Hi guys!
I've decided to challenge myself to a no sugar meal plan for the next 30 days.
Why?? you may ask. I'll tell you.
I'm 37 weeks pregnant now, and have been highly indulgent throughout the last nine and a half months. For those of you who know me, this is definitely not my eating style. I want to prepare my body for returning to a healthy lifestyle asap.
I was watching In Defense of Food on Netflix yesterday and it gave me the perfect idea - why not challenge myself to eating foods with no added sugars or artificial sweeteners for the next 30 days? It's a short amount of time to commit to, and I figured it would help remind me how much added sugar is in all of the packaged and processed foods that we turn to on a daily basis to make our lives easier. In reality, those "convenience" foods are making our lives a lot more difficult by contributing to a wide array of health issues that are unnecessary - sounds pretty inconvenient to me.
Ok so where do I start? I didn't exactly leave myself a whole lot of time for planning since I only made this decision yesterday, on Halloween, a night filled with sugar! I quickly did some research online and found a great website to help with some meal and snack ideas. I was feeling pretty pumped, and ready to go.
I woke up this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and all things considered, I'd say today was a success!
Here is what I ate:
Breakfast - overnight oats
I took 6 mason jars (for the hubby as well) and filled each of them with 1/4c steel cut oats, 1/3c plain greek yogurt, 1/3c almond milk, 1T chia seeds, 1/4 chopped apple, raisins, and a pinch of cinnamon. I mixed them up and put them in the fridge. The hubby can add agave to sweeten his, but these are perfect as is for my breakfasts for the rest of the week.
Lunch - homemade turkey soup
I have a large amount of portioned soup in the freezer - I don't have a recipe for you but it's a veggie packed soup with some turkey added. Delicious.
Dinner - Mazithra
This is a meal I grew up on, and my Dad made up the name because of the cheese used. It's a super easy pasta that uses noodles (I used Catelli protein spaghetti), canned diced tomatoes, margarine, and a healthy dose of salted Ricotta (or Mazithra) - so easy and so good
For snacks I had an Eat Nak'd bar, some raw almonds & cashews, and a nutrient dense smoothie (consisting of kale, zucchini, dates, almond milk, almond butter, kefir, grapes, a banana, half an avocado and a pinch of cinnamon)
For "dessert" after dinner I had a tangerine because I wanted something sweet.
So here I am now at the end of day one, still feeling good. I'll post every few days with updates, what I ate, and how I'm feeling. I'm looking forward to this, and knowing it's temporary really helps me stay motivated.
I enjoy challenging myself for short periods of time, just to test my will, and to push my body. I can't do anything extreme while pregnant so this seemed like a great, clean option.
Feel free to join me, watch the documentary, or at the very least start reading your labels - you'll be shocked to see how much added sugar you are actually consuming!
I'll leave you with a few shocking sugar facts:
I've decided to challenge myself to a no sugar meal plan for the next 30 days.
Why?? you may ask. I'll tell you.
I'm 37 weeks pregnant now, and have been highly indulgent throughout the last nine and a half months. For those of you who know me, this is definitely not my eating style. I want to prepare my body for returning to a healthy lifestyle asap.
I was watching In Defense of Food on Netflix yesterday and it gave me the perfect idea - why not challenge myself to eating foods with no added sugars or artificial sweeteners for the next 30 days? It's a short amount of time to commit to, and I figured it would help remind me how much added sugar is in all of the packaged and processed foods that we turn to on a daily basis to make our lives easier. In reality, those "convenience" foods are making our lives a lot more difficult by contributing to a wide array of health issues that are unnecessary - sounds pretty inconvenient to me.
Ok so where do I start? I didn't exactly leave myself a whole lot of time for planning since I only made this decision yesterday, on Halloween, a night filled with sugar! I quickly did some research online and found a great website to help with some meal and snack ideas. I was feeling pretty pumped, and ready to go.
I woke up this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and all things considered, I'd say today was a success!
Here is what I ate:
Breakfast - overnight oats
I took 6 mason jars (for the hubby as well) and filled each of them with 1/4c steel cut oats, 1/3c plain greek yogurt, 1/3c almond milk, 1T chia seeds, 1/4 chopped apple, raisins, and a pinch of cinnamon. I mixed them up and put them in the fridge. The hubby can add agave to sweeten his, but these are perfect as is for my breakfasts for the rest of the week.
Lunch - homemade turkey soup
I have a large amount of portioned soup in the freezer - I don't have a recipe for you but it's a veggie packed soup with some turkey added. Delicious.
Dinner - Mazithra
This is a meal I grew up on, and my Dad made up the name because of the cheese used. It's a super easy pasta that uses noodles (I used Catelli protein spaghetti), canned diced tomatoes, margarine, and a healthy dose of salted Ricotta (or Mazithra) - so easy and so good
For snacks I had an Eat Nak'd bar, some raw almonds & cashews, and a nutrient dense smoothie (consisting of kale, zucchini, dates, almond milk, almond butter, kefir, grapes, a banana, half an avocado and a pinch of cinnamon)
For "dessert" after dinner I had a tangerine because I wanted something sweet.
So here I am now at the end of day one, still feeling good. I'll post every few days with updates, what I ate, and how I'm feeling. I'm looking forward to this, and knowing it's temporary really helps me stay motivated.
I enjoy challenging myself for short periods of time, just to test my will, and to push my body. I can't do anything extreme while pregnant so this seemed like a great, clean option.
Feel free to join me, watch the documentary, or at the very least start reading your labels - you'll be shocked to see how much added sugar you are actually consuming!
I'll leave you with a few shocking sugar facts:
- 4g of sugar = 1 teaspoon
- 1 serving of low fat yogurt has 47 grams of sugar - that's 12 teaspoons people!!
- most large flavored coffees available at your local coffee shop contain about 25 teaspoons of sugar!!
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