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.

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…

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.

Real Food Summit

If you haven’t already registered for this week’s Real Food Summit presented by undergroundwellness.com it’s not too late.  http://realfoodsummit.com/

Sean at Underground Wellness has put together a great line-up of presenters and is you register you can see the presentations for free. You’ve got to watch that day’s presentations within the 24 hour period, so get moving…

I only managed to listen to one of yesterday’s presentations and I’m working my way through today’s, but already there is so much important information being shared in an easy to access and understand way that I’m getting more and more convinced that our government and the big corporate entities (pharma and agribusiness) are only out to make a buck (or a billion) with no regard to the health implications of their products. The more I learn the more distressing it is…

If you’re not already aware of how what you eat can affect your health please hurry over to the  Real Food Summit and get learnin’.