling with that before, and up until this point I was doing really well with this diet thing.

I think the weekend and the long race I did is causing me to make some dumb food choices. Part of the bad eating is because I was so hungry yesterday from running for so long. Dumb excuse, but I was in carb loading mode. Today, I had a pretty big lunch and now feel full and uncomfortable. It is just a matter of getting back on track, which can be extremely difficult. Once you are back in the zone for 3-4 days, it gets a lot easier.

I find that reading about different healthy recipes, and learning new workouts is helpful when trying to stay on target. I also like reading quotes and ideas about getting healthy and fit on Pinterest. Here are a few cool things I have come across.. hopefully it is helpful!

Love this! Everytime you give up you have to start over from scratch

Day 6: Gluten Free Will Set You Free!

Must..Look..Away….!

NO I am not going to start eating gluten free. Well not today anyway, But doing  research is fun!

Here is a webpage about living gluten free and refined sugar free. I am more about the refined sugar free thing as this point, and there are some great recipes on this site.

I knew a girl in college who could only eat gluten free food and it sounded horrible. She could pretty much never go out to dinner because the restaurant couldn’t say it was completely gluten free and they didn’t want to be the cause of her getting sick. This was almost 5 years ago, and now I see gluten free sections of menus and grocery stores popping up all over the place. I have also heard about how everyone should eat gluten free because it is a lot healthier. It is something to consider trying.

Day 5: Breakfast Quandaries

mmm plain

I am struggling with breakfast. I have been eating low fat plain Greek yogurt every day with plain almonds and frozen unsweetened fruit. I don’t really feel like egg whites everyday either…What I would like is some easy peazy cereal before work, but that may not be a good idea.

I know a lot of personal trainers. They know a lot about staying healthy and fit, and what foods one should eat to be healthy. I have learned a lot over the last few years, and I can tell you one thing for certain.. cereal is the devil.

Day 4: Working Does The Body Good

Here I am at the end of day 4. I gotta say, as much as going back to work after a long weekend sucks, it is very helpful when trying to diet. There are no temptations at my job. Sometimes we have a big container of nuts, but besides that there is only water. So today was a very successful day. I did have some tortilla chips with salad tonight for dinner, which wasn’t sugar, but made me feel gross. I started to feel that need for something sweet afterwards, so I went for a run and eventually it went away. Each day gets a little easier!

Here is a link about the “Sugar Busters! Diet” Which tells you which foods to eat and not eat. I must say they have a lot of protein choices that I do not eat (kinda a vegetarian).. According to this diet sugar is toxic!

Day 2 Continued: Memorial Day BBQ

Well folks, it is only day number 2 and I am faced with a tough food challenge. It is Memorial Day weekend and like many other people this weekend, we are having a BBQ. Nothing too big, but there is plenty of food aka: temptations to be eaten. 

One of the toughest parts of being on a diet is making it through special events, parties, etc.. today is one of those instances. Not only is it a matter of self control, but when people ask you to try something or ask why you aren’t eating something, it can be hard explaining to them that you are trying to eat healthy/diet. I am used to people’s groans, or ” Oh c’mon it isn’t that bad for you, just have some”, and me being the one with very little self control will say, ” Oh you are right, why not just a few bites?!” BUT NOT TODAY! 

Here is the food situation I am dealing with right now. 

-Hamburgers & Hot dogs (don’t eat meat so, that was easy)

– Mozzarella and tomato basil salad ( acceptable for consumption, but not too much cheese!)

– Fruit salad with fruit dip. ( already had my fruit for the day, so going to have to avoid that..which will be hard.Fruit dip is amazing.)

– Chips and dip ( absolutely not.)

So I will stick to the special co-slaw I made which consists of co-slaw mix (plain cabbage with some carrot) and oil and vinegar. I also will be eating a veggie burger. Debating on whether or not putting it on a bun would be ok, but if the bun has more than like 2 G of sugar I will not. 

Ok, thanks for letting me fill you in on the trials and tribulations of the day. I will be sure to let you know how it went tomorrow.

 

Day 2: What Is The Deal With Fruit?

Desmond loves apples

It is day 2 of my low sugar diet and I am feeling great. Last night I hit up a Red Socks game where my self control was really tested. Everywhere I turned there were people with soft serve ice cream, and that ice cream was covered in rainbow sprinkles. It is funny because I told myself after my 21 days I would treat myself to something, and that thing would be soft serve with rainbow sprinkles. I didn’t cave though!

So I am still trying to understand the “rules” of this diet. I guess they are whatever I want them to be, but I don’t want to think I accomplished something if in fact I am still taking in way too much sugar. I will say this though, if I can go 21 days without eating candy or chocolate then that is an accomplishment in itself.

Anyways, I am going to try to cut back as much as possible. Started out the day with non-fat plain Greek yogurt, which apparently has 9 grams of sugar in a serving. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? This is plain as can be and still they managed to shove a bunch of sugar in it. I would not want to know what it would taste like with 0 grams of sugar, blah. I did cut up a few (only 2) strawberries into the yogurt and had a packet of almonds. The almonds also plain still managed to have 1 gram of sugar in them. So as of now I am probably up to around 10 grams. Ah well, such is life. That will be my fruit consumption for the day.

Here is a list of fruits that are low in sugar:

-Lemon and Lime
-Rhubarb
-Raspberries
-Blackberries
-Cranberries

Fruits Low to Medium in Sugar

-Strawberries
-Casaba Melon
-Papaya
-Watermelon
-Peaches
-Nectarines
-Blueberries
-Cantaloupes
-Honeydew melons
-Apples
-Guavas
-Apricots (fresh, not dried)
-Grapefruit