My fiance and I have been on the quest to eat "cleaner." I define it as eating foods without refined sugars, processed materials and so on... He recently read a book "It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways"by Dallas and Melissa Harwig that discusses a 30 day reset of your eating habits to create a healthier relationship with food - accompanied by stunning improvements
in sleep, energy levels, mood and self-esteem. More significantly, many
people have reported the "magical" elimination of a variety of
symptoms, diseases and conditions - in just 30 days.
Before this process, I don't believe we ate too terribly. Sure, we had to occasional pig out on pizza or ice cream but we didn't really eat too many things that were processed, we used natural ingredients like butter (yes, butter is good for you), coconut oil, fruits, cage-free/grass-fed chicken and beef. The only vice I had was SUGAR. I had a daily "coffee"; an iced vanilla latte and occasionally a raspberry scone from Peets. I'd tried to cut back sugar already by drinking water as opposed to juice and soda, ixnay the candy and I'd stopped baking macarons and sweets (even as I baked, I didn't eat nearly as many as I had thought I would). My sugars came from daily coffees (sometimes twice a day) and desserts. I LOVE dessert. I could eat it 3 times a day and at one point in my life, I had been doing so. My fiancee suggested taking this challenge and I reluctantly accepted. I wasn't sure I could go a whole 30 days without sugar and because I don't drink anything but vanilla lattes (black coffee and coffee with creamer just taste wrong to me) so this would also reduce my caffeine intake.
So far, its been 1 week and 1 day since we have started. The first three days were ROUGH for me. They say that when you give up sugar you may experience mood swings, become lethargic...yeah, I had all of THAT. I wanted to shank anything that made me upset. So, the paperclip that fell on the floor, my fiance talking, the sky for being blue were not my friends those few days. While processed sugar is not allowed, natural sugar is but only in fruit form. Orange/Apple juice isn't allowed because 1) juice you buy in a box from the store is sugared and 2) it takes a lot of oranges to squeeze just to get juice into a box and that is way more intake that you need. Since its fall, we've been buying apples and i've been eating about 3 a day. I also buy a small coconut juice with pulp every couple days or so. The coconuts are from Thailand and are sweeter than Zico or Vita Coco. And if you look at the ingredients in the Taste Nirvana coconut juice the only ingredients are coconut juice and pulp (if you buy it with the pulp). I also drink Egyptian Licorice Root tea. This tea doesn't contain sugar but the aftertaste is really sweet. So I've been drinking that for my morning routine instead of coffee. I'm still trying to find ways around the no-sugar pledge. Tomorrow's experiment: coconut milk to add into my coffee. I hear that its creamy and sweet and has no processed or additional sugars!
Here is the coconut juice I'm drinking. They have bigger sizes and you can buy it with aloe but I hear you shouldn't drink too much of it as it contains high amounts of potassium and too much potassium can be bad for you.
And here is the licorice root tea I'm drinking. Licorice root in large amounts is not good for you as it may cause high blood pressure. I usually drink 1-3 cups a day. Benefits can be seen here.
And here is the book my fiancé is reading that kick started this challenge. You can find it in Amazon here:
1 week and 1 day down.... 3 more to go!
Do you think you can cut back sugar for 30 days?
Before this process, I don't believe we ate too terribly. Sure, we had to occasional pig out on pizza or ice cream but we didn't really eat too many things that were processed, we used natural ingredients like butter (yes, butter is good for you), coconut oil, fruits, cage-free/grass-fed chicken and beef. The only vice I had was SUGAR. I had a daily "coffee"; an iced vanilla latte and occasionally a raspberry scone from Peets. I'd tried to cut back sugar already by drinking water as opposed to juice and soda, ixnay the candy and I'd stopped baking macarons and sweets (even as I baked, I didn't eat nearly as many as I had thought I would). My sugars came from daily coffees (sometimes twice a day) and desserts. I LOVE dessert. I could eat it 3 times a day and at one point in my life, I had been doing so. My fiancee suggested taking this challenge and I reluctantly accepted. I wasn't sure I could go a whole 30 days without sugar and because I don't drink anything but vanilla lattes (black coffee and coffee with creamer just taste wrong to me) so this would also reduce my caffeine intake.
So far, its been 1 week and 1 day since we have started. The first three days were ROUGH for me. They say that when you give up sugar you may experience mood swings, become lethargic...yeah, I had all of THAT. I wanted to shank anything that made me upset. So, the paperclip that fell on the floor, my fiance talking, the sky for being blue were not my friends those few days. While processed sugar is not allowed, natural sugar is but only in fruit form. Orange/Apple juice isn't allowed because 1) juice you buy in a box from the store is sugared and 2) it takes a lot of oranges to squeeze just to get juice into a box and that is way more intake that you need. Since its fall, we've been buying apples and i've been eating about 3 a day. I also buy a small coconut juice with pulp every couple days or so. The coconuts are from Thailand and are sweeter than Zico or Vita Coco. And if you look at the ingredients in the Taste Nirvana coconut juice the only ingredients are coconut juice and pulp (if you buy it with the pulp). I also drink Egyptian Licorice Root tea. This tea doesn't contain sugar but the aftertaste is really sweet. So I've been drinking that for my morning routine instead of coffee. I'm still trying to find ways around the no-sugar pledge. Tomorrow's experiment: coconut milk to add into my coffee. I hear that its creamy and sweet and has no processed or additional sugars!
Here is the coconut juice I'm drinking. They have bigger sizes and you can buy it with aloe but I hear you shouldn't drink too much of it as it contains high amounts of potassium and too much potassium can be bad for you.
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| www.tastenirvana.com |
And here is the licorice root tea I'm drinking. Licorice root in large amounts is not good for you as it may cause high blood pressure. I usually drink 1-3 cups a day. Benefits can be seen here.
 |
| Go to www.yogiproducts.com to find more yummy teas! |
And here is the book my fiancé is reading that kick started this challenge. You can find it in Amazon here:
1 week and 1 day down.... 3 more to go!
Do you think you can cut back sugar for 30 days?
