Happy Monday!! How did you all go with Lee's Quinoa Porridge over the weekend? We made it up here but added amaranth and cacao powder as well. Yummo! I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have wanted some fresh berries or a drizzle of honey though - such is the whole quitting sugar thing.
If you didn't already know, I’ve decided to experiment with eating no
sugars for a period of 6-8weeks to:
a) See if I can do it; I have a love affair with Loving Earth’s Coconut
Mylk Chocolate that has recently gotten a little outta control
b) See how I feel; Sarah Wilson followers will know that she says she
got a mind and body that is clear and clean (what’s interesting is that I also
had this same feeling as a high-carb raw vegan follower; ie. I was eating
truckloads of fruit, but this only lasted up until a certain point). Over the past
year though, little by little, my fruit intake has dwindled as I’ve listened to
my body more, felt teeth tizzles and headaches from 2 medjool dates, and needed
afternoon naps just to get me through my days.
Sarah said she
felt she needed to quit sugar because she knew she was an addict – a sugar
addict – but not with soft drinks, lollies, or sugar in her tea, which is
similar to me… both Sarah was, and I am starting to end the addictions we have
had to the hidden stuff; the “healthy” stuff – honey, coconut sugar, dark chocolate (mainly) and fruit.
I was always wanting something sweet to “finish a meal” as if it wasn’t
complete with it some dark chocolate, date and coconut rolls, a raw food bar,
or the like. Now this in itself isn’t a bad thing, but feeling as though I
would go mad if I couldn’t get my hands on something sweet, even something
tiny, after lunch and dinner, then that’s definitely not a good thing. In
addition to this, I’ve been struggling with fatigue and exhaustion, thyroid,
adrenal and blood sugar problems, and just had to give it a go. It might help
after all. Why wouldn’t I try it?
Will me diet improve sans the stuff...
I’m doing this for 8 weeks (having read and now following Sarah's program here), and have already spent 2 weeks watching where I was eating unnecessary sugars and using
that awareness to make alternative meal choices (such as a few pieces of
chocolate would instead turn into a few macadamia nuts). Today begins my Week 2. My partner has very kindly decided he’s going to
do this with me, in support, but also for stress-free-kitchen escapades over
these 8 weeks. Good thinking.
So what am I eating instead?
With no fruits, no dried fruits, my beloved acai, honey, yacon syrup, raw chocolates, and a few other delicious morsels that entered my mouth quite frequently, the rest hasn't changed much;
Brekkie is often two Happy eggs (a farm up here in Far NQ), and then some sauteed zucchini or cabbage with bean sprouts, or
sauerkraut and mushies, avocado, leafy greens...
Or a bowl of warm cooked oats, quinoa or amaranth with added cinnamon, coconut oil,
cacao, coconut flakes, activated walnuts and maybe a little blob of plain Coyo.
Lunches are more often than not left over dinner as I'm still having to stick to cooked foods (read more about that here and here) so let's go straight there...
Dinners can be lentil bolognese or tomato red
kidney bean mix (with no pasta) on cooked veggies, stir fry veggies sometimes Slim Pasta (which is made from an Asian plant called konjac; super high in fibre with no calories so great for weight loss, but also wheat free, inexpensive, filling for work lunches, and delicious in any meal as they have next-to-no flavour of their own), some quiche or
frittata (if eggs weren’t brekkie that day), salmon and veg, quinoa cook-up,
brown rice with something delicious, roast vegetables, or something else.
Snacks are Coyo yoghurt with
buckini’s or walnuts, a few of Lee Holme’s Butternut Cookies, cups of tea or bone broth (which I will write more on shortly), a
few macadamias, a homemade fruit-free icy pole, a few mouthfuls of tuna, or some coconut water with brown rice protein powder.
So today is officially Day 8 and so far
so good. I have had a few cranky-pants episodes, and a couple of days feeling
totally exhausted, but I’m not sure how much of that may be from quitting
sugar, or from my exhaustion that I’ve been trying to heal through everything
else – quitting sugar included.
I’ll be keeping you all in the loop so you know how
things are traveling' the good, the bad and the ugly. The recipes I'll be posting over this time will all be sugar free as well so make sure you try some. They will all be great for kids! If you want to grab yourself a copy of Sarah's recipe book or the 8-week program, you can get them at her website here.
Until next post...
I feed my body NUTRITIOUS foods for optimum HEALTH, ENERGY and peak performance.
Christie x
