Day 5

Even though making it from Monday to Friday doesn't seem super impressive, I'm impressed with myself. The first day was a little crazy, but it was Day One, so I made it. The next few days revealed more to me how used to ingesting large amounts of sugar I really am.

I was getting a little tired of my spinach salad, cold chicken, pistachios and a green apple for lunch/dinner, so I tried to spice it up last night. So I went to Aldi and bought EVERYTHING I saw that I was allowed to eat. A ton of food for a reasonable $100...stocked up for the next few weeks and felt less sad about my current dietary restrictions.

Last night, after my wondrous shopping spree, I had Brussels sprouts, Italian turkey sausage, and acorn squash for dinner. The squash tasted like dessert to me (never ever ever thought I'd say that)!

Today, I had an egg and a half for breakfast, because that second egg was making me feel yucky.

Lunch was cottage cheese with pumpkin pie spice sprinkles on it, more Brussels, and a grapefruit.
Besides the fact that I've never voluntarily eaten a grapefruit before, my lunch was great! I just had no idea how to non-messily tackle the yellow monster of a fruit that left a huge puddle after I finished mangling the slices out of the peel. My coworker told me that the rind is what makes grapefruit taste so bitter, so I spent extra time excavating it out of the rind... and she was right! It was quite enjoyable.

Dinner was a big salad with a little cottage cheese, peppers, red cabbage, onion, and tomatoes on it with olive oil and some salt/pepper. It was actually an incredibly enjoyable salad. I'd forgotten what a staple big salads were for me at Iowa State when I had a meal plan and tried to avoid the pizza line, the waffle line, the fried chicken line (I swear there was a soul food line at my dining center) and always went straight to the salad bar and ate a giant salad. Lost 30 pounds doing that! I also had another acorn squash but it must have been overripe or something because it tasted awful so I ditched it.

My one sad moment of the day came when I stopped at Starbucks near my apartment. They had all these reusable cold cups on sale for 75% off, and I thought it would be handy to get a few (I bought 3 for $5.55, NICE!). So anyway, the barista who knew me asked, "Don't you want to get your iced green tea in one of those?" so I caved and said sure. Well she had made it the last time, so she knew no classic syrup. I assumed the other girl (who is new but was there the last time as well) would remember. So she filled my trenta-sized cup up with green tea, and I even asked, "No sweetener, right?" but she'd gotten distracted finding me a bag for the other two cups. So I walked to my car and fumbled with my keys for a while before I actually took a sip... Sugar, gloooorious sugar awaited me in that sip. I didn't have the heart to take it back into the store because she's brand new and super nice and already got confused on the cash register. When I was a new barista, I felt so stupid when I made a drink wrong, even if the person was super nice about it. So I dumped it. All 31 ounces.
First major decision I had to make... and I was pleased with myself for not caving.
I LOVE me some sweetened iced green tea from Starbucks.

ANYWAY, basically I can only drink water, whole milk, coconut milk, or coconut water, and I'm not a fan of dairy much, so I've been sticking to water.

Sunday weigh in is tomorrow! I'll let you know if I've shed some of the terrifying bloat I faced last week.

A life without sugar is no life at all.

You know what breakfast generally includes?

Sugar.

Cereal, toast, granola bars, yogurt... pretty much anything I eat for breakfast has sugar in it. I generally grab a belVita bar as I run headlong out the door, hoping I'm not late for school even though the clock says I most likely will be. 

So the first morning, I woke up a little too late (as usual), scrambled around my apartment getting ready (as usual), and only had about three minutes until I absolutely HAD to leave when I realized I had not yet eaten breakfast or packed a lunch. Generally, I could pretty much accomplish both of those things in three minutes. Shove a granola bar into my face for breakfast, grab a can of soup and a tupperware bowl for lunch, aaaaaand done. 

Monday was a little more rough. I quickly set a frying pan on a burner, started it, and threw some spinach, almonds, olive oil, onions, and tomatoes into a tupperware (thank goodness I'd chopped up so many vegetables for tacos the other day).
Then, because I hadn't actually cracked the eggs onto the frying pan yet, my Super Sensitive smoke detectors went off, which is always unpleasant, but especially at 6:50 in the morning (sorry, neighbors). So I ran around crazily flapping a towel at BOTH of them (why does my 500 sq. ft. studio have two?) and then fried the eggs. I slammed down the eggs (not a pleasant experience), and ran out the door.

The rest of the day went about the same. I don't know if anyone's ever tried to convince you that a spinach salad with vegetables and olive oil with some almonds and pistachios is a satisfying lunch, but they were lying. I did not enjoy that, and I did not enjoy the few hours in between lunch and home when I could eat a snack. The vending machine only has peanuts, and I am not supposed to have peanuts or cashews (darn you, Diane Sanfilippo). So, I was hungry.

When I got home, I had some chicken on another spinach salad, and felt sort of sad and defeated, but pretty healthy at least. I told myself Gwyneth was probably eating an even healthier meal somewhere.

I did try to make some "pancakes" that were basically 2 tablespoons coconut flour, 2 tablespoons coconut milk, and 2 eggs, but the coconut flour was not texturally pleasing and it didn't taste much like a pancake. I did smother it in sunbutter (sunflower seed "peanut butter") and that greatly improved my mediocre pancake experience. There is a more promising pancake recipe in the book with pumpkin and coconut oil... I'll try that and hopefully have better results.

I've basically had vegetables, almonds, pistachios, chicken, and water the past two days. Which isn't fun, but I haven't felt sick from overeating/eating crappy food yet, and that is a beautiful thing.

I know this seems crazy (believe me, I missed chocolate within five seconds of my first day), but I'm an all-or-nothing type of person. I figured I'd do better starting super strict and easing up a little bit later than pretending I was going to suddenly start eating well without strict rules.

This hasn't been a super interesting post... mostly because there's really nothing exciting or interesting about not eating sugar... BUT when I try a good recipe, I'll put it on here.

Oh yeah, better hit the gym today!

21 Days Without Sugar? Say It Ain't So...

Last New Years, I decided to go vegan for a year. I'd done vegetarian for a year, so I figured I'd take it to the next level. Well, it didn't go very well. I lasted about two months, which, I will say, was good enough for me. I was also living in Omaha teaching ELL at Creighton, and I had almost no spending money. One thing about eating vegan (or eating well in general) that I didn't prepare for is that it's fairly expensive. So, after two months of baaaarely scraping up enough money to buy the vegan versions of things like donuts (because who's going to swear off donuts for a year...?), and not taking the time to plan ahead for cheaper options, I decided to stop eating vegan. I may have also been influenced by my March trip to Seattle, as my older sister had my whole trip planned around food, and some of it was definitely NOT vegan. Also, I think it's hard to eat as strictly as vegan requires without the strong convictions that usually come along with veganism, so I just didn't make the cut. I know another Leah who's super vegan and loves it, and I always feel I failed her some small way. Sorry, Leah! You are a stronger woman than I am.
I did manage to stay vegetarian for quite a few months after that though...(which would have lasted longer but my summer trip to California-- trip to In-N-Out Burger-- cut vegetarianism short, and who can blame me for that?).

Point being that my food resolutions/diets/crazy ideas don't always go well. There was that time I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and thought FOR SURE that I needed to do a 30-day juice cleanse. Oh, no big deal, I thought. The first few days will be rough, but then I'll love it and feel great and be so healthy that I glow. So I got about 12 hours into drinking kale/cucumber/lime juices (which, by the way, taste EXACTLY like freshly cut grass) and actually gagged each time I thought about my next "meal" (if you don't chew it, is it really a meal?). I was working two jobs and my first night at my second job happened to be Day One of my juice fast. I'd even bought a juicer. So I got off work at my first job and thought NO. I already had a caffeine headache and I felt wobbly. I didn't want to wobble too hard during my first day as a barista-in-training. So I stopped at a gas station to get something healthy... and walked out with a giant Diet Coke and a huge bag o' Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Oops.

So when I heard about this book The 21 Day Sugar Detox, and saw a few people post about it on Facebook, I immediately dismissed it. No sugar? No way. I eat sugar constantly. Even when I was in crazy diet mode and lost 30 pounds one semester, I ate sugar. Every day. Mostly dark chocolate. I'd get a donut once in a while, but I limited it. Not to mention the sugars in most of my "healthy" meals, such as bran flakes, wheat bread, and salad dressing. But, I kept thinking about it. I kept thinking about how horrified I felt even imaging cutting out sugar (and only for 21 days!). So, I ordered the book on Amazon. I figured I could leaf through it and if it seemed too crazy, I'd send it back.

I got it, leafed through it, and felt convinced. Diane Sanfilippo not only gave instructions about how to do a 21 day sugar detox, she also gave reasons why it may be a good idea. Have a hard time sleeping at night? Have bad cramps? Have a weirdly strong attachment to/need for sugar? Have bad skin? Want those things to change? Try this.

21 days, in all honesty, isn't THAT long. I mean, the thought of 21 days without a donut is sad, but so is sleeping poorly, gaining weight, and feeling shlumpy after every meal. And that's what my fall and winter have been like so far. I've been the most stressed of my life with my first year teaching job, and I have gained about 8 pounds since moving to Des Moines. Oh, 8 pounds isn't the end of the world, but it's a lot for someone who, up til this point, had basically only seen downward motion on the scale the past four years. I gained about 7 back last year when I traveled, worked 3 jobs, and totally gave up working out in favor of sleep.

I had lost about 55 pounds, but the past year sapped my motivation, and now my number is only about 35-45 depending on the month. (Seriously, my weight fluctuates that much). So when I got on the scale on Sunday for my first weigh-in, I felt sad, but not surprised. I'd been eating badly and neglecting to work out the entire fall. I go to school, come home, collapse, and do it all over again. I have been the least motivated to work out AND eat well this fall. I can't remember a time I've felt so unmotivated. And I'm beginning to notice that not only in how my pants fit but also in how I look and feel about myself. Even if I'll never be a slender model, I want to feel healthy and fit. To be honest, I'm neither of those things right now.

So, with that lovely backstory in mind, I decided to try it.
I generally eat at least one sweet thing per meal, and that does not include all the other sugars my salty things have. So, I generally eat sugar all day long. Even when I ate very carefully, I ate sugar. My dessert would be a 100-calorie pack or something else small but still sweet. So this is going to be a challenge.

If you want an honest, probably somewhat sarcastic, self-deprecating, occasionally whiny perspective of the 21DSD, this is the place! I'll keep you posted.