I decided this morning, rather spontaneously, that I would attempt to eat no refined sugar all day today. I'd like to have one day a week be "No Refined Sugar Day." I'm not obsessing or radically changing my diet. I'm just choosing to not eat things that I might normally eat that have refined sugar.
The average American consumes an astounding 2-3 pounds of sugar each week, which is not surprising considering that highly refined sugars in the forms of sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup are being processed into so many foods such as bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and more. It's really hard to avoid all sugar. We try to buy things without sugar. For example, we never buy peanut butter with added sugar, and if we had Duke's mayo in Arizona (no sugar in Duke's) we'd buy that.
This morning I warmed up a pot of coffee for my mother-in-law (visiting for a week). I didn't have any myself, because I'd rather have no coffee than coffee without sugar. I can give up coffee for one day ("No Refined Sugar Day"). In my mind, tea with honey gets disqualified too, because honey, though it contains some vitamins and minerals and isn't as processed as table sugar, is still a refined sugar (I googled it).
For breakfast, I ate plain Cheerios (1 gram of sugar) instead of Multigrain Cheerios or Honey Bunches of Oats (6 grams each). And I bypassed the tempting flavored yogurts that I got for my mother-in-law (an astounding 40 grams of sugar! That's nearly the same as a can of Mountain Dew!)
At work, I avoided my neighbor's classroom. He always keeps snacks and sodas for his students, and I sometimes partake when I've got a mid-day hankering for something junkie. So far so good. Even though my coffee-free breakfast caused me to be ravenous by 3rd period, I resisted.
I ran some errands during my planning period, one of which was to run home and get some postage stamps. While home, I made myself a quick roast beef sandwich (I used one of those 100% whole wheat "thin buns" that seem to be the new thing). While I was getting the roast beef out, I noticed a ziplock bag in the fridge with some homemade cookies. Normally, as hungry as I was, I would have snatched those little beasties out and downed them. But I rememebred my goal and left them alone.
I did grab a banana on my way out the door. Hey, I said no refined sugar. Fruit is okay. I said I'm not going radical, remember?
So now, as I type this, I'm 30 minutes away from lunch. And I'm hungry again. For lunch, I have waiting for me some leftover steak and a baked potato with sour cream. Certainly not the healthiest lunch, but it's "No Refined Sugar Day," not "No Saturated Fat Day, or "No Unhealthy Starches Day." One step at a time.
I should be fine from here on out. Breakfast and during the work day are the hardest. Tonight, I'm taking Sofia to see the new Percy Jackson movie at midnight (it starts tomorrow, but one theater is showing it at midnight tonight). I know I'll have a big soda and bag of popcorn at the movie, but technically "No Refined Sugar Day" ends at midnight.
So I'm okay.
I want to make this a regular thing. My master plan is to get used to doing it once a week, and then work up to doing it every other day. And then, maybe, eventually, I could be off of refined sugar full-time.
Except for the occasional birthday cake and movie Coke. (Not gonna obsess!)
7 comments:
I wish you the best of luck! I was really surprised about how much sugar yogurt has. WOW! Thanks for the info. :} Have fun at the movie tonight.
It is sick how much sugar yogurt has. Good luck, and I am sure you will enjoy your coke sooo much more tonight!
(Don't forget to post a movie review! I want to know if its worth seeing and if Rhaynnon would like it!)
Wow! I am trying hard to make every day a no refined sugar day but then I use substitutes like stevia and yes, Splenda as well so I still get to eat sweet things. You are right, it is very hard to not eat refined sugar because it is just in so many more foods than it needs to be in plus the ones you'd expect to be in.
Your dad is developing a recipe for the two of us for cheesecake. He loves to make cheesecake. Now try getting the sugar out of that one! He is doing it.
BTW, great goal you have there.
Good on you, Tag! I actually due to some unknown reason have basically not been able to handle refined sugar for going on a year now, and every day is no-refined sugar day for me! I have loads of strategies that I can share, if interested. I do use honey, though.
Well, thinking about it, I also have longer experience with no refined sugars from my early childhood, and I used to have to cut sugar out during the Fast anyway, because it would make me hungry in just a few hours!
On yogurt we always buy plain, and I squeeze in honey and lemon or lime. It's better to me than the sugary flavored ones anyway! If you wanted to make more effort, you could blend some fruit (banana and frozen strawberry, or strawberry and orange) in the blender with a bit of water and add. I'll often throw in ground flaxseeds, too.
Banana bread is the treat of choice in baked goods, and for other recipes, apple sauce, OJ concentrate and apple juice concentrate also sweeten things.
I'm a big waffle person and dress them with layers of Brummel and Brown, peanut butter, honey and applesauce. Rob thinks its crazy, but it's an idea I got from my mom way back when I thought her food preferences were crazy! Also fruit compotes with walnuts are great or other fruit things can make nice syrupy toppings. I did an OJ concentrate, margarine, cinnamon, allspice, and walnut topping yesterday and it was really successful! The blender recipe books have a wealth of great ideas, such as that one.
At the health food store there is buckwheat pancake mix (Arrowhead Mills) with no sugar, that comes out delicious with a tiny bit of honey and cinnamon. As far as crackers, I buy Herbes de Provence flatbread crackers, and for cereal there's Alpen no-sugar-added muesli that tastes good with milk and a bit of honey. The grocery store also has an 'original' instant healthy grain cream of wheat (with no sugar) that I like to add walnuts, raisins, vanilla and honey to.
Smoothies have become a favorite along with all sorts of real foods - low salt cashews, greek salads with feta, lentils, sandwiches with deli meat, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. The no-refined sugar thing is not easy lifestyle-wise, but I'm just glad it's not cheddar cheese I have to do without!!! :)
Will be thinking of you and Sofie tonight, I think of her every time I see previews for Percy Jackson! How awesome to have her dad understand her excitment and do things up right! Enjoy your popcorn and cokes!! :)
A bit more ... here are a couple of recent favorite recipes for you and family (all without sugar), nice one on the skillet lasagna, btw, thanks!
Hummus (but don't add hardly any salt if already salt in garbanzos - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hummus-III/Detail.aspx
Smoothie -
1/2 cup frozen fruit of your choice
1/2 cup fresh fruit of choice
3/4 cup milk, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, etc.
vanilla
or my ususal smoothie:
1/2 cup of frozen pineapple, 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries, 1 ripe banana, and 1/2 cup of water, tiny bit of vanilla (maybe 1/2 tsp). If I add yogurt, then I also sometimes add a tiny bit of honey.
Greek salad - http://www.mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes_greek_salad.htm
(we use less salt and 1/8 tsp garlic powder instead of fresh and skip the peppers; also we soak the chopped onion in cold water for 5 min to take out the sting or omit entirely)
chocolate banana bread - http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/ChocolateBananaBread.html
(we substitute 1/2 c. honey for the 1 c. sugar, but being as you can actually eat, sugar, it would be even better that way! and with the chocolate chips!)
Chunky chicken potato soup (a really nice recipe, we omitted the broccoli)
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1939,157178-244206,00.html
Not efficient, but last night I made carrot apple juice in the blender (by putting carrots, an apple, and water, blending and then removing most of the pulp through a strainer).
One last tip, you can get used to not needing and imbibing so much sugar by diluting fruit juices (like juicy juice) by half or so with water. They're still really tasty! :) Good luck with your 1-day a week!
As I was reading your blog at the beginning I thought of the idea of eventually doing it more than one day a week and then voila you mentioned the same thing. Cool! I went a whole week once without sugar and lost 5 pounds. The next time I did that though I didn't lose ANY weight. I don't know why. I think I should try the no sugar day thing for a day also. I usually try the no sugar thing and give up thinking I won't be able to do it forever anyway, but if I am only doing it for a day I could probably do it. Good idea. OH, and I like to make a mango losse with a ripe mango and some plain lowfat (or nofat) yogurt with no added sugar (lactose is a sugar, though not refined)and it is very satisfying. You just need a blender and the right ingredients.
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