Now I haven't gone overboard with the NO SUGAR thing. Mainly I've cut out the junk sweets: anything where the nutritional value of the food does not outweigh the sugar content (i.e., cookies, candy, cakes, cupcakes, chocolate, etc.). With this philosophy I am allowing:
- fruits
- low sugar yogurt (like Chobani)
- low sugar oatmeal
- natural peanut butter
- sugar free creamer for my coffee (shut up...I know it has no nutritional value but at least I switched to sugar free)
Let me tell you this is MUCH harder than I had anticipated. Especially when I have these staring at me:
OMG these jellybeans are the BEST and they only come out for Easter.
Mmmm.....Tagalongs.......
And add to it that I've been ramping up my workouts a bit so I'm rungry all of the time. And "RUNGRY JEN WANT SUGAR!!!" (in my cavewoman voice).
Day 1 I was fine until about 2:00 p.m. The afternoon blood sugar dip hit me HARD. I wanted to reach for the sugar so badly...just one jellybean. No one will know. Problem is, I would know and I would be disappointed in myself. So, I made a huge glass of water with NUUN and had a few strawberries. It helped. Day 2 I tried to be a little smarter and ate a bigger breakfast and drank water steadily throughout the day. That helped some but again - 2:00 p.m. BAM! the cravings hit. Again I scrounged for alternatives to combat the cravings.
I'm on Day 3 today and I'm starting to learn a few things already:
- My blood sugar dips and my cravings spike about the same time every day - 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Knowing this helps me prepare for these times a little better. I'm trying to incorporate a healthy snack right before these times. My favorites are raw almonds, fruit, string cheese, yogurt, light popcorn or laughing cow cheese.
- I find I eat less of a healthy snack as opposed to a sugary snack. A couple of strawberries or a few almonds will do the trick where as I will mindlessly eat cookies or candy. The little "you need to stop eating!" dude in my head just seems to take a siesta when I start chomping on the sugar.
- I need to eat a better breakfast. I usually just grab a Luna bar and some coffee. Nope...not gonna work. A breakfast bar just does not cut it. I need protein in my breakfast to help me last through the day.
What are some of your favorite healthy snacks? How do you monitor your sugar intake?
Today I LOVE: rainy, stay-in-your-pajamas-and-read-a-good-book-days.
4 comments:
If I'm craving a sweet, I usually have a banana or half a pbj sandwich. I know pb isn't really good for ya, but the sandwich gives me enough to curb my sweet tooth. Keep up the good work!! I gave up chocolate. Being a chocoholic, this will prove to be very difficult.
Wow, good for you. I don't know if I have the willpower! Certainly not with that stuff in the house.
I get the mid afternoon sugar cravings like crazy. No nutritional value, but diet coke helps me.
Carrots might be a good help, too. I gave up fast food (I'm not couting the $1.00 diet cokes at McDonald's, because I could get that anywhere, it's just cheaper there) and I miss it way more than I thought I would. Yay, go us Catholics!!
In other news, I'm about to sign up for the Gulf Coast Half. You in???
I gave up boiled crawfish. What?!!?! Yeah, I figured that it will be something that I'll have a hard time sitting out on while everyone else enjoys it. The biggest motivation is the pregnancy. I know that I can not hold back on sucking the crawfish heads and that I could easily put a hurting on 10 lbs of crawfish with the potatoes, corn, carrots etc. and that just wouldn't be good for the baby. I will be so proud of myself that I actually gave something up and stuck with it.
I never looked at the sugar content but I do like the honey nut Kelloggs breakfast/snack bars. Strawberry was always a favorite but this flavor is pretty good and not too sugary sweet.
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