17 Jan, 2011
A long and rambly update with lots of bullets about Sugar Fast II.
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Challenge me, challenge you|Yaktivism
First of all, did you know I’m hosting a very cool giveaway? Check it out and enter before time runs out!
Second I wanted to collect a few thoughts regarding my second foray into the Land of Very Little Refined Sugar and Flour.
Many of you will remember the first Sugar Fast. What you may not have realized at the time, is that the troops were starting to mutiny by the end of it. I was not willing to put them through again, so I was very much on my own this time around.
For the last two weeks I have been eating:
- eggs
- meat
- dairy (plain yogurt, milk, cheese, sour cream)
- All-Bran Buds and soy milk (for breakfast), because my colon told me I had to
- brown rice (I think we had it two or three times with dinner)
- fruit
- vegetables
- steel cut oatmeal (more on that later)
- nuts
- bacon
I was not eating:
- pretty much anything contained sugar on the ingredients list (like salad dressing, ketchup, mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, fish sticks)
- bread (not even whole grain)
- white rice
- potatoes (baked, fried, or in chip format)
- sweetened desserts
- artificial sweeteners
- juice
- processed meats (sausages, hot dogs, ham etc. But yes, I ate bacon.
I know some of you are reading that list and thinking, OMG, I can’t go a single day without eating sugar/bread/potatoes/whaterver. My answer to you is this: YES YOU CAN.
Was it worth it? Yes. It was a bit of a slog for the first couple of days, but it got easier. Was it a lot of work? Not really. The trick for me was to actually make a weeklong meal plan (something that doesn’t always happen), a complete grocery list, and stick to the list. The kids didn’t really know what was going on half the time, because of the kinds of meals I prepared. If I made roasted potatoes, I just had extra veggies. And sometimes there just weren’t any startches on the table at all. For example, for dinner one night I made oven-baked chicken and tossed salad. There was no sugar or flour or potatoes or bread involved at all. And no dessert. :)
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were a few rough spots:
- We ordered Chinese food at my in-laws. The reality is that there are few healthy Chinese foods ona typical menu (no surprise there, really) so I ordered a mushroom/egg drop soup I’d never tried before. A happy discovery was made. It was delicious! I also had a heaping plate of stir-fried veggies and plain shrimp. I don’t actually know what the ingredients were in those items, they weren’t saucy but there could have been corn starch involved in some respect. I’m just going to pretend it was all ok.
- Speaking of Chinese food, soy sauce contains sugar. At some point during week two I made a dish that called for Ponzu (a type of soy sauce) and instead of beating myself up about it I decided to eat it.
- This past weekend Sarah and I went to Starbucks while waiting for Emma’s art class to end. I ordered her a hot chocolate and a promised cookie. She chose a white-chocolate macadamia nut cookie. My fave! But I didn’t have a bite. NOT ONE. Instead we broke it in half and saved it for her sister.
- At one point Mark actually pointed a cookie at me (a different cookie) and said C’MON JUST HAVE ONE BITE. Gack. It’s got to be all or nothing with me.
There were a few more, but that just about sums it up. *sigh*
This is the part where I dip my toe into a world of medicine even though I am totally unqualified to make any such statements. We can’t deny that as a society we’re getting fatter. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s not because we’re eating more butter or prime rib (ok maybe prime rib does factor in a little bit) but it is primarily because we’re eating more processed foods than we ever have before. And that includes sugar and white flour.
A big point of interest to me is this: how have our collective tastes changed? People in the 1950s for example, somehow managed to get along with less sugar. Allow me to speculate why: (a) it wasn’t as cheap and widely available in all its glorious forms as it is today (like glucose/fructose, a.k.a High Fructose Corn Syrup and (b) they ate more homecooking.
Studies have shown that sugar is addictive, and it also holds true for carbs because they essentially have the same effect on our bodies. More than anything, this experiment showed me that if I ate sugar and carbs I craved more of the same. It’s downright weird.
Where do I go from here? How have I changed?
I’m not going to eat less bacon.
I have always believed that less is more. Eating high quality food means you need less of it to feel satisfied. Have you ever made your own ice cream? It’s incredible. It’s made out of cream, milk, and sugar, and whatever flavouring (say strawberries, cocoa, vanilla). Why is it that I can only eat a ½ cup serving and be STUFFED and happy? Yet almost any other kind of ice cream else keeps me wanting more. The same goes for chocolate. One small piece of really great chocolate is more satisfying than a giant Mars bar.
There is room in my life for Good Food, and this includes good quality sweets and treats.
But I can’t let myself get hungry.
This was an eye-opener. I’ve always been a staunch believer in the “three square meals” way of eating but it doesn’t actually work for me. I have had to set an alarm on my iPhone to remind myself to eat. This is sad, but true. It goes off at 8:00, 10:45, noon, and 3:00 p.m. If I eat this way, with a little bit of protein in each meal (including snacks) I’m not ravenous at dinner, and at night.
Also: I flava flave it
Hot sauce makes ho hum meals really zing. And zing makes me happy. And I am lucky I love vegetables as much as I do. I can honestly heap a plate half full of veg and happily dig in.
Things I will continue to think about as I go along:
- I only have one body. I have to be nice to it.
- When I am well-fed, well-watered and well-rested, things are easier. And by THINGS I mean it’s easier to do the grocery shopping. It’s easier to find the energy to take the dog on an extra long walk or play monopoly with the family. This is what I want more than anything.
- I will sit down to eat. No more grab a cookie and go. I’ll have that cookie with my tea, sitting down.
- Life is too short not to eat bread. But I will make sure it’s good bread.
- Sugar changes my taste buds. Using less sweetener (or ketchup or mayo or whatever “additions” you add to your food) means that the true taste of the food really shines. No big shocker there. Naked food is good food.
- Michael Pollan is right: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Some eating is totally mindless, isn’t it? I can polish off half a bag of Cheezies in front of the TV without even thinking about it. This is not great. I need to be more mindful of my choices. There are things I don’t need to eat ever again because I really don’t care about them, like storebought pastries and marshmallows, yet there are times I eat them just because they’re there. What’s the point of buying them? Or eating them if they’ve not my absolute favourite?
What is a carb craving anyway?
In my head it goes something like this. I’m watching the news. The craving speaks:
“Andrea?”
“Yes?”
“Andrea!”
“What?”
“ANDREA, THERE IS TOAST.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You want some.”
“What? Now? It’s 10:30!”
“Yes. Toast. With butter. And peanut butter. It’s hot and melty and SO GOOD. You want it. You know you do.”
“Melty?”
“YES. You are hungry. And it will make you feel good. See, you’re salivating, just thinking about toast.”
“I don’t think I’m hungry. We had a pretty good dinner and…”
“NO BUTS. You are hungreeeeeeeee.”
It is hard to argue with THE CRAVING. But next time it hits I will think about a few things:
Am I really and truly hungry? How can I be hungry when I just ate a few hours ago?
Am I thirsty? Maybe. [And follow up with a glass of water or cup of green tea.]
What else can solve this problem? A healthy snack? A walk around the block? Jumping jacks?
A craving is nothing but my body sending me a desperate message in the throes of withdrawal, and the message is this: you haven’t given me what I really want, so FEED ME NOW.
Smokers get the same message. And I get the message when I haven’t had a chance to have my morning cuppa joe.
Here’s the thing: I can choose whether or not to listen to the message. I have the power to disregard it because the message is essentially a lie.
Cravings are chemistry. If you’re feeling tired and run down, the first question you need to ask yourself is (1) have I been taking care of myself, followed by (2) what the hell have I been eating? I don’t think people realize how much food affects their moods.
If I’m tired, and I often have been, it’s because I haven’t slept well or had enough sleep, I haven’t had a coffee, or I haven’t eaten well. When I eat a high carb snack – let’s say that Starbucks cookie – my body jumps for joy. It jumps high. Yipeeeee! But when it jumps, it needs to fall, and it does so quite regularly between 3 and 4:00 p.m.
Hear that? It’s the sound of my body going into nosedive mode. And when I’m nosediving, I’m reaching for another cookie because it’ll make me feel good and then… repeat repeat repeat.
Isn’t “eating well” a lot of work?
Maybe at first it is, especially if you’re not used to cooking from scratch. If you’re looking to change a habit that has been deeply ingrained over a lifetime I think it might be challenging at first, but it will get easier.
The question remains… will I keep going?
I might not be as strict as I have been these past two weeks. I will allow some ketchup and mayo back into my life, but overall, I think I’ve seen the light.