Nutrient - a food or other substance that provides energy or building material for the survival and growth of a living organism.
I work hard to give my body the strength and fitness it needs and aim to forever challenge how fit i can be. Yet in order for my body to make the most of what exercise i do, it needs the right fuel to sculpt and become the best it can be. I eat well, but i know i can do so much better! I love fresh whole foods and fruits and vegetables, i don't eat much meat but enough to get my nutrients i need, but my weakness... Sugar.
I love muffins and cakes and have grown up having the special treat in my lunchbox everyday. On a positive they are home cooked and there is nothing better than eating a baked good from your own oven where you actually know what is inside it and how good it tastes! In reality i am not going give up these 'treats' and foods of comfort, relationships and upbringing, but rather supplement them into foods that are better for me and do not have sugar and even then still in moderation :) And i hope to watch my body transform into the body i have been trying to form for years which is hidden behind that layer of sugar, i want to see my abs!!
I have recently become inspired by the book 'I Quit Sugar' by Sarah Wilson. It is an 8 week program which saw a lady rid her life of sugar and became leaner, healthier and nicer person and she lost her excess weight. She was a sugar addict, i am a sugar addict, even my mother when i mentioned this challenge to her snorted as she said 'You? Give up sugar??' Well if i can do it, anyone can!
There are many forms of sugars addicts, i do not drink coke or soft drink and do not eat pastries or doughnuts, i don't even put sugar in my tea, but i eat many muffins, biscuits and cakes and hot sweet drinks. I hide behind healthy sugars and often face denial, i must go through a tub of honey a month with my yoghurt and muesli for breakfast, i eat dark chocolate thinking the antioxidants outweigh the sugars and fats i am consuming, i also eat a lot of fruit, all this doesn't even take into account the hidden sugars in everyday foodstuff. And being a heavy exerciser i convince myself that i balance out what i eat. But in the end sugar is sugar no matter what form it comes in and no matter what 'healthier' components may accompany it. Step one is to realise it.
Women should eat only 100 calories a day from sugar and men 150 calories equivalent to 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men. Today we eat more than a kilo of sugar a week, just 150 years ago we ate close to none. Our world is eating more low fat meals than before and we are hitting the gyms, but we are still putting on weight. More than this increases your chances of being overweight and acquiring diseases such as the well known diabetes and autoimmune diseases. Whats more sugar feeds cancer cells, elevates inflammation, leads to abdominal obesity, causes a rapid rise in adrenaline and hyperactivity and upsets mineral relationships in your body such as copper and chromium and calcium and is the biggest cause of the non-alcoholic fatty liver. I will try to treat quitting sugar as an experiment and not a life sentence, i might as well try!! I am curious to see how my own body responds to it.
Studies say it takes about 21-66 days to change a habit and sugar is a tough one. When you quit sugar you need to quit ALL of it to break the addiction then slowly introduce a little back such as fruit. Humans respond badly to outright bans though, if we ban certain foods all we think about is how we want to eat it, so i will do this slowly, gently and calmly. I will read as much as i can about sugar in foods and write what i find to keep myself motivated. I'm doing this not because i have to but because it will make me feel better. I want to bring my body back to a balanced state and rediscover my natural appetite mechanisms instead of reacting from craving to craving. I will flex my 'I'm not eating Sugar thanks' muscle and build it stronger with each rep. Here's how we will do this:
Week 1:
A. Swap: for me this will be swapping my muesli and yoghurt for eggs on toast for breakfast. Maybe at the movies i could swap those m&m's for popcorn. The first week will be all about swapping, easy swaps as the cravings get milder with the mind set 'I am just playing with the idea'.
SO, What i can do...
Breakfast - I was deflated to see that muesli contains around 43.3% sugar making them more sugary than coco-pops and will hunt for a lower sugar content. But i will try
B. Reduce Fructose: Fructose is the sugar molecule which does not tell our brains we have had enough and is responsible for our continuous cravings, with fructose there is no 'off-switch'. What's more fructose converts directly into fat as the other sugars are utilised first. A down side for me.. banana's are 55% sugar of which half is fructose and honey is purely 40% fructose, no wonder i can't get enough of it!!
Week 2:
A. Replace what you are taking out to prevent and reduce frustrations and side effects of reducing sugars/cravings by eating wholesome and unprocessed fats. Take note of how quickly you feel full, whether your cravings have lessened and whether you feel you are 'missing out on something'.
B. Keep snacking (for now) to prevent hypoglycaemic events particularly from 11am to 4pm. Fats are vital for immune health, digestion and metabolism and act as antioxidants to rid heavy metals and toxins from our system. Fats to use include coconut oil in cooking, walnuts, macadamias, flaxseed and chia oil (not for cooking), full fat milk (which contains the enzymes to break down lactose and helps reduce digestion problems) and organic butter. Treats to try include grilled haloumi (beat those 3pm cravings!), calamari after dinner for desert, grilled walnuts on a little yoghurt with cinnamon or vanilla powder or try macadamia or almond paste on a rice cake after lunch. Try toasted pumpkin seeds on salads or porridge, avocado in sandwiches!, eggs and more eggs, small doses of bacon e.g. in a vegetable soup and goats cheese on salad.
Eating good fat can help you lose weight by making us feel fuller and activates our metabolism.
Week 3 - QUIT!!
A. The cold turkey approach lets your body re-calibrate and find the new set-point and reduces your risk of a domino effect of letting more sugar in. Must go's include:
... fruit, fruit juice, dried fruit (also my weakness!!) and jams, tomato and BBQ sauces (containing more than 50% sugar), any condiment containing sugar, balsamic vinegar, flavoured yoghurts, honey, agave, palm and coconut sugar, and obviously chocolate, soft drinks etc.
Crowd yourself with other foods until you are full!
B. Read sugar contents.Sugar includes glucose, fructose and lactose. Eat products with less than 3-6g of sugar per 100g or 100mls. For dairy stay under 8g of sugar per 100g/ml. NOTE: 4g sugar = 1 teaspoon sugar.
C. Arm yourself with distraction - write down all the times you crave sugar and are emotionally attached to it and match it with an alternative fix! Ideas for me... an afternoon craving go for a little walk or trip to the post office, order a large tea that requires straining to occupy yourself and fill you up while out for coffee with friends. Choose cheese at dinner parties, have a bath or read a book, brush your teeth right after you finish dinner, drink tea :)
Foods to help you through: the 9 C's...
Cacao (pure raw cocoa full of antioxidants), Chia on yoghurt, Chai tea, Cheese (haloumi as an afternoon snack), Cinnamon, Coconut water (sweet with no fructose!), Chicken as a snack before dinner and Coffee
Week 4 - Face the demons and voices of sabotage whether they are your own or others
People may be angry or frustrated at you - giving up something so common to us scares many people and you hold up a mirror to others fears when you take the challenge. Yes sugar is natural, but the amount we are exposed to isn't. A glass of apple juice = a glass of coke = 10-12 teaspoons of sugar and when sugar is liquid it hits our liver faster and is quickly converted into fat. Sugar is a drug and rarely works in moderation. Remember "all truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, third it is accepted as being self-evident."
A. Fruit contains large amount of fructose, many of its nutrients can be acquired from vegetables, cutting out on sugars can allow you to eat 1-2 small pieces of fruit a day
(still under construction)
Week 5 - Get creative and detox
Don't fret if you sneak a pick at a friends birthday cake, don't give up as each day is a new day :) When a craving comes 1. wait 20 minutes and have a cup of tea. 2. Have an alternative e,g, burn an incense, call someone sweet, try a new flavor of tea, meditate.
When you have withdrawals - drink a lot of warm water/tea, sweat things out, take good bacteria supplements. Calcium and magnesium supplements are known to reduce cravings, drink green tea before meals to reduce GI food intake, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon a day reduces sugar cravings and improves insulin control.
Week 6 - Adding Sweet things back in
This may not be until 2-3 months after the sweet cravings have gone, listen to your own body. Try fructose low fruit such as kiwi fruit, blueberries, mandarins and strawberries. Chai tea is totally sugar free (not the late!!) and can be drunk from day 1 and make coconut your friend, drink the juice and scrape out the flesh and use for smoothies and recipes alternatively toast coconut flakes and add to porridge or yoghurt. 'Sugars' to play with include dextrose (contains no fructose), rice syrup, glucose syrup and stevia (no fructose). Alternative to chocolate - sugar free carob buds, raw cacao nibs, cacao.
Week 7 - Recovering from lapses
Forgive yourself from any lapses but still try to avoid them! they serve reminders of why you quit in the first place. Avoid artificial sweeteners, these still increase insulin and can make you increase weight by craving more substances.
Week 8 - Refining and moving forward
Don't relapse on 'sort of healthy foods' like strawberries, gluten free muffins or dark chocolate.
Sugar you are going down :)
“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.”
I love muffins and cakes and have grown up having the special treat in my lunchbox everyday. On a positive they are home cooked and there is nothing better than eating a baked good from your own oven where you actually know what is inside it and how good it tastes! In reality i am not going give up these 'treats' and foods of comfort, relationships and upbringing, but rather supplement them into foods that are better for me and do not have sugar and even then still in moderation :) And i hope to watch my body transform into the body i have been trying to form for years which is hidden behind that layer of sugar, i want to see my abs!!
I have recently become inspired by the book 'I Quit Sugar' by Sarah Wilson. It is an 8 week program which saw a lady rid her life of sugar and became leaner, healthier and nicer person and she lost her excess weight. She was a sugar addict, i am a sugar addict, even my mother when i mentioned this challenge to her snorted as she said 'You? Give up sugar??' Well if i can do it, anyone can!There are many forms of sugars addicts, i do not drink coke or soft drink and do not eat pastries or doughnuts, i don't even put sugar in my tea, but i eat many muffins, biscuits and cakes and hot sweet drinks. I hide behind healthy sugars and often face denial, i must go through a tub of honey a month with my yoghurt and muesli for breakfast, i eat dark chocolate thinking the antioxidants outweigh the sugars and fats i am consuming, i also eat a lot of fruit, all this doesn't even take into account the hidden sugars in everyday foodstuff. And being a heavy exerciser i convince myself that i balance out what i eat. But in the end sugar is sugar no matter what form it comes in and no matter what 'healthier' components may accompany it. Step one is to realise it.
Women should eat only 100 calories a day from sugar and men 150 calories equivalent to 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men. Today we eat more than a kilo of sugar a week, just 150 years ago we ate close to none. Our world is eating more low fat meals than before and we are hitting the gyms, but we are still putting on weight. More than this increases your chances of being overweight and acquiring diseases such as the well known diabetes and autoimmune diseases. Whats more sugar feeds cancer cells, elevates inflammation, leads to abdominal obesity, causes a rapid rise in adrenaline and hyperactivity and upsets mineral relationships in your body such as copper and chromium and calcium and is the biggest cause of the non-alcoholic fatty liver. I will try to treat quitting sugar as an experiment and not a life sentence, i might as well try!! I am curious to see how my own body responds to it.
Studies say it takes about 21-66 days to change a habit and sugar is a tough one. When you quit sugar you need to quit ALL of it to break the addiction then slowly introduce a little back such as fruit. Humans respond badly to outright bans though, if we ban certain foods all we think about is how we want to eat it, so i will do this slowly, gently and calmly. I will read as much as i can about sugar in foods and write what i find to keep myself motivated. I'm doing this not because i have to but because it will make me feel better. I want to bring my body back to a balanced state and rediscover my natural appetite mechanisms instead of reacting from craving to craving. I will flex my 'I'm not eating Sugar thanks' muscle and build it stronger with each rep. Here's how we will do this:
Week 1:
A. Swap: for me this will be swapping my muesli and yoghurt for eggs on toast for breakfast. Maybe at the movies i could swap those m&m's for popcorn. The first week will be all about swapping, easy swaps as the cravings get milder with the mind set 'I am just playing with the idea'.SO, What i can do...
Breakfast - I was deflated to see that muesli contains around 43.3% sugar making them more sugary than coco-pops and will hunt for a lower sugar content. But i will try
- Eggs on wholemeal/country grain toast
- Avocado and Vegemite on toast
- Porridge with cinnamon or with yoghurt and nuts
- Weet-bix if cereal is needed
- Don't be afraid of the new
Snacks - popcorn, nuts, vegetables, cacao nibs or sugar free carob buds, tea
B. Reduce Fructose: Fructose is the sugar molecule which does not tell our brains we have had enough and is responsible for our continuous cravings, with fructose there is no 'off-switch'. What's more fructose converts directly into fat as the other sugars are utilised first. A down side for me.. banana's are 55% sugar of which half is fructose and honey is purely 40% fructose, no wonder i can't get enough of it!!
Week 2:
A. Replace what you are taking out to prevent and reduce frustrations and side effects of reducing sugars/cravings by eating wholesome and unprocessed fats. Take note of how quickly you feel full, whether your cravings have lessened and whether you feel you are 'missing out on something'.
B. Keep snacking (for now) to prevent hypoglycaemic events particularly from 11am to 4pm. Fats are vital for immune health, digestion and metabolism and act as antioxidants to rid heavy metals and toxins from our system. Fats to use include coconut oil in cooking, walnuts, macadamias, flaxseed and chia oil (not for cooking), full fat milk (which contains the enzymes to break down lactose and helps reduce digestion problems) and organic butter. Treats to try include grilled haloumi (beat those 3pm cravings!), calamari after dinner for desert, grilled walnuts on a little yoghurt with cinnamon or vanilla powder or try macadamia or almond paste on a rice cake after lunch. Try toasted pumpkin seeds on salads or porridge, avocado in sandwiches!, eggs and more eggs, small doses of bacon e.g. in a vegetable soup and goats cheese on salad.
Eating good fat can help you lose weight by making us feel fuller and activates our metabolism.
Remember - Fat doesn't make you fat, sugar does
A. The cold turkey approach lets your body re-calibrate and find the new set-point and reduces your risk of a domino effect of letting more sugar in. Must go's include:
... fruit, fruit juice, dried fruit (also my weakness!!) and jams, tomato and BBQ sauces (containing more than 50% sugar), any condiment containing sugar, balsamic vinegar, flavoured yoghurts, honey, agave, palm and coconut sugar, and obviously chocolate, soft drinks etc.
Crowd yourself with other foods until you are full!
B. Read sugar contents.Sugar includes glucose, fructose and lactose. Eat products with less than 3-6g of sugar per 100g or 100mls. For dairy stay under 8g of sugar per 100g/ml. NOTE: 4g sugar = 1 teaspoon sugar.
C. Arm yourself with distraction - write down all the times you crave sugar and are emotionally attached to it and match it with an alternative fix! Ideas for me... an afternoon craving go for a little walk or trip to the post office, order a large tea that requires straining to occupy yourself and fill you up while out for coffee with friends. Choose cheese at dinner parties, have a bath or read a book, brush your teeth right after you finish dinner, drink tea :)
Foods to help you through: the 9 C's...
Cacao (pure raw cocoa full of antioxidants), Chia on yoghurt, Chai tea, Cheese (haloumi as an afternoon snack), Cinnamon, Coconut water (sweet with no fructose!), Chicken as a snack before dinner and Coffee
Week 4 - Face the demons and voices of sabotage whether they are your own or others
People may be angry or frustrated at you - giving up something so common to us scares many people and you hold up a mirror to others fears when you take the challenge. Yes sugar is natural, but the amount we are exposed to isn't. A glass of apple juice = a glass of coke = 10-12 teaspoons of sugar and when sugar is liquid it hits our liver faster and is quickly converted into fat. Sugar is a drug and rarely works in moderation. Remember "all truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, third it is accepted as being self-evident."
A. Fruit contains large amount of fructose, many of its nutrients can be acquired from vegetables, cutting out on sugars can allow you to eat 1-2 small pieces of fruit a day
(still under construction)
Week 5 - Get creative and detox
Don't fret if you sneak a pick at a friends birthday cake, don't give up as each day is a new day :) When a craving comes 1. wait 20 minutes and have a cup of tea. 2. Have an alternative e,g, burn an incense, call someone sweet, try a new flavor of tea, meditate.
When you have withdrawals - drink a lot of warm water/tea, sweat things out, take good bacteria supplements. Calcium and magnesium supplements are known to reduce cravings, drink green tea before meals to reduce GI food intake, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon a day reduces sugar cravings and improves insulin control.
Week 6 - Adding Sweet things back inThis may not be until 2-3 months after the sweet cravings have gone, listen to your own body. Try fructose low fruit such as kiwi fruit, blueberries, mandarins and strawberries. Chai tea is totally sugar free (not the late!!) and can be drunk from day 1 and make coconut your friend, drink the juice and scrape out the flesh and use for smoothies and recipes alternatively toast coconut flakes and add to porridge or yoghurt. 'Sugars' to play with include dextrose (contains no fructose), rice syrup, glucose syrup and stevia (no fructose). Alternative to chocolate - sugar free carob buds, raw cacao nibs, cacao.
Week 7 - Recovering from lapses
Forgive yourself from any lapses but still try to avoid them! they serve reminders of why you quit in the first place. Avoid artificial sweeteners, these still increase insulin and can make you increase weight by craving more substances.
Week 8 - Refining and moving forward
Don't relapse on 'sort of healthy foods' like strawberries, gluten free muffins or dark chocolate.
Sugar you are going down :)
“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Edward Stanley
“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.”
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