Eyes in the Back of My Head

I have officially grown my 3rd eye. You know that one that moms have in the back of their head. I think I figured out the secret today. It is not so much that moms grown an extra eye it is that kids are not nearly as sneaky as they think they are.

I bet my Little Man was wondering how I knew he got down from his chair, before I washed his hands, all while I was in the basement switching laundry over. Other then Momma Magic, I present the evidence:

A) The scampering of little feet across the floor sounded like a parade of elephants
B) There was a cup of milk hanging with Mary & Joseph in the Nativity scene
C) The Littlest Man and his Bumbo had moved across the room
D) He had a cup and spoon from his tea set on his tray

At least he was honest about the whole thing...or kind of...

Momma: How did (the Littlest Man) get over there

LittleMan: I no no (aka I do not know)

M: How did you get your tea cup

LM: I no no

M: Did you get down from your chair

LM: Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (filled with awe at how I could possibly know this)

I'm Sweet Enough As It Is

I have a sugar addiction. I know I know, the dietitian has a sugar addiction and I don't use the term addiction loosely. Studies have been done that show similar responses to withdrawal of sugar as that of nicotine, heroine and alcohol. I personally liked reading this research. It didn't give me an excuse for eating as much sugar as I liked but made me feel better that I was not a weak willed bad dietitian.

With this in mind I had a conversation with a good friend in December and discovered that we share an addiction to sugar. There is not much support for those like us so we decided to support ourselves and start SugarAnonymous (or not so anonymous). Our challenge for ourselves was to go sugar free for the month of January. We have not been too too strict as we allow honey, maple syrup and other more natural, less common sweeteners like sucanat (neither of us are big on artificial sweeteners) . Yes, I know there is similar amount of glucose in all three but you don't find them in goodies at Tim Hortons, in your latte at Starbucks, and in your favourite chocolate indulgence. The goal was to avoid all white/brown processed sugar and limit sweeteners as much as we can.

This is my journey:
Week 1
Day 1: I almost lost it 15 minutes in. I went for a bag of M&M's a few minutes after midnight totally forgetting my goal and that it was January. Thankfully I was gently reminded just in time and put them away. Actually I hid them so as not to be tempted later on.
Day 2: We had fish for dinner & hubby made his own tartar sauce (b/c I always forget to buy it for him at the grocery store) of mayo and relish. A few bites in...CRAP!.... relish has sugar. No tartar for me!
Day 3: Grocery shopping today! I need to look for a mayo that does not have sugar as our Miracle Whip in the fridge does which I need for tomorrows dinner. Easier said then done. I ready EVERY mayo and mayo-like ingredient list and they all have sugar.
Day 4: Pizza Friday! Today we are having Tuna-Chickpea pizza which calls for mayo. As I discovered yesterday there is no mayo that I could find that didn't have sugar. I decided to get creative and mash avocado to hold the tuna and chickpeas together. Result - hubby liked mine better then theirs. Success!
Day 5: Foiled by Tea! My chocolate chili chai tea was a nice treat this morning....wait for it....CRAP! it has little chocolate chips in it. Who puts chocolate chips in loose leaf tea?!?!? *sigh* Guess it will be waiting for me in February.
Day 6: Chips and dip with hubby tonight. He bought 2 kinds of chip and 2 kinds of dip as he didn't know what I could have (what a sweety). Yup there is sugar in chip dips. Thankfully one of them was sugar free.
Day 7: Foiled by tea again! This time by Banana Cream Pie loose leaf tea - I know I should have checked but it was the first one I grabbed before running out to playgroup with the boys. I thought to check it when I got back...sugar in the while chocolate in it. Dinner today was a big homemade Sunday style dinner so it was easy to keep the sugar out. I used a big of honey on the squash and the Little Man just loved it and asked for 3 servings!I decided to treat myself with a slice of baguette form dinner with a bit of honey - who knew it would be that good.

This first week I learned or was reminded of a few very important things. First, I can do it! When I put my mind to it and get in the right frame of mind I can avoid sugar and survive. Second, my tastes will adjust and start to change as I limit sugar to become more sensitive to other sweetness in all foods. Third, it's habit that foils me every time. It is so easy to just grab something that you like the taste of as you walk by. Breaking the habit is what will help avoid going back to my old ways. Lastly, sugar is in everything! Relish, lattes, ketchup, mayo, chip dip, most soya milks and teas were just a few of the food obstacles I overcame this week.

Week 2
Day 8: I'm really missing my latte's by this point. I made my own Chia Tea Latte with tea bag, milk and a bit of honey. Holy Sweet! I put less in them I would normally and it tasted really sweet so my tastes must be adjusting. Yeah! I found a big chocolate-almond bark in the cupboard today and it didn't even tempt me...we are getting there! Then it all went to hell in the evening. OMG I want sugar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hubby wanted pizza tonight and I indulged him. I called the pizza place, yup my guess what right, sugar in the sauce! So while the boys had pizza I whipped up a salad and went to put dressing on it.....CRAP.....sugar is the 2nd ingredient is almost all of them. I have been craving sugar or maybe just snacky things all evening - it's all I am thinking about. Cracker (whole grain and no sugar) with peanut butter (all natural, no sugar) will have to suffice.
Day 9: Craving sugar like crazy today. I was going to have some toast with honey to help appease this but reading the ingredients in my whole wheat whole grain bread guess what I found....that's right....Sugar! Thankfully I found a frozen loaf of organic rasin bread that did not have any sugar, nope not even evaporated cane juice. Who knew toasted raisin bread could be so good. Hubby was a sweety and took me out for dinner tonight. There was not much on the menu I was confident I could have but found a great curry and bruschetta that I think was safe. Awwwww it was so very very good.
Day 10: Slowly discovering that many of my lose leaf teas have sugar...so sad. Snacking on rice cracker with peanut butter and honey (2 tsp total) in quite enjoyable....considering I can't even have my regular bread. FIL birthday celebration tonight...I resisted the DQ ice cream cake with its fudgy chocolate cookie filling....nahhhh no sugar there. Awesome MIL made me my own sugar free sausages tonight - so much easier when people are helping you out!
Day 11: Family Pizza Friday night and I was to whipped to make our own (and all jarred pizza sauce has sugar). Called Pizza Pizza and they have 4 sauces without sugar. Woot! Woot!
Day 12: Rockin' day....think I might be getting these cravings under control. While tidying up the kitchen I found a few stray Lindor chocolates AND 3/4 of a Toblerone bar. No temptation! They are now waiting for me in the freezer.
Day 13: Pancakes in the morning with my Little Man...with maple syrup. Not too much but MAN it tasted awesome! After a super stressful afternoon with two boys that Will.Not.Nap I really wanted my crutch back. Like really really really wanted it. I wanted not 1, no 2 but 3 XL DQ Blizzards. I decided that was not a good idea. So I went in search of icecream with no added sugar. Obviously there were No Added Sugar ice creams but they all had artificial sweeteners. I will admit it was still so tempting. I had a Maple Walnut in my hand. But I could not do it. Not just for myself but for my nursing littlest man. I traded my ice cream for Smart Pop - no sugar YEAH!. Ever read the ingredient in chips...more then 1/2 of them have sugar too.
Day 14: I have learned to plan ahead. Shopping at the mall now involved steamed milk with tea bag and bit of honey instead of my desired latte at Starbucks for a treat. Not bad I say. I also brought luck b/c I don't really want to be that person asking every spot in the food court if 'this' or 'that' has sugar, cause most likely it will.

Week 3
Woops....we went for a walk and stopped for drinks. My "Chia Tea Latte with tea bag in steamed milk" came out really really good....it wasn't until I got to the end of the drink that I realized there was not tea bag. Ahhhh sugar from Chia Tea mix you snuck in!
I found this week much easier. I was used to what foods to avoid and as the sugar was out of my system I found myself not craving as much and much less inclined to even want it. Thus, the constant battle of wills was lessening.
And then is happened. It was a long night at the end of a long day at the end of a long week. I swear I do not even remember making the decision to clamber up to the cupboard above the stove and grab that bag of Nibs...and eat the whole thing. They were not even that good. But that is part of this process. And the next day I was back on my wagon.

Week 4
This week started a bit harder after my slip on Nibs the week before. This just clerifies for me the addiction I have for sugar. When I have some I just want some more.
Despite what I knew about this I decided to let myself off the hook over the weekend as I was traveling to a friends for the weekend. I really did not want to be the person asking what was in the pizza sauce! Despite my allowance of small amount of sugar I was able to avoid those high sugar foods. I did not eat ANY of the chocolates she had out on the coffee table. NOT ANY! Hello gold medal for me. I kept my sugar intake to ingredients and 2 half sweet lattes (oh how I missed you!).

Last Few Days
Sugar Crash Fail! The lat few days were very hard as I had been ingesting sugar for the previous 3 days. I did not think I had that much but it was enough to throw me off my game. I combated this with honey (when you are eating honey on toast like the bees are all going to die tomorrow it kinda defeats the purpose!). However I did have a slip. I bought myself some 'Congrats You Made It Cookies' from this amazing store in town two days before the end of the month. Well would that not be the night that The Littlest Man screamed almost all evening. I celebrated a little early ---Woops!

Moving Forward
These is no way I plan to be sugar free for the whole year but I used this month as a reminder that:
1) I can choose not to eat sugar - I am Strong and can do it!
2) The more sugar I eat the more sugar I want
3) Sugar is in everything so be careful that the small amounts add up
4) I can get through stressful times without sugar
5) Sugar really does not make me feel better in the big picture and I do not feel deprived once the moment has passed

Where I plan to go from here...other then my local bakery (kidding)....is to remind myself to limit sugar. I am going to aim to limit high sugar foods to a max of 1 per week and keeping an eye on high sugar drinks. I just do not know if I can give up yummy yummy lattes. Wish me strength!

A big Thank-You to everyone who sent me recipes to try, supported me and made dishes sugar free so I could eat them!

A New Year with New Goals

It's been over a month since I have posted a blog and I am really starting to miss it. Christmas season was busy as can be expected but well worth it. We had a wonderful season as a family of four. The poor Littlest Man was out of sorts as he was teething, developed a rash, broke a few fevers and has a cold that blocked him up so much he kept waking during the night. So between the lack of sleep and hectic holiday scheduled I was one tired Momma by the end of it all.

Now that routines are normalizing and I'm getting some sleep I found myself missing this form of expression and sharing with myself and others.

As the New Years rolled around you hear about the resolutions. Does anyone actually keep those? This year I decided for less of a resolution and more of a focus for 2013. I am going to focus on my health in every and all ways that can be taken. Each month I plan to have one focused goal, to ultimately, at the end of 2013 I would have tired a variety of avenues to positivly impact my health and hopefully some of them will stick.

A few of my ideas are avoiding dairy, exercise, stress relief, time to myself, drinking more water, trialing veganism, getting outside more and pursuing a passion to name a few.

For the first month of January I have decided to avoid traditional sugar and limit other natural sweeteners. This is a challenging month to do this as I have been consuming copious amount of sugar over the last month or so. We know that the more sugar you have the more you crave sugar. We'll see how it goes.

Any suggestions for a goal for a month? Something that you found helpful in your goal towards health.

Happy and Healthy 2013 to Everyone!