A few of my favorite things ...

I've been looking back through my blog, trying to remember what we ate last time we did this.  It seemed like a good idea to put ALL of the recipes that I loved in ONE place for me this time, for anyone else doing a Whole30 who needs inspiration.

My FAVORITE recipe recommendation when someone talks about getting sick of eggs: Sweet Potato Hash !!!  Do NOT skip the paleo bacon! (I link to what I use later in this post)  I am making it for breakfast for the week and it's the one thing I look forward to the most!  Add avocado and a fried egg on top for sheer delicious!


Crockpot Balsamic Chicken - I was chicken-thigh-a-phobic before we tried this recipe.  But this recipe - I ALWAYS use thighs!  I despise taking skin off chicken, but I will do it for this recipe. :-)   My kids love this recipe - as in, seconds, thirds, as much as I will let them eat!



Plantain Nachos - Whole30 or not, I will always use this recipe for my taco meat.  The plantain chips are so good they are almost SWYPO.... but it's approved, so I will go with it!



Old School Italian Meat Sauce - I make this, but without the "meat sauce" part. It's my go-to marinara for spaghetti squash, chicken and meatballs.


Good old burger - we splurged on grass fed beef, which we don't normally do. We grilled the burgers and added the Pederson's  bacon (PALEO - no sugar added!!) *

Prosciutto Wrapped Egg Muffins - Perfect for breakfast! Last time I made them, I blended spinach with the eggs and called it "Green eggs and ham" - my daughter had asked for them.  She, of course, hated them (green, ya know) but I loved them! This time I am going to try to put in peppers, onion and more spinach!


And my FAVORITE: Ginger Lime Shrimp. Mostly my favorite because we had them for dinner and my SHRIMP HATING daughter decided she loves shrimp!  It has a great flavor and I am definitely including it in my meal plan in the coming week!





Hubby's favorite - Buffalo Chicken wraps - I cooked ground chicken in ghee and Frank's hot sauce. I loaded that up in a lettuce wrap with celery, avocado and tomato.










*If this is your first Whole30, make SURE you are reading ingredients, NOT just sugar content!  Often times, lunch meats, bacon, ham etc will have a 0g sugar content but there is still sugar used in the preparation, often a rub or brine. THIS COUNTS!! 

Whole30 Week 2 - Fooooooooood

Food Prep Day shall be king around here! Holy cow did that save me SO MUCH TIME!  Of all of my food prep from last week, the only thing I have left is a bit of purple cabbage!  The eggs are all gone (as are the egg muffins), we finished the chicken by Thursday and the ground beef became the taco meat for the kids when we went out on Friday night.  I will be making food prep day a weekly thing around here for SURE! 

Day 8

Breakfast: 2 eggs cooked in the microwave (YUK, could NOT get these right!), leftover portobello mushroom cap with sausage & marinara

PWO: 2 HB egg whites

Lunch: Chicken breast, carrots, sugar snap peas, green peppers

Dinner: Steak, grilled asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, power greens with Tessamae's balsamic dressing.

One cup of coffee in the afternoon

(with coconut milk) and club soda/cranberry with dinner.

Workout: Jamie Eason LiveFit training, day 42: legs

Total Time: 55 min

Total Calories Burned: unknown - left my Garmin at home by accident

I have noticed that when it's lunchtime, I get HHHAANNNGRRRYYYY!!! Like, kids, don't talk to mama, she's about to chew your arm off!  All day long I am just fine, but RIGHT before meals, like while I'm prepping? SOooooo irritable! 

Day 9

Breakfast: Egg muffins (sausage, tomato, spinach), 1 c power greens, banana, coffee w/coconut milk

PWO: 3/4 small sweet potato, 1 HB egg white

Lunch: Steak, carrots, power greens, olives, carrots, tomatoes,  Tessamae's balsamic dressing, coffee w/coconut milk

Dinner: Jicama home fries, chicken, purple cabbage, apples, broccoli w/ Tessamae's Zesty Ranch dressing

Two cup of coffee in the afternoon (with coconut milk) 

Workout: Jamie Eason LiveFit training, day 43: Arms/Abs

Total Time: 95 min

Total Calories Burned: 599 calories

Day 10

Breakfast: Egg muffins (sausage, tomato, spinach), 1 c power greens, 1/2 small sweet potato, coffee w/coconut

milk

PWO: none

Lunch: Chicken breast, carrots, power greens, olives, 2/3 apple with almond

butter. 

Dinner: Hot plate - ground beef, cauliflower, mushrooms, and light coconut milk with curry powder. Served over spaghetti squash with a side of zucchini. 

Two cup of coffee in the afternoon (with coconut milk) 

It looks disgusting
but it was tasty!

Workout: Jamie Eason LiveFit training, day 44: Legs

Total Time: 55 min

Total Calories Burned: 385 calories

Day 11

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach, green peppers and mushrooms. 1/4 avocado, banana and coffee with

coconut milk.

Lunch: Chicken breast, olives, super greens, carrots and Tessamae's vinaigrette. 

Dinner: Balsamic chicken thighs - (OMG DELICIOUS), zoodles with mushrooms and roasted broccoli

One cup of tea at bedtime.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 45: Chest/Abs/Cardio

Total Time: 1 hr 12 min

Total Calories Burned: 393 calories

DESPERATE for chocolate today. Went to workout instead. I think I made the right choice.

Day 12

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, super greens, banana and coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: Tuna lettuce wraps (tuna on lettuce with 1/2 avocado), 1/3 of a green pepper, egg white. 

Dinner: Chicken stir fry (the stir fry sauce from Well Fed minus rice vinegar - I have 2 bottles and both had sugar) with green beans, snow peas, onion, mushroom, broccoli & celery. Side of pineapple. 

One cup of coffee with coconut milk midday and one cup of tea at bedtime.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 46: Shoulders

Total Time: 45 min

Total Calories Burned: unknown - left my Garmin at home again  

SO had to get out of my head today. Lots of outside time today helped.

Day 13

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, super greens, 1/2 avocado, banana and coffee with coconut milk.

BOY did I need carbs today!

Lunch: HB egg, sweet potato, sugar snap peas, a few slices of green pepper

Dinner: Our first attempt eating at a restaurant! BOY was it a challenge! We wound up both getting grassfed ribeye steaks and we split veggie sides - sautéed spinach and green beans. We could have SWORN the spinach had butter, it was soooooo rich, but the server promised he had written dairy allergy on our tag. I wondered later if maybe there was some MSG or just a lot of salt because I had a slight headache. I did get a glass of club soda with lime. We will DEFINITELY be going back once we're done with this - bacon maple ice cream!? Yes please.

One cup of coffee with coconut milk midday and one cup of decaf after dinner with no coconut milk.

Workout: Jamie Eason Livefit Training Day 47: Legs

Total Time: 56 min

Total Calories Burned: 255 cals

We went to the Billy Joel concert Friday night. WOW to see him was amazing! And to think that "before," we would have eaten and drank at dinner, probably gotten a treat to eat during the concert and another drink. I will say, however, that being buzzed WITH everyone else is a lot less irritating that being sober around a bunch of complete drunks!! 

Day 14

Breakfast: Sweet potato & bacon hash, 3 eggs, 1 banana, coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: Large salad with taco meat, plantain chips, tomatoes and a few olives. 

Dinner: Burger with lettuce, tomato & bacon. Sweet potato fries. Green beans.

Workout: Rest Day

Total Time:

Total Calories Burned:

Having a really rough few days. Getting discouraged. I haven't cheated (at least knowingly, but we've only eaten away from home once) and I'm STILL in the "what, my pants are TIGHTER?" phase. I feel so bloated and I am not thinning out as much as I expected.  I keep trying to reevaluate what I'm eating - too much protein, too much fat, not enough greens?  Too much fruit, although I have tried hard to keep it to 1-2 servings a day, usually lunch or earlier. 

We went out last night and I just kept thinking how EASY it would be to just order that glass of wine... have those potatoes on the side of my steak...  Nothing too awful but I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything at this point - shouldn't I be feeling SOMETHING around day 14???   

My kids are CONSTANTLY hungry. I have told them they may eat unrestricted veggies - they want fruit.  They did, however, eat about 3 JUMBO carrots the other day as a snack. I know they are truly hungry if they will eat sugar snap peas, carrots, cucumbers or broccoli. If they ask for fruit (or my little guy, who still asks for crackers daily <3) I tell them to drink a big glass of water. It's working, but I'm always fearful I'm just not feeding them ENOUGH food... 

Anyhow. Long story short, feeling discouraged. Two more weeks will be rough if this continues.

As promised ...

FOOD PORN! 

Ribs (smoked by my amazing hubby), mashed sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli and broiled brussel sprouts !

Proud Mama Moment!! My little guy has scrambled eggs, baby cucumbers, "power greens mix" (spinach, kale, chard) and a Cutie on his plate. I asked him to point to his favorite part of his lunch - he is pointing to the super greens! Doesn't hurt that we tell him greens will make him STRONG!  I'll get him to show those muscles next time he eats it :-) 

Tuna salad with 2 crackers (easing out of carbs!),
as lettuce wraps, with 2 baby cucumbers.

 I am trying to ease myself out of carbs, but once in awhile, I just NEED a cracker. Obviously that will end on Sunday when we begin Whole30. 

An absolute FAVORITE around here. My kids DEVOUR this stuff, as do hubby and I!  We had it twice in one week, it is that good! This time I made it with half ground chicken and half ground beef.  Yum. I am looking forward to making it Whole30 compliant, now that I've found a good substitute for hoisen (recipe in a paleo book!), soy sauce (coconut aminos) and the spice mix! 

Stir fry. LOADS of veggies, amazing steak marinated in 5 spice seasoning. 

My typical lunch and/or breakfast: 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, some kind of fruit (this is a Cara Cara orange, yum!) and "super greens" mix from Costco.

I GET CARDIO THIS WEEK! 

I am prepping myself for this weekend's endeavor. I ran out of half and half and instead of running out for more, I have been cutting out my daily cup (or 4) of coffee. Man, adding cardio and cutting caffeine at the same time - BRUTAL.  Around 2pm, I just want to curl up in a ball and take a NAP!

I've been feeling particularly sassy now that I have muscles :-) 

More menus!

This post is all just meals for the last few days! I am feeling great!! I think I want to start lowering the amount of carbs in our meals (I still feel like we rely on them A LOT) but other than that, I'm really happy with how things are going! There are some "unclean" items in our meals, but as I've mentioned, we're working TOWARDS being completely clean but I also want to use up some of our pantry items that are relatively healthy still.

FRIDAY:

Breakfast:Turkey & egg turnover
Am snack: missed because I was at the Y
Lunch: 17 beans soup; 2 clementines
PM Snack: 1c chopped broccoli, 2Tbsp salsa, 1/4c Greek yogurt
Dinner: Roasted turkey, baked sweet potato, sautéed sugar snap peas & homemade cranberry sauce - DELICIOUS!!
Late Snack: cheese stick
Also had red wine.




SATURDAY:
Breakfast: Breakfast: 2 slices CA protein bread + 2Tbsp natural pb
AM Snack: 4 Ak Mak crackers & 1 egg white
Lunch: 17 beans soup; 2 clementines
PM Snack: coffee
Dinner: steak roll ups, roasted red potatoes/peppers, curried cauliflower.
Late snack: 2 clean eating pb/choc cookies

Red wine



SUNDAY:
Breakfast: 3.5oz Greek yogurt, 1c very cherry frozen berries & 1tbsp flaxseed
Am snack: 1/2 grapefruit, 10 almonds.
Lunch: ww wrap with 3 oz turkey, 1/4 avocado & .5oz pepper jack cheese
PM Snack: 10 carrots, 10 almonds
Dinner: whole wheat fusilli mixed with zucchini, peppers & onions in marinara. Chicken. Salad.





MONDAY:
Breakfast: apple cinnamon steel cut oats
AM Snack: turkey & egg turnover
Lunch: Fusilli leftovers.
PM Snack: got too busy & forgot!!!
Dinner: Tosca Reno's pulled pork poblano verde on whole wheat wraps. Tosca Reno's Spanish rice. Homemade guacamole.
Late PM Snack: Vanilla fruit smoothie.

Prep & Day 1-ish

So I spent today, the last day of 2012, making this:

easier to navigate. I am dragging my husband into this lifestyle with me, so I figure the least I can do is to make it as quick and easy as possible for him to follow when he goes back to work on Wednesday. 

I made this dry erase board (it's not pretty but it serves it's purpose) so that he knows what to grab from the fridge for his snacks and lunch at work. 

Then I prepackaged carrots and snacks. The bags on the right contain AkMak crackers and a hard boiled egg or a Wasa Rye crisp bread and a string cheese. 

I also replaced our Christmas bowl of candy with this bowl full of portioned sunflower seeds, raw cashews and raw almonds.  This should also make thing easier - grabbing proportioned instead of a handful of nuts could prevent us from overeating!

We did pretty well today and followed our eating plan to the letter! 

Breakfast: Turkey & Egg turnover (couldn't find uncured ham without added sugar!) & 2 clementines. 

AM snack: 15 raw cashews & 1/2 cup strawberries

Lunch: WW wrap with 3oz turkey, 1oz sharp white cheddar cheese, 1/4 avocado and a handful of lettuce. Apple.

PM Snack: Vanilla Fruit smoothie (1 c milk, 1/4c protein powder, 1/2c blueberries, 1 sm banana) - just a note. I LOATHE smoothies but this, this was edible! I almost had a moment where I almost liked it!

Almost.

Dinner we had planned to have heavy apps (read: UNCLEAN) for dinner to celebrate New Year's Eve. We did. I ate some cookies and drank moscato. But tomorrow AM we're back to it. And hopefully I will be hitting the gym to start out 2013 on the right foot!! 

Happy New Year!

2013: Clean Eating

After the beach, hubby and I agree we've just kind of given up. We've been eating and drinking whatever we please, not focusing on the goals we had for ourselves and letting ourselves get to a bad place. 

It all ends tomorrow! 

After doing a lot of research and having a few friends who have moved to a clean eating lifestyle, we've decided to give it a try.  I can't buy into just throwing away everything in my current pantry, so we will be working through that (mostly pasta, white flour, etc) by mixing it into the "new" stuff. 

I spent the better part of 2 days pouring over Clean Eating Magazine, He and She Eat Clean, The Gracious Pantry and random Pinterest sites. I found meal plans, different "rules" at every site and all kinds of different recipes. 

Saturday my family and I set out to shop for our new clean lifestyle. We started at Trader Joe's. 

I picked up: 

whole wheat pizza dough (for the ham & cheese turnovers)

whole wheat pasta (fusilli and penne) 

chicken sausages 

California Protein bread

whole wheat mini pitas

quinoa

Israeli cous cous

fennel bulbs

raw cashews

raw sunflower seeds

frozen mixed berries x 3

frozen tuna steaks

brown jasmine rice

Ak Mak crackers

17 bean soup mix 

By the end of my TJ's trip, I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed. Reading labels, trying to remember all the "rules" I read.... 

Then we headed straight to Whole Foods. There I picked up: 

Kefir (although I found it MUCH cheaper and the same brand at Aldi today!)

Sprouted grain hamburger buns

English muffins

Unsweetened coconut flakes

Wasa Rye Crisps

After those two stores, I was WIPED OUT! I was frazzled and overwhelmed at the thought of what I was supposed to be doing.  

I came home, regrouped and updated my grocery list. Today, with fresh eyes, I headed to Aldi to find the remainder of my list. 

We picked up: 

blackberries

strawberries

zucchini

frozen corn

turkey breasts (we will be smoking these tomorrow and using it instead of lunchmeat from now on)

celery

clementines

Kefir

cottage cheese

feta

parmesan cheese

ground chicken breasts

sirloin steaks

grapes

grapefruit

red onions

stoplight peppers

(highlighted foods I would love to ease out of our diets in the next few months!)

SO after spending a small fortune on groceries, I sat down to meal plan the next two weeks.  The biggest challenge for me is going to be, hands down, eating 5-6 times a day. I am the queen of waking up, having some coffee, heading to the gym for my 2hrs of workout, having lunch, snacking through the day and then everything goes downhill from there! 

I spent close to 2 hours today looking at meal plans and plotting out every bite I will take for the next two weeks.  I'm sure I will make some tweaks here and there, but this is my blueprint! 

This will definitely be an adventure for us. I am not FORCING this on my kids, although to a degree they will follow it because I cook. :-)  My hubby, though, is on board. Both of us are sick of feeling "gross" and ready to be the healthiest parents we can be!

I will be quitting processed sugar, but allowing fruit and allowing natural sugars as well (honey, molasses) in moderation. I am trying to get to a place where we are eating 5 or less ingredients, but that will come. 

I met with the circuit class teacher that I LOVE a few weeks ago and worked out with her. I wanted her to evaluate what I do and what I can improve. Her suggestions to me were to do cardio for 30-60 minutes at least 5 days/week and to do 5 min of ab work every other day. I haven't started to implement that (we are SO out of routine with my husband home on vacation and my daughter not in school!) but it's my plan starting Thursday!

So here's my (anticipated) plan: 

Mon: Arm/back lifting routine, cardio plus class (30m), circuit class (45m)

Tues: Ab routine, Yoga (1hr,15m)

Wed: Leg lifting routine, cardio plus class (30m), circuit class (45m)

Thurs; Spin class (55m)

Fri: Off

Sat: Long run

Sun: Off

I registered for my third half marathon this week.  I will be running the Go! St. Louis half marathon the first weekend in April. Excited to be training again!! I am going to do it right this time - getting in my long runs come hell or high water!!  I am hoping that my clean eating will aid in my running and I will get faster. My goal time is between 2hr and 2hr15min. 

I will post soon with my updated stats. I can tell you I'm up - WAY up - in my weight. :( All the working out in the world couldn't counteract the food and booze I've ingested in the last three months. I've fully earned my new measurements, but don't worry about me - it's coming off and it'll come off FAST, I will see to it!

Got Oatmeal?

Good. Now go make BOTH of these recipes.

Right now.

Two people from different parts of the country shared recipes with me last week and even though the recipes were very similar, I decided I needed to make them both. At the same time.  And boy, am I sorry I did, because I CANNOT STOP EATING THEM! 

The first recipe, from Weelicious, is for a delicious granola bar. I tweaked JUST a little - here's the original recipe from Weelicious, then my amendments are in red. 

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Ingredients

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut I can't find unsweetened, so I did use the sweet kind
• 1/3 cup brown sugar Omitted but sprinkled about 1Tbsp on top
• 1 cup chocolate chips* Didn't have any, but I chopped up a Hershey's bar to mix in.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil I used coconut oil instead
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Almond extract, because I adore nothing more in the world than the smell of almond extract.
• 1/2 cup honey

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
5. Place granola mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a rectangle, about 13 x 9 x 1 inch thick.
6. Bake for 40 minutes.
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then cut into 3 x 1 inch bars.**
8. Serve.
* You can substitute raisins or other dried fruit for the chocolate chips.
** Individually wrapped, the bars will remain fresh for several weeks.

I thought I messed up somehow (maybe leaving out the brown sugar) because I was too impatient and started trying to eat them AS SOON AS THEY CAME OUT OF THE OVEN!  However, I had to leave and get the kiddo from school and when I came back - solid! Yay!

The kids have LOVED these and I'm not going to lie, I haven't stopped eating them either! I think the crumbles (from before I let them set up) will be FANTASTIC mixed into Greek oatmeal or even with some warm milk over top! (maybe with the honey Greek frozen yogurt I have outside in the freezer?!)



The second recipe was a suggestion of a friend, and she said to make sure you have people to share them with, because they are slightly additctive.

That was a HUGE understatement! These things are PHENOMENAL!  They are a no bake peanut butter chocolate cookie.  The recipe can be found at The Gracious Pantry under the title "Mini Chef’s No-Bake Cookies." 

Clean Eating No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla - Again, I used almond
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter I used Smucker's Natural (peanuts + salt!)
• 1/4 cup psyllium husks (you can substitute with wheat germ or oat bran too.) I used Flaxseed
• 2 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon.
2. Spoon 20-24 small balls of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.
3. Remove sheet from freezer and transfer the cookies from the parchment to a Tupperware dish with a good fitting lid. The best way to remove them from the parchment is to get a good grip and twist slightly.

Store in the freezer (if you have any left over to store – don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

These are awesome for energy! I have LOVED popping one in my mouth before I head to the gym (or any other time) because I feel like they are an energy POWERHOUSE! Peanut butter, chia, flax.... seriously delicious too. Mine haven't left the freezer, I like the frozen texture of the honey.

So if you need snack foods - these should be your go-to's. Obviously it's not a great idea for someone in the early IQS stages, but honey is on my "natural ok" list for where I am in my journey - I haven't felt any adverse reactions, cravings, pain, etc., since eating these.

So check them out, try them out, let me know what you think. I think the granola bars would be DELICIOUS with some kind of dried fruit - raisins or cherries.  And there is NOTHING to improve upon for the cookies :-)

Save!

This hunk of rosemary olive oil bread saved my booty from eating sugar tonight! Stress upon stress today, but I stayed strong. Juiced for lunch, which I've missed with the kitchen remodel having my cooking space out of commission.

Yum yum!

Juicing

Taking another step towards healthy!

My mom was in town this weekend and has been doing a lot of juicing. I am NOT a fan of "thick" drinks. My husband makes a fruit smoothie every.single.morning for himself and the kiddos, but the thickenss of it just makes me gag. So when my mom said "Let's go get a juicer and you can see if you like it!"  I was NOT on board.

We did that Saturday. After we picked up the juicer, we went to Whole Foods and loaded up on greens, veggies and a few pieces of fruit. When we got home, we set up the juicer and got to work.

This was our "recipe" the first day:

Kale
Carrots
Cucumbers
2 Apples
3 Ribs of Celery
1 Lemon
About 1" of fresh ginger

It smelled like freshly mowed grass - and it tasted WORSE!!

So the second day, after a little research, I tried something different.  I got rid of the celery, which I read can make the juice bitter. I swapped the lemon for an orange.  I split my greens between watercress and kale and only used 1 apple.  That was INCREDIBLE!

Then this morning, I skipped the apple and orange - and added PINEAPPLE - omg soo good!!

Today my "recipe" was:

1/4 of a fresh pineapple
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach
Watercress

It was sooooo goood!

Am I doing a "juice cleanse"? Nope. I'm not even doing it more than once a day. At this point, it's just a morning thing for me. I want it to get the extra nutrition from veggies that I don't normally eat or enjoy.

I plan to get a few different things from the grocery store in the next few weeks, including parsnips and beets. I will, for now, continue to add one to two pieces of fruit to my juice until I can tolerate the greens on their own. I don't think I'm getting TOO much sugar out of it if I'm just having a small glass of juice and in the long run, I'm getting a lot of nutritional value that I wouldn't have otherwise.

 If you juice, what is your favorite combination? 

And in case you're wondering, I did not hit my magical GOAL number for weigh in this week. :( I gained 1lb because I took the weekend off from counting points and working out. My mom was in town and that is my cue to go out to eat, enjoy and indulge :-) I deserve those weekends once in awhile. Goal is waiting for me, hopefully next week!

I managed to make it to yoga this morning. I've talked Jen into taking a spin class with me tomorrow night. My hubby is going back too. Then I will have Pilates on Thursday and another spin class on Friday morning. I'm hoping that Mother's Day finds us with good weather so that we can go out for a family bike ride (with the little guy in the trailer and my big girl on her trail-behind bike attached to mine!)

60 Minutes video

So this quitting sugar thing is really catching a lot of media attention!  60 Minutes had a great story last Sunday about sugar as a toxin!

Click here to see it. VERY worth the time to watch.

Starting Week Six

Saturday started week 6 of my no sugar journey.  And I'm still learning things!
For example, my mom called me today and informed me that table salt has added -- yes, you got it -- SUGAR! Why? Apparently the process used to refine salt into "table" salt makes it bitter. Add some sugar (dextrose, specifically) and Voilà! Table salt!

I feel like I'm becoming a more informed consumer. I'm reading a book called Suicide by Sugar.  In it, the author discusses different afflictions from sugar, the hazards and also the dangers of maltodextrin. Wikipedia defines maltodextrin as such:

Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a creamy-white hygroscopic spraydried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose, and might be either moderately sweet or almost flavorless. It is commonly used for the production of sodas and candy. It can also be found as an ingredient in a variety of other processed foods.

 What I get from this scientific paragraph? "Maltodextrin is bad and we should avoid it." (ok, maybe it's from a combination of not understanding more than 10 words above and the stuff I have read in the Suicide by Sugar book. :-))

So I'm slowly moving my family to whole foods - maltodextrin is present in almost every pre-packaged food I've looked at, from spice mixes to marinated pork tenderloin.

I'm really leaning on a local produce co-op that we've been using for awesome veggies. I'm looking forward to getting back to some fruit soon (2 weeks!) and we always get lots of great tasting stuff!  I'm experimenting with different ways to make old favorites. I got a recipe from a friend for Oatmeal waffles that I'm just leaving the brown sugar out of the recipe. They taste GREAT now, with some pecans chopped up on top.  My daughter loved them with applesauce and hubby had a little powdered sugar and butter.   I made sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving - instead of putting in 1/2 cup of brown sugar and covering them in marshmallows, I used butter and cinnamon. They were a big hit!

My cravings aren't completely gone. I was making our Advent calendar for this Christmas season tonight and purchased a bag of my (formerly) favorite holiday candies -

Hershey's mint miniatures!  (The dark chocolate/mint was my favorite)    It was all I could do not to open every single one and eat them. So no, my cravings aren't GONE. But did I eat them all? Nope. Did I even eat one? Nope. Instead, I went and got some peppermint chocolate tea.  NOT the same, but definitely satisfied the craving in a sufficient way!


So here goes week 6 in the journey. I will be posting some updated stats soon. I will say that as of my weigh in last week, I was 1.5lbs from my first weight loss goal!