Still trying

I fell off the daily blogging bandwagon a bit but I’m still doing OK with food.  I did have coffee yesterday but in the afternoon not in the morning and with only the 2 sugars. I’ve been doing a decent job of cutting back on the amount of sugar I eat but I should stop referring to it as the 21 day sugar detox. I’m not really following the detox rules at all.  I have dramatically cut back on sugar and carbs but haven’t stopped eating them completely.  I had mexican takeout again for dinner last night and will probably have left overs again tonight or tomorrow. I know it’s not the greatest option but overall I’m doing pretty well with salads and such.

Today is Saturday so I got to sleep in today (yay!) and then this afternoon I made bacon and eggs for brunch. I had a mug full of milk to drink with my food.  OMG, I totally meant to blog this before but forgot…  Guess what I found at the grocery store by my apartment this week?  Non-homogenized, lightly pasteurized GRASS-FED MILK!

A little history… a few years ago when I first started learning about food and started trying to eat better, healthier foods I started going to the farmer’s market for pastured eggs, chicken and grass-fed milk. . I used to spend 3+ hours on a Saturday taking the subway to the farmer’s market, shopping and then hauling all that heavy shit home in the summer heat. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy over the years identifying more convenient sources for the food items I want to eat.  I can get local grass-fed meat delivered to my door from Fresh Direct and now grass-fed milk is available less than 50 yards from my front door. Yep, that’s right folks… things really are changing.

 

21DSD – Day four

I’m still lacking sleep and getting out of bed this morning was the hardest day this week, so far.  I went ahead and ate a HB (hard-boiled) egg before leaving the house.  One of the things I read about balancing blood sugar says to eat as soon as possible after waking so I’m going to try to eat earlier… today = success on that front.   I also made another cup of the iced coffee. Historically I don’t drink coffee everyday (at least not consistently) so I think I may need to lay off the coffee for a few days cause I’m feeling it today…

This mornings coffee did get the 2 sugars that I’ve been allowing all week and I was feeling a little jittery after today’s cup which I hadn’t felt the other days this week.  Then on top of that I had some left over coffee and milk from yesterday and I was headed to a meeting so I went ahead and made myself another cup (no more sugar allowed) in order to use up the items and not let them go to waste (which is an issue for me, but a topic for another day) and then proceeded to drink the whole second serving during my meeting.  So now I’m totally feeling a little dizzy and space-y in the head.

I’m blaming this on the amount of coffee I’ve consumed this morning but I did just realize that there is a small possibility it’s one of those sugar withdrawal symptoms.  I kind of doubt it since I just had sugary coffee (and last night’s taco shells) but it’s remotely possible that it’s a detox symptom. I’ll have to forgo coffee tomorrow and see how I feel…

21DSD – Day three

I feel so good about myself for eating a healthy dinner and then withstanding the sugar/treat craving I had last night after dinner.  This morning I wanted to keep this good thing going and I wished I couldn’t put any sugar in my coffee.  But really, I don’t like it without a bit of sugar so what would be the point?

I haven’t been sleeping well this week since returning to work after vacation and the July 4th holiday weekend.  I’ve been staying up too late and not getting enough sleep, so I’m getting up later and moving slower in the morning now. This morning I made the iced coffee but was out of milk so I had to put it in water bottle type container and run to the store on my way in to work.

9:30am: Once I got to work, poured the milk in with the coffee (again made with 2 sugars). I fought the urge to add another packet of sugar and was able to enjoy it as is. I also ate a hard boiled egg.

12:30pm: Lunch is really restricted here due to the hours of the cafeteria, so even though I wasn’t really hungry yet, I went ahead and got lunch. I basically had the same thing as I had for dinner last night, my “greek” salad with grilled chicken. Since I’m not really hungry at “lunch time” I find myself  eating a bit of my lunch and then grazing on it for the rest of the afternoon. It’s currently 3pm and I’m still “eating” it.  I take a couple of bites and then go back to my work. A few minutes goes by a I’ll take another bite, etc…   Maybe I should try to sit in the break area and actually just eat my lunch instead of sitting at my desk in front of the computer.  I also should probably try to eat at home in the morning so I am actually ready to eat again at “lunch time”. The only issue I see here is that I’ll need to plan a snack/mini-meal for the late afternoon since it’s usually about 8:30 before I get home and that’s too long to go between meals.

The good news is that I have leftover milk from this morning so I can have some tea with milk this afternoon when I get that craving… I’ll just have to try to not have any sugar in it.

Dinner Update:  I ended up continuing to “eat” my lunch until about 4:30pm so I never had the afternoon craving and didn’t have any tea.

The hubby wanted tacos for dinner so I did allow myself to eat a few corn taco shells (yes, standard packaged ones bought from the store).  I just use tomato sauce and spices in the meat instead of a packet of chemicals these days so it’s not the worst possible meal. I’m not sure if it was the carbs from the taco shells or what, but I didn’t have the typical after dinner sweet craving that I often get.

21DSD – day two?

I can’t decide if I should just keep counting the days or if I should just stay at 21DSD day one until I actually complete a full day. Maybe I should give up this charade of doing a detox and just food journal… but then again, attempting the detox gives me a goal, something to strive for. I guess, I’ll keep trying.

8am: I again made myself iced coffee with the Grady’s cold brew and milk at home. I did put two sugars in it, like yesterday. It’s just not as enjoyable without it. I also grabbed 2 boiled eggs and the remaining bacon from yesterday morning.

10:30am: I drank the iced coffee on my commute but didn’t eat any food until getting into the office. I ate one egg and one piece of bacon. I think I’ll save the other egg and bacon slice for either lunch or breakfast tomorrow.

12:30: Is “lunch time” at my office.  I’m restricted to the options in the cafeteria unless I bring my own food (and you know that doesn’t happen often). Today I got a salad in order to be well behaved.  Yes, there are some dried cranberries on it but I didn’t eat too many of them.

5:15pm: I picked at my lunch for a couple of hours and ate most of it by 2pm. It was a pretty big salad.  I again got that “afternoon coffee” craving where I find myself wanting something warm and sweet.  I ignored it as best as I could. Then at 5pm I was downright hungry.  I didn’t have an apple today, but I did bring more of the dried fruit/nut mix. I added more almonds,  sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to the mix this morning so I just ate some of that. Not sure how much since I didn’t portion it out. Probably a little less than 1/2 cup. That seems to be doing the trick. Now I just have to start thinking about dinner so I don’t end up with takeout again tonight

10:00pm: I had my “greek” salad with grilled chicken from the grocery store for dinner.  Now I’m fighting off the desire for a a mini special dark candy bar. I think I can do it.

 

21DSD Fail and Restart

Last week’s attempt at a “sugar detox” was a total fail.  The long holiday weekend included plenty of carbs and straight up sugar, but I’m not going to let myself totally off the hook this time. I’m going to try again. Third time’s a charm, right? Yeah, we’ll see…

So I started the morning off right, I got up early and boiled a pot of eggs and baked some bacon for the week.  The biggest thing others have said about sticking to the plan is being prepared and having a plan for meals. So, I’ve got breakfast down, now I have to tackle lunch and diner… they are the hardest ones for me.

8am: I peeled two eggs and then just ended up eating a slice of bacon. I’ll have to eat the eggs for lunch today…  In addition, I made myself my own iced coffee at home using Grady’s Cold Brew to drink on the way to work. I hope it’s not full of bad stuff… but I figure it can’t be worse than a Starbucks latte which is what I would normally do. Bonus, it’s cheaper too! I tried the coffee just with milk and then decided to go ahead and add a couple of sugars, it just makes it better. But I only added 2 packets of sugar. Two weeks ago I was putting 8 sugars in a cup the same size (of an already flavored latte), so I’m doing good for me.  I’ll stick with this for a bit and then try to get it down to no sugar added.  I think if I use less of the coffee and more milk, I can use less sugar. I’ll probably cut the coffee out completely soon anyway as I gear up for another round of fertility treatments.

I also packed a 1/2 cup of a dried fruit and nut mix and snacked on it throughout the workday…

1:30pm: I ate the 2 hard-boiled eggs and 1 slice of soggy bacon from this morning along with a salad of mixed greens with some shredded carrots, peas and tomato dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Water to drink.

4:30: suddenly very hungry… need a snack! Good thing I brought an apple and I can finish the rest of the 1/2 cup of the dried fruit and nut mix. Yes, I know dried fruit has a lot of sugar due to its concentrated volume and it’s probably coated in some kind of anti-caking agent but it’s better than a candy bar, right? I can add more nuts to the mix so the ratio is less fruit, that might be better for me. This sudden hunger means a drop in blood sugar, right? I have to figure out what is a good plan for stabilizing blood sugar throughout the day.  I leave home at 8am and often don’t get home again until 8pm or later. Maybe I need a little bit of protein as an afternoon snack.  But what is fast, easy and portable (and not another Egg)?

9:30: Due to running a couple of errands after work and a time-consuming issue with my subway commute it was late before I got home. I was very hungry and didn’t have time to cook anything for dinner. Even if I did have enough time, I didn’t have a plan and was not prepared with anything so I probably would have gotten take-out anyway.  Need less to say, I totally jumped off the bandwagon for dinner. After doing so well yesterday during the day I was a bit disappointed in myself, but did it anyway.  A burger and fries just sounded so good.  And it did taste good. I took the bottom half of the bun off and only ate the top, in case that counts…   The real confession here is that I didn’t feel very well after eating this.  This typically happens when I eat this meal. But, I always forget in the moment of deciding that it sounds good, that it makes me feel less-than-great after the fact.  I have to try to remember that for next time.

21-Day Sugar Detox: Day Two

Day Two: Yesterday’s cookie debacle was just the beginning. I bought a whole package so you know where this is going, right?

9am – I am lucky enough to be able to work from home sometimes, and today I worked from home which means that I got to sleep in this morning. Once I got up, I grabbed a hard-boiled egg and orange juice before my first phone call of the day. I know orange juice is not allowed but like I said yesterday, this is an exercise in reducing my sugar intake. I made the decision to have orange juice but instead of just pouring a whole glass I purposely poured only a little.

Then a little later in my typical self-defeating fashion I went for the cookies…  I finished the milk yesterday so I just grabbed one and put them back away. The problem is, I did this a few times throughout the morning.

2pm – I had leftover greek salad from dinner for lunch (I love this stuff.)  Followed of course, by more cookies. Seriously, when there are cookies in the house I’ll eat them all day until they’re gone.  I’ve put them away for now but they’ll be gone by tomorrow…

21-Day Sugar Detox: Day One (Take 2)

I’m going to attempt the 21-day sugar detox again. Starting today. Well, kind of…

I think a very restrictive all or nothing plan is too much for me and one of the reasons it was soooo hard last time even though I was only 7 days in before throwing in the towel. I’m planning to do a modified version of the detox that will reduce the amount of sugar I’m consuming but not remove it altogether. I know that this will be less effective overall but I think it’s a start. It’s certainly better than not monitoring my sugar intake at all, right?

Ideally I’d like this experiment to help bring my blood sugar more into balance. My plan is to reduce the amount of sugar I add to beverages like coffee, tea, lemonade etc… and to limit the foods I eat with natural and added sugars. I think I need to wean myself down from the amount of sugar I currently eat. Going cold turkey would be a recipe for disaster. I am not going to strictly limit fruit this time around. I’ll try to stick with the green banana/green apple thing but if I really want something else, I’m going to eat it. It’s fruit after all, not a milky way bar. I don’t usually eat that much fruit anyway but it’s summer in NYC and fruit smoothies make commuting in the heat more bearable some days. Also it’s prime watermelon season and I don’t want to totally miss out on that yumminess. I’m already planning a potential cheat day on Thursday. It’s the 4th of July this week and I’m guessing I’ll want to eat a hamburger (with a bun!) and have some of said watermelon. Maybe I should just think of this week as a pre-detox week… nah, I’m counting it. I’ll be more inclined to keep going and get back on track after any slip-ups. Otherwise, I’d probably just give up and pig out in a let-me-just-eat-as-much-crap-as-I-can-before-trying-to-start-again way. Maybe I’ll extend an extra week at the end if I make it that far…

So in the spirit of full disclosure I’ll be blogging my daily eats and any side effects I experience this time around. I”ll try to post each day and keep updating each day’s post with that day’s meals and any symptoms. Wish me luck!

Day One:

• 9am – coffee with half the amount of sugar I usually add. (Technically it’s a grande iced vanilla latte from Starbucks so it’s already sweetened but I usually add a bunch of sugar to it anyway.) Honestly I didn’t feel deprived with this lesser amount of sugar. I think the iced latte is less bitter than the hot version so I can get away with less sugar and not notice it so much. Good to know!
• 10am – 1 hard-boiled egg
• 1pm – mixed greens salad with tuna, egg, tomato, kalamata olives and capers dressed with olive oil and white wine vinegar; with water to drink.
• 3pm – holy sugar cravings batman… not really hungry but wanted some candy or a sweet warm drink. I added one more packet of sugar to my coffee from this morning and finished it (don’t judge me!)
• 5:30pm – banana (not green)
• 6pm – now I have reflux… From a banana? Really?
• 7:30pm – cookies and milk.  I know, I know… talk about self-sabotage. This is a perfect example of my problems. I went to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner and left with a package of cookies (Keebler’s rainbow chips deluxe… you know you wanted to know what kind)
• 8pm – dinner: greek salad with grilled chicken (romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, feta, kalamata olives with olive oil and red wine vinegar)
• 9pm – more milk and cookies (just put me out of my misery already…)

Sad story

I mentioned before that the bird was back… well it finally warmed up and the bird did come back. She made a nest in almost exactly the same spot as last year and laid 2 eggs.  She sat there for a few days and then there was some work done on my building and the workers were going up and down the fire escape as a short cut.  Since her nest was right under the ladder this was too much activity for the bird and it drove her away from her nest and the eggs for most of the day.  It was chilly out that day and I was so worried about her eggs out in the cold but there really was nothing I could do. Once the workers left she did come back to the nest so I was hopeful that there was no lasting damage to the eggs’ development.

Unfortunately, after a week or so the bird left the nest and there was no sign of the eggs.  It’s so sad that this happened.  I was very upset about it. I did confirm that these birds are mourning doves and the internet says that they can nest multiple times a season so I hope that they are able to do so again soon. I also hope that they will come back to my fire escape again next year even though they were not successful there this year.

Sugar Detox Fail

I made it 6 solid days into a 21 Day Sugar Detox, and then I caved. I can only offer the fried chicken and waffles I caved for as my excuse. They were really delicious. It was worth it.

The only problem is that was almost 2 weeks ago and I haven’t restarted the detox. I have no good excuse. Doing the sugar detox was hard. I’m not looking forward to that restriction again. But these changes have to be made.

Making bad choices

Well technically I wouldn’t call them bad choices… they’re not really “bad” per se, it’s more along the lines of just not making the best choices. I’ve gotten to the point where I can recognize this is happening and yet I still do it.  What is wrong with me? Sometimes I wonder how my brain works.  I think I know what is important. I think I know what I want and what my ultimate goals are but then I keep making decisions that are not in line with achieving those goals.  I’m not sure why this happens.  I seem to be having a hard time overriding my impulsive nature and need for immediate gratification.  I sound like an addict or something… all I’m really talking about here is lunch.

See I currently have limited options for lunch during the work day.  I used to work in the heart of mid-town Manhattan, and for those of you who may not know, that means that I had pretty convenient access to just about anything you could possibly want to eat for lunch. (That does not mean I made great choices then either, but at least I felt like I had more options). These days I’m either working from home or from a secluded corporate office just across the river (Read: in New Jersey).  You’d think that working from home would be the tits. But honestly it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I typically find myself less than motivated to actually accomplish any work which makes the day drag on. And because I feel like a slacker if I’m not in front of my computer every moment of the day, I don’t usually take advantage of being home to actually prepare healthy foods. And on my NJ days I either have to bring my lunch (and that ain’t happening folks) or I’m limited to the options available in the corporate cafeteria.  It’s entirely possible to eat a very clean healthy lunch from the cafeteria, the options are there… I just rarely do it. The other options (like today’s “chicken fingers”) are just so much more enticing. I’m not used to making food choices based on what is actually good for me, just on what I think will taste good at any given moment.

I keep saying things like “at least I realize that these choices are not healthy, that’s the first step, right?”, but I’ve been using that excuse too long. Ugh, it’s so inconvenient but I really need to make the time to plan and prepare some meals so I can find a way to stick with the healthy options and stop making these less than ideal choices.