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21 Day Sugar Detox: What I’ve Learned in 13 Days

January 29, 2012 By 6 Comments

Today is day 13 of my 21 day Sugar Detox and so far the biggest thing I’ve learned is that sugar is EVERYWHERE!  It’s extremely frustrating  to be ready to eat something and have my husband say, “are you sure there isn’t sugar in that sausage?”  And then I read the label to find that sure as shit, sugar is the #3 ingredient in SAUSAGE.  Why is there sugar in my sausage?  It’s not a sweet meat…in fact, it’s pretty spicy.  So why does it even need sugar?

Did you know sugar is in tomato soup?  It is also in chicken bouillon.  Neither of which are “sweet,” so why do they need added sugar?

Your guess is as good as mine!

I’ve also learned that coconut oil does NOT taste like coconuts and that Almond Butter is delicious!  I’ve also learned that just because something is “healthy” and organic, does not mean that there isn’t added sugar…sugar can still be organic.

Overall, I’ve been doing really well on this detox and I’m very proud of myself.   As of today, I am down eight pounds since starting the detox and have lost 18 since the first of the year when I got serious about this weight loss journey.  YAY!

I have not been 100% dedicated to the detox.  The plan has you go 21 days with zero sugar to kick your addiction, and then you can start adding back in “healthy” and natural sugars.  I really decided to do this to kick my sugar cravings since that is what always sabotages my weight loss attempts.  But I’ve had pizza a couple times (two family birthdays and an end of the week-out-of-grocery solution), and I’ve had one piece of birthday cake.

I have not had any alcohol (which is a HUGE accomplishment for me!).

Other than the hidden sugar in things that I thought were safe, I’ve mostly eaten eggs, chicken, lots and lots of vegetables, steak, more eggs, salad and more chicken.

How many ways can you bake a chicken?  Let me count the ways….

My favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms.

Lunch that I can take to work is salad with carrots, chicken and (homemade) vinaigrette or I will take leftover veggies and chicken.

Dinner can be baked chicken and roasted veggies.  Oh, and I’ve fallen in love with this delicious cauliflower mash that I have been fixing myself a LOT! SO GOOD!

It has been pretty easy to follow the 21 Day Sugar Detox plan (not a sponsored or affiliate link) and they have a bunch of recipes that are delicious and since I love trying new recipes it’s been a fun adventure rather than a chore.

So there you have it.  How I’ve lost eight pounds in 13 days, how I’m not dying from sugar cravings and how this has actually been kinda fun.  Crazy isn’t it?!

How is your new years resolution to lose weight going??  Have you tried a sugar detox?  Do you realize just how bad sugar is for you?

ETA:  I just wanted to add that this has not been the easiest project ever.  I did find myself rooting around in the kitchen last week for the delicious chocolate fudge frosting that I knew was in my freezer.  It took every bit of willpower to ignore it.  It is NOT completely a walk in the park…but it can be done with determination!

ETAA:  I tossed the fudge frosting last night so I wouldn’t be tempted again…even though there was enough to frost a whole other cake.

 

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Wordless Wednesday: Losing Weight!

January 25, 2012 By 21 Comments

Day 24: Going DownThis Sugar Detox is working and I’m actually losing some weight!  This is my Lose It! weight graph and I’m so excited to finally be seeing progress!  I’m down 8 pounds since starting and 15 pounds since January 1st! YAY!

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LEGO Friends: Love Them or Hate Them?

January 21, 2012 By 6 Comments

Alternate title (thanks to my friend Stacy):  I Didn’t Know the Feminist in me was Supposed to Hate Them

My nine year old niece LOVES LEGO’s.  When she comes over here to my house, it’s almost always the first thing she plays with.  Having boys who are also in love with LEGO’s we have LOTS of them with their own dedicated station.  There is always lots of house and family building.  We have many sets that are usually only built “correctly” once, and then just tossed into the community bucket for many more hours of imaginative creating.

It’s all good. Right?

My nieces are also VERY girly.  They like pink, they like dolls, they like to get pedicures with grandma.  This does not make them any less smart than the other girl who would rather play space explorer (and FYI: these girls like to play in the dirt more than my own boys).

So when Christmas came around and I was shopping for my niece, I actually went looking for girly themed LEGO’s.  I was sorely disappointed that there was NONE.  A few Hello Kittie Megablocks, but she already had all of those.  And I remember thinking in the Toys R Us, “Why don’t they make girly LEGO kits?”

Really. I did.

Then, right after Christmas, LEGO announced a new “girly” LEGO Friends line of products and I was PISSED!  But not pissed at them for being pink and girly, I was pissed that they didn’t come out before Christmas because my nieces would LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  I thought they had terrible timing for I would have purchased the cute little pink beauty shop in a heartbeat had they been available.  I decided I would just have to purchase them for the girls at their next birthdays and that was that.

Then, today, like every other day, I was chatting with Cheryl (the mother of two girls) and she said:

She then linked up this blog post:  Letter From 14yo Girl to LEGO and I found something that Jessica Gottleib said that also told me that I must be living in the dark ages.  How backwards am I that I think these LEGO sets are cute?  I must be contributing to the devaluing of girls everywhere.  Perhaps because I live in a house of all boys I am out of touch with the feminist movement?

OR, what is so bad about letting girls be “girly?”  Why can’t the female CEO of some major company like pink and getting pedicures at the spa?  Hell, my youngest son likes pink, does that mean he won’t be able to play football some day?  I think not.

Why can’t we just let kids like what they like?  What is up with all the weird gender stuff lately?  People not telling the world what gender their kids are and going extreme with what toys are proper?  My boys have dolls.  My nieces have RC trucks.  It’s all OKAY.

My nieces are beautiful little girls who love purple and prance around in princess slippers.  They are also tough as nails and generally out-do my boys in traditional “boy” roles.  So I still plan on buying these pretty little LEGO Friends sets for my nieces because they are super cute and the girls will love them.  They will build the flower garden, care for the pets and then probably take the house outside to the mud hole and destroy it playing construction worker.

 

Filed Under: Family Life Tagged With:
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Inspired

January 19, 2012 By 7 Comments

My “home away from home” (so to speak) is over at Eclectic Six Media, a community site I started with my bloggy besties, Cheryl, Heather, Kathleen,  Amanda  and Lucy.  Each week we have a writing topic/prompt/meme (whatever you wanna call it) posted called Monday Mojo.  It’s just a little spark to help the people who participate to think of something to post about.  This weeks topic is Inspiration.

Who inspires you to be a better blogger? Has there been someone who’s mentored you and helped you become the blogger you are today? Is there a website out there that you strive to be like one day? Share your inspirations!

Honestly, I am inspired every single day by many people.  I hang out on Stumble and Pinterest and find inspiration.  Ideas for posts, design ideas and I even come across things I never ever want to be caught dead doing!  With so many blogs in the interwebs, it’s hard NOT to be inspired.

When I was a brand-new blogger, starting out on WordPress.com,  I came across MomDot and I found my first social home.  Trisha and her gang there taught me everything I ever wanted to know, and many things I didn’t know I needed to know.  I set myself up, bought a real domain, moved to a real host and I never looked back.  Because of the community and friendship I built here, I was inspired to try and expand into my own community so I could continue to grow and reach other newbies that I could share my knowledge with.

In case you couldn’t tell, this is photoshopped.  Heather and Cheryl were added since I’ve never actually met them in person.  I got to meet Kathleen and Lucy at BlogHer11.  Amanda isn’t in the picture because she never posts photoshopable photos of herself…perhaps she is even smarter than first thought.  But if we all got together…this is how I imagine we would look.

Today, I am inspired every day by my bloggy besties and the things they accomplish.  Heather is incredibly creative and a smart social media maven.  Cheryl is the funniest and most passionate person I’ve ever known and is a champion for her daughter with cerebral palsy.  Kathleen is amazing raising even more boys than I am and she makes time to have an incredibly successful blog.  Amanda has political and military knowledge coming out her wazoo and is always impressing me.

These are the people I choose to spend my limited free time with.  These are the people who inspire and encourage me when I’m feeling the urge to just throw in the proverbial towel.  They are my mentors and I would be lucky to end up like any one of them.

Now it’s your turn.  Head on over to Monday Mojo and link up your post telling us who inspires you to be a better blogger.

Filed Under: Family Life
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My 21 Day Sugar Detox

January 16, 2012 By 8 Comments

Today is Day 1

Around the first of the year, I read a post by Lori about going on a 21 day no  junk food challenge.  I smiled, left a comment wishing her luck and thought to myself, “there is no way in hell I could ever do that.”  Even though, deep inside, I knew I should.   I kept thinking, “maybe today I’ll go on a junk food ban.”

No, wait.  Maybe tomorrow.

Now, two weeks later, I’ve decided to go on an extreme 21 day, full out, sugar detox.  NOTHING sweet for 21 days.  No carbs, no sugar, no “natural” sweeteners, no artificial sweeteners, no nothing.  I’m slightly terrified and very excited.

My ultimate goal is to follow a clean eating lifestyle diet, but I know that I need to jump start myself and kick my sugar addiction first.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I will be following the plan created at Balanced Bites and paid the $21.00 charge for the downloadable pdf (meaning, this isn’t a promotional/paid for post…just in case you wondered).  There is a LOT of information!  Its 72+ pages of recipes, what to eat, what not to eat and the why’s behind it all.

Supposedly, I am going to get grouchy going through sugar withdrawals.

Bob thinks that’s awesome!

hahahahahaha

But, seriously.  I’ll try to post a weekly update on here, but if you follow my OhRheally Facebook Page you can laugh at all my stumbles and cursing trying to survive this three week hell detox.   A real fat girl doing her best to kick sugar.  Should be entertaining at the very least.

Have you done something similar?  I would love to hear about your favorite recipes or tips on surviving!

 

Filed Under: Fat Flinging Friday Tagged With: ,
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