#dumb #junk #barf

So here's what I've eaten today: 2 cups of coffee with sugar and a splash of milk. 2 eggs with cheese on a toasted sandwich thin. A few ice cream samples. Dressing with a teeny bit of turkey. 4 sugar cookies with rainbow chip frosting. A corn dog. Coke zero with cherry and vanilla. And some fake pork rinds made from wheat instead of pig skin.
I am currently lying down feeling like I could barf at any minute and I just got rid of some of that 💩 I ate while the rest of it is floating around in my blood stream. I have learned my lesson. I'm never eating junk all day again. Ever! 🙊😩😷😲 #oops

Told ya I was a sugar addict. 4 sugar cookies with extra sugar spread on top ! Dumb. Please learn from me :)

Tomorrow!

I can't wait to enjoy these things tomorrow!!! My how I've missed you!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sugarrrrrrrr

This week... It was a piece of cake. I'm about to enjoy this. Happy birthday to my little cousin Raleigh Jo! Thanks for turning 1 so I can celebrate the completion of this week the right way.

Day 5

Friday

1 egg, 2 egg whites with cheese, salt & pepper, tortilla=breakfast burrito! I cut out 2 of the yolks because I entered in my food intake yesterday and my cholesterol intake was OVER! #oops Blame it on the egg yolks.

Lunch:

My sandwich was delicious... cajun turkey, a LARGE amount of mustard, and a slice of cheese!

Snack:

An adorable little pear from nature (then transported to Kroger)

Oh, also...I JUST now had coffee at 1:30. I didn't feel a huge need for the caffeine this morning and then I just started to crave the coffee (even though it sucks without sugar) so that's why I made some! i love coffee. forever.

Dinner:

It's date night and tonight's menu is Chicken Cordon Bleu with a green vegetable. I had Brussels Sprouts in a steamable bag so I was like yeah yo, I'll cook those. They're seasoned in some yummy looking sauce. 9 minutes into the microwaving process, I realized I should have checked the ingredients. Yeah. I should have checked the ingredients!!!!! First ingredient: sugar. Are you %*#$%^@ kidding me?! I hate you packaging people! I bought those long before this week so I wasn't looking for ingredients. Geeeez. The good thing is this is over at midnight so I can eat those and the cake my roommate made too. I probably won't though I hate eating late and I'm drinking beer. 

So the Chicken Cordon Bleu is breaded. The bread crumbs I have contain sugar as like the 53rd ingredient. I would have felt very guilty to buy more and there weren't any that contained no sugar anyway. I did buy these to enjoy as a snack and I used them as my bread crumbs as well. 

Genius. I know. They even smell like the Italian bread crumbs that I have! #winning. I only had enough left for 2 things of chicken so I made the rest with the regular bread crumbs so that I can eat those tomorrow. Two is enough anyway. Portion control!! So basically all I'm having for dinner is 2 little ass pieces of chicken cordon bleu 

and 3 of the following:

 Pretty sure there's no sugar in this. Thanks to Mr. T who researched that up. 

On to drinking and date night. I may or may not blog at midnight with photos of the possible cake that I eat, depends on my state of mind. :)

Okay I'm back. I knew there was something fishy about a BEER having NO SUGAR in it. You can't find ingredients anywhere. Nobody wants you stealing their recipe. It's a fluke. There's sugar in here. I have cheated. This only means I must do this all over again. #failure. 

A Week Without Sugar

When I first heard of this challenge, I feared it immensely.  However, now on the fifth day, I realize the challenge wasn't much of a challenge. Also, I genuinely liked the way I have felt all week.

What I have found challenging is physically removing sugar from my diet. Sugar is added to almost everything! I was amazed at the effort that is made towards sneaking sugar into prepackaged foods.  Terms like "Pure Cane Extract" and "100% Cane Juice" were very amusing. It made me wonder how busy families shop in a healthy manner.  Not wanting to drown their families in sugar, I can understand how terms like that are overlooked because we're looking for "Sugar" or "Corn Syrup".  Hence, my major complaint of the week: Sugar is in everything!

What have I learned from this challenge? I consume entirely too much sugar. I now understand that the energy I get from sugar is minimal and not at all worth it.  Now, after I push myself via workout or running I am not more tired than when I consume sugar, but more absolute. Here's an example; While consuming large amounts of sugar, once tired, I would generally watch television until I eventually drift off to sleep. This week, I barely get out the words "I'm tired" and I'm dead asleep. My quality of sleep has improved as well.  Last, but certainly not least, my energy has improved. I can push myself to new levels while maintaining for longer periods of time. Last night was an all time high. I worked with great intensity for approximately 4 hours. I was impressed with myself to say the least.

The result: I will never consume as much sugar as I once did. Now that I know what and what not to purchase, I can make better nutritional decisions. We do not have to consume as much sugar as we do on a regular basis. Sugar is now a treat, not a necessity...

vcf

Day 4 for Cara

It was scrambled eggs and Ezekiel toast for breakfast again. Oh and crap coffee. Lunch has been awesome! I really like the Boar's Head turkey.


I had a banana and some pop chips for snack. And I made a delish dinner too!


Chipotle Shrimp and quinoa pasta. It was pretty flipping amazing! For dessert, I had a serving of Naked Juice Blue Machine.

As I said before....the drinks have been the hard part. I want a refreshing beverage. Something sweet and sparkling. Bubbly. Oh and this taunts me every time I walk by it.


I've missed pretzels.....

But other than that! I'm really digging the change! It's forcing me to eat SUPER clean! And I'm getting in my three fruits a day for sure! My body wants those natural sugars!!!

Day 4

Thursday

We had a meeting this morning for work and Hardee's biscuits were provided. FO FREE. So I took a bacon egg and cheese and a sausage biscuit back to my desk and looked up the ingredients for each one.Garbage. Delicious garbage. WHYYY why must crap taste soo good? The only thing in those two biscuits that didn't contain any added sugar was the egg and cheese. So I ate the egg. The cheese was sort of glued to the biscuit so it was pointless to even try. Dumb. I've never been a big fan of Hardee's concoctions. I do love their breakfast and have always been a big fan of that...like once a year. The way the food is advertised is just so nasty. I've emailed them before telling them how disgusting their commercials are. Here are the ingredients for the biscuits I picked out. Don't strain your eyes and brain by reading all of those big words. There are several. Click HERE to see all other Hardee's ingredients.And just know, you're only a Google search away from know what's in the fast food that you choose to eat!

Bacon
Pork cured with Water, Salt, Sugar, Natural or Hickory Smoke
Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite.

Biscuit, ScratchButtermilk
Cultured Fat Free Milk, Nonfat Dry Milk, Modified Food Starch, Salt,
Locust Bean Gum, Carrageenan, Mono and Diglycerides, Vitamin A
Palmitate and Vitamin D3 added.
Biscuit Mix
Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron,
Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Partially Hydrogenated
Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil), Contains less than 2% of the
following: Salt, Sugar, Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum
Phosphate, Maltodextrin, Whey, Sodium Bicarbonate, Soy Lecithin.
Biscuit Flour
Enriched bleached Flour (Wheat flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine
Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate,
Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Anhydrous.
Margarine, Liquid (for basting tops of biscuits)
Soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Vegetable
Mono and Diglycerides, Soybean Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate and
Citric Acid, Artificial and Natural Flavors, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A
Palmitate

Cheese, American (breakfast)
Cultured milk, Water, Cream, Sodium Citrate, Salt, Sodium Phosphate,
Sorbic Acid (preservative), Artificial Color, Acetic Acid, Enzymes,
Lecithin (soy).

Eggs – scrambled or folded
Whole Eggs, Citric Acid, 0.15% water added as carrier for Citric Acid,
Citric Acid added to preserve color.

Sausage Patty (pork)
Pork, Salt, Spices, Sugar, Monosodium Glutamate.

I had some raspberries and coffee, too. 

Lunch: banana, green goodness juice, half a pouch of salmon, brown & wild rice with broccoli and carrots, and more coffee!

My roommate made a cake. There are no words. I promise I didn't cheat though but at 12:00 AM Saturday morning I'm taking a piece!

I have tears in my eyes on verge of crying because I don't feel well and all I want is comfort food and the sugarless mashed potato flakes I have require milk and I don't have any milk and it just feels extra awful right now. Ah. #thankyou

I found my comfort in some Simply Natural white cheddar puffs and some skim milk. My belly is now satisfied and I am a happy camper :).

Also, I found some sugarless bubbly! Too bad they didn't have lemon lime orange, it could have been somewhat similar to diet mt. Dew.....

Day 3

Wednesday HAPPY NATIONAL HEALTHY EATING DAY!!
I think 6 days out of the week should be national healthy eating day. Wonder what people of different cultures eat that is considered healthy? Oh...probably everything they eat is healthy compared to the Overweight States of America. Smh. One day you will get my thoughts on this sad problem. Onward to my food consumption for the day!

Breakfast:
I was finally able to make an egg and cheese burrito. I recommend it. Super easy to make, savory, and ready to eat as you drive....even though I ate it while sitting in my bed and watching the Today Show.

 I had half of this for a morning snack. MMMMMmmmm
I even enjoyed it 2 days after it told me to. Rebel, I know.

Coffee sucked today. (I made it too strong.) I think I sprouted a hair on  my chest.

                                                 
Snack city, trick------->










Lunch: Boar's Head Cajun turkey with some cheese and spicy brown mustard (looks yellow) on some Holy Bread!

This pear. Oh. This pear. Something about the natural fructose in it just seemed to be extra. It was like I was eating a pear cake. I didn't know what to do. The only thing left of it was some strings it grows on or something. I CANNOT wait to eat another one! 

#snacks on #snacks on #snacks














Today I crave gum because of the bitter coffee I had, diet Mt. Dew because of the bad information I read about sodas, and cookies thanks to Pinterest.

I really want a donut.

I am so gassy. It's awful. Be thankful you aren't behind or around me. I'm thinking it's either that peanut butter or that Ezekiel bread. It's probably that one slice of cheese on my sandwich. We know it ain't sugar!


Here's my dinner. Avocado, brown rice, and black beans. It's a tasty treat!

Day 3

Here is a pic of my afternoon snack:


Plain Greek yogurt, blueberries, raspberries, rolled oats and non sweetened peanut butter. To be honest...it's horrible. There's a reason we eat it sweetened. But that's okay! It's been 3 days and this is the first thing I've eaten where I REALLY miss the sugar. Oh and coffee.

Day 2

Tuesday

Breakfast:
I made these eggs in the microwave at work BECAUSE...I left them in the fridge there. Seriously, I don't know why I can't get my eggs to my own fridge. One of these days I will have a breakfast taco at home.

oh and I had some black coffee and a pear!!

Curious on how the crap you cook an egg in the microwave? Very gently. Just crack one open into a microwave safe dish (I used a measuring cup). Break the yolk and mix that baby around a little bit. I set the microwave power to 5 (Full is 10 so I guess set your microwave to half the power). I cooked the egg for 30 seconds. Stirred it around. Cooked it again for 30 seconds. Stirred it around. And I think that's all I cooked it for. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Did that to 2 eggs, sprinkled some cheese, salt, and pepper on them and inhaled.

Lunch

 




Seriously. I drank half that naked juice and saved the rest for a snack later. I also ate like 4 slices of Cajun seasoned turkey. Sorry, ate it so fast I couldn't get a picture!

I had a spoonful of peanut butter right as I left work.

Dinner
What to do with a ripe avocado? Oh yeah... here's what ya do:

THAT my friends is half of an avocado filled with brown rice and black beans, seasoned with some cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt. I was going to put some picante sauce on it but it had sugar in it as well as my Sirachi hot sauce. #Suckage Whatever I made do. And it was pretty yummy!












I ate a banana too. I apologize if your dirty mind sees this as an inappropriate picture. I didn't notice it until I posted it. Get over it and enjoy the picture...or not. You know you like bananas. ;)















So how do I feel? Fine! My belly is surprisingly satisfied and not starving. I'm totally content. This isn't that hard. It's only hard to figure out what to eat. Then it gets even harder when your eggs and bread are left somewhere other than where you need them to be. I'm going to try to get more creative. I mean I did spend a shit-ton of money.


Vote for Pedro.

Day 1

Monday

Breakfast: I was going to eat eggs this morning. But I left them in my mom's fridge. Instead, I had some black coffee, some plain almonds, and a Naked juice. Oh, I also do meatless Monday's so I wasn't going to be eating any bacon.

Welcome to the meatless, sugarless Monday!

I went grocery shopping again with my peeps. Got some more delicious no sugar added food! The deli serves Boar's Head meats and apparently Boar's Head doesn't have any added sugar in many of their lunch meats so bam. Got some Cajun turkey. Grocery shopping is so much fun! I love it. I really do.

Lunch: I made a yummy cheese sandwich in the toaster oven and had some edamame on the side.
The lactose in the cheese made me feel pregnant all afternoon.

Snack: I munched on some frozen blueberries and more almonds.

The deal...

So here's the deal. I'm cutting out added sugars, sweeteners, and artificial sweeteners from my diet. Only for this week, though because I am a sugar addict.

Hi. My name is Kayla and I'm a sugarholic. 

Why would I decide to do such a thing?!
It goes like this. Added sugars are not good for you. I like [healthy] food challenges. I like food. I am a foodie. I love learning about nutrition and I have a problem. --> I eat too much junk (mostly sweets). So, with the support of a couple of friends, we've decided to tackle this challenge together. We all work together like all day, everyday so it won't be very hard to get on to each other and to most importantly lift each other up when the cravings get bad.

So, why is sugar so bad for you?
Dude, sugar is so good but it has nothing beneficial in it but calories and those calories are empty, meaning there isn't any nutritional benefit that comes with those calories like vitamins, minerals, protein blah blah blah. It is also not very filling (hence "empty" calories) so more gets consumed putting more calories in your body that you probably don't need. Sugar can suppress your immune system, it promotes inflammation (man, I swell up a lot there better be some changes by Friday), it obviously raises your insulin level, and it can quicken aging!

Artificial sweeteners have zero calories so, like, why cut those out too? Because, like that stuff is like made by some crazy chemistry genius man and not by God who like made us so He like knows what kind of sugar is safer on our precious bodies. For real though, studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can cause headaches, migraines, chronic fatigue (you know, you're tired all the time), cancer, and they can actually make your feel more hungry. WTF. Seriously? Why would something with zero calories make me extra hungry?! I really don't know right now, you can Google that yourself. I also want to cut this fakeness out because if I have to cut out real sugar then why would I continue to consume sweet things. The whole purpose is for me to cut back on sweets. Like, I don't even want that section of my tongue to be activated.
The sweet taste buds are going into hibernation for the week.

Now, you've got all the educational information I care to type up, if you want to know more Google about it, that's what I did. I got my info. I'm ready to go! This blog isn't meant to give you a nutrition lesson like textbook format.There are textbooks for that. This blog is for me to share my week with you. So, enjoy. Or get out.

Most people are probably like "oh a no sugar added week, that can't be too hard". This doesn't mean only cut out cupcakes and cookies, people. This week means: Reading nutrition labels-if the word sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sweetener, artificial sweetener, aspartame, Splenda, anything ending in -ose is in that list of ingredients...you can't eat it. There are more dumb sneaky words that mean sugar so you gotta be smart and research if you aren't sure. Black coffee. Naked berries. Natural peanut butter (it's really not that bad). Bread is tricky. We got Ezekiel bread, it's in the freezer section because it doesn't have any preservatives. Many times if sugar is listed in the ingredients list, especially towards the middle and bottom, it is being used as a preservative. Don't know what that is? There's Google for that.
Thank goodness Naked juices were on sale because I plan to have one each day. Sure, if you read the nutrition facts label on those there are several carbs and sugars but it all comes naturally from the fruit it was made out of. I will be consuming fruit whenever I get a sweet craving, and throughout the day. Fruits are part of a healthy diet as long as they are properly consumed. So don't eat like 2 apples, 5 bananas, 3 handfuls of berries, and 82 grapes. Replace some of that with meat and veggies!

Ohhh myyy gosshh... WHAT am I going to drink?! I guess water. Damn. or Dam. ha! haha. haaaaaaa. Whatever, water's good for you and I suck at drinking enough of it anyway. I usually cheat by adding those little faked out sweetened drink mixers. Can't do that. Can't drink the green tea I usually drink. Can't have a freakin diet Mt. Dew. Waaaah...neither can starving children in third world countries. (awe now I feel bad and out of guilt may have to cut all of this out forever). No Starbucks! Might as well not eat out because who knows what they put in your fast food. Can't trust nobody.

So Phil and I went grocery shopping Thursday. He needed reading assistance. For example: he was being good and reading the nutrition label on the cracker box...like hard..asks me if it has sugar in it. I took a double take because there were some weird words on that ingredient list. COME ON PHIL YOU'RE TRYING TO READ THE SPANISH INGREDIENTS! Seriously. Turns out those Premium brand crackers do not have any added sugar! Yay for him! I don't eat crackers. After spending like an hour in the store we came away with some pretty good stuff. I got bananas so they would be ready to eat on Monday since I like mine spotted (like leopards). I loaded up on Naked juice because it was on sale and I was afraid it wouldn't be when I came back Monday. I couldn't grocery shop this weekend because I was going out of town. I'm not going to tell you what all I bought because you will eventually see it as I blog about each day and what I ate.

Enjoy!