Lorna's Sugar Detox: Day 12

Today I feel:

I've been cooking SOOOO MUCHHH lately. John is preparing for a PT test so I'm trying to keep it healthy and homemade for the most part. Now that I have a job it does get a little tough planning things out sometimes but it feels so good to eat healthy meals that you make yourself so its worth it.

I made this chicken spinach dish the other day that is SO easy you guys have to try it. I'll be posting pics and a recipe of it sometime this week! 

Oh and P.S. its my BIRTHDAY! I treated myself to a strawberry short cake ice cream so my taste buds are happy....Speaking of sugar, here's day 12 of Lorna's detox Journal! Enjoy :)

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 12

We are trying to forgo the bacon and sausages for a while because there is not much point in cutting out sugar but replacing it with loads of fat!

Breakfast: (07.30) Scrambled eggs with green peppers, seasoned with chili and fizzy vitamins.

I had meetings today, and was also trying to select an editor so I was pretty much desk-bound all day, so even though I had a salad ready in the fridge, I wandered down to good old Marks & Spencer to get some more grub - and get me away from my desk.

Lunch: (13.00) Sprouted pea & bean salad (I ditched the dressing), some marinated prawns (again, without the sweet chilli dressing) and some plain salted popcorn.

In the afternoon, the head of the school set up a bar tab to celebrate being voted the number 1 film school in the world - it seemed rude not to accept the free drink. It was especially needed as one of my classmates and I needed to have a good moan about problems with our respective projects.

Snack: (17.30) Pear cider (naughty, naughty) and some peanuts.

As I had already started down the slippery slope, I didn't fancy a super healthy dinner. What I was really craving was a big dirty take - away but I really want to stay strong... so we compromised and we did get take - away but we made very careful choices.

Dinner: (21.00) Tandoori chicken (no sauce, just baked with dry spices) and pilau rice.

Not the best day ever, but I think I managed to bring myself back from the brink of breaking the challenge completely!

Lorna's Sugar Detox: Day 8 & 9

Today I feel:

While reading Lorna's journal entries I realize I've been on one giant sugar-rush this week. It wasn't really intentional but I've had chocolate EVERY single day this week. John and I are "starting fresh" though and will be eating clean starting NOW!!! I might even say no to treats at work....maybe....possibly. While I have been pretty bad sugar-wise I have started hitting the weights again and doing Zumba once a week. Why has no one told me about Zumba?! It's seriously my favorite thing ever. Dancing + working out = happy Iryna. 

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 8

Today's lesson: always check the labels, because even when you think you are being fairly healthy, a surprising about of sugar will sneak in there!

For snacks today, I had two little pots of nuts from Tesco. Of course, I should have eaten these snacks on two different days, but I'm  greedy - even when I am on a health kick.

One pot was just 60g of Brazil nuts. Ok, they have a good chunk of fat in them, but only minuscule amounts of salt and sugar, and anyway, these are good fats!

A while later I got peckish again (read - greedy) so I dived into the second pot, which I knew to be a bit of a naughty one: it had almonds and cranberries and some oat cluster things that somehow made the whole thing 'granola'. Anyway, I devoured this little pot before reading the label... big mistake! At only 50g, it had 10g  of sugar! So after my deliberate lapse yesterday, today I suffered an accidental one. I will have to be an angel for the rest of the week to make up!

Let's see how I did on the rest of the day...

Left the house at the crack of dawn to be at IKEA before 8am but didn't eat anything until about 9.30amor perhaps even a bit later. It wasn't exactly healthy, but it was sugar free and very very filling.

Breakfast: (09.30) IKEA fry-up: A mini omelette thing, 2 sausages, 2 rashers and 2 hash browns.

Sorry, no pic of this feast as I wolfed it down in minutes - did I mention I was starving!

Lunch: I didn't eat it cos I was in full flow of productivity and didn't want to break the spell. It was this though:

It would have been v healthy - quinoa, ham and veggies!

Snacks: (14.00) 60g Brazil nuts; (15.00) 50g granola mix

Dinner: (20.00) Brown rice with ham (gammon) and peas.

Variations of this dinner seem to be popping up a lot, but that's cos it is tasty and filling and doesn't leave me craving a pasta fix.

I drank gallons of water but nothing else today - too busy for herbal tea, and I did a good bit of walking too - hopefully enough to make up for my sugar slip - up earlier!

Total exercise: 16,616 steps (approx. 13.56km) which burned around 621 kcal.

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 9

Right, this is it... I need to be 100% on the straight and narrow because I have been a little too flexible with the rules of this detox. I'm supposed to be avoiding all sugar, dairy and processed/refined foods. I'm also trying to avoid fermented foods like soy (and alcohol of course!) because that can have the same impact as sugar on your digestive system (or so I've heard).

So breakfast this morning was super healthy:

Breakfast: (07.00) A poached egg and fried green peppers and my fizzy vitamin tablet.

I need all the help I can get with my energy levels this week, it is a bit of a crazy one!

And as I keep learning, the key to success is planning ahead so I have not one but two superfood salads in the fridge at school.

Snack: (09.30) 60g cashew nuts and a small green apple

Lunch: (11.45) Superfood Salad

If you don't have the UK supermarket chain Marks & Spencers you are missing out because they are absolutely fab when you are trying to eat healthy. They also do amazing naughty food... The salted caramel cheesecake is out of this world!

Anyway, this salad is basically quinoa, almonds, peanuts, sprouted beans and pumpkin seeds, and tiny pieces of crunchy broccoli. It comes with ginger and soy dressing but I dumped that as I am determined to be angelic!

I'm heading to a TV show recording tonight and it's going to be a late one so I need to eat again before I leave... The school canteen's choices are pretty unhealthy so when I hear that one of my classmates is at the local deli, I call her to place an order. All their speciality sandwiches contain cheese, which I am trying to avoid - such a shame because the goats cheese and roasted veg or bacon, brie and cranberry sound way more appealing than the order I put in: brown bread (they give me a wholewheat roll) with chicken, peppers and a little mayo (this part clearly doesn't seem to exist in their world as it comes back swimming in the stuff!).

Later:
I had been pretty successful in avoiding bread up until today, but clearly that roll was the start of a slippery slope to carbs... ..

The TV show thing was a disaster and we ended up sitting in a room for about 4 hours doing nothing... and what happens when you are sitting around doing nothing? You graze, of course. I ended up eating more bread in the form of brown bread chicken salad sandwiches, and eating crisps as well and I felt horrible afterwards - I was still bloated the next morning.

Very disappointed because I had been so determined to be good today.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

Total exercise: 11,773 steps  (9.34km) - 402kcal

Lorna's Sugar Detox: Day 5,6,7

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 5

Today is technically the last day of term in my school, but only 1st year students get to take a break. Last year I was able to go back to Ireland and work for 5 weeks (money, yay!). But this year I am in the thick of pre - production for my grad Project (the IKEA documentary that sees me eating there a few times a week) so no summer holiday/summer job for me. :(

Breakfast: (07.30) 2 x bacon & 2 x sausages

I'm enjoying having the excuse to eat bacon, but I really need to trade this breakfast for veggie omelettes so I can cram some more nutrients into my day.

Lunch: (14.00) Another hot pot type thing today - this time it's brown rice cooked with chopped tomatoes, beef, green beans and peppers.

Sadly, beef is the worst thing to microwave so it wasn't as tasty as it should have been.

I spent 3 hours working behind the bar this evening at our school bar at the student summer party - I reckon that was a good calorie burner, and actually because I was behind the bar rather than enjoying the sunshine or playing stupid party games (it might be a post - grad film school but we are all just children in the end!) I wasn't tempted to drink at all.

Today was possibly the first day I experienced something Iryna had warned me of - the sugar detox anger! I had some project - related stress and it absolutely drove me over the edge. Instead of being able to tackle the trouble head - on, I just became this fierce cloud of rage. In fairness, some school - related stresses have the tendency to push be over the edge, so I really don't know whether it was fair to blame the sugar... but at least I didn't reach for a slab of  chocolate or a bottle of red wine, which would be my usual reaction to this kind of situation.

Back at home and away from the source of my rage, I had a lovely dinner with the other half...
(Even if it doesn't look as appealing as it tasted!)

Dinner: (22.30) Pork belly with a sweet potato and some roasted carrots.

During the day I also managed to polish off some ready salted crisps and some raisins, which obviously have some sugar in, but not as much as the aforementioned slab of chocolate!

Total exercise: My step counter says I did 7065 steps/3.64km/244kcal but that is not including the 3.5hrs I did on my feet behind the bar - students are thirsty drinkers so that was definitely a workout!

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 6

On Saturdays and Sundays I work in a cards and gifts shop in the posh little village where I study Monday - Friday. It's not very stressful, or particularly difficult, and even though the hours are long and I'd love to be doing something more fun with my weekends, but it pays my rent and bills so I'm not going to complain (much!).

On Saturdays I need to be in work for 8.15 so I am out of bed pretty early. This is always a rather painful experience - even after 18 months I am still not used to my alarm going off at 6.45 on a Saturday morning! Usually the other half just rolls over and wishes me well on my day, but because he knew I needed to eat something sugar - free and not just grab a pastry or Subway breakfast roll (my usual Saturday choices), he got up with me.

Breakfast: (07.00) 2× bacon rashers & 2x sausages.

Lunch: (12.30) Some almonds & hazelnuts; some marinated prawns from M&S  (I skipped the sweet chilli sauce that came with them; and carrot sticks with reduced fat houmous (also from M&S).

As we sell fancy jars of retro sweets in the shop we always have a jar of something to try on the counter. It is there for customers but of course staff will try a few samples as well! After hearing about my detox, my manager found a jar of garlic and rosemary cashew nuts to put alongside the amaretto biscuits she had put out. So those nuts were my snack for the day.

We went to see an old friend that we met on our South East Asia travels reading from a book that he is soon to publish (Go Paul!) and by the time we finished we were starving. We found a little pub that had an interesting menu, and we found some diet friendly items, including some Spanish meats but when we ordered we found that they were out of several things we wanted, so our dinner wasn't as detoxy as we were aiming for!

Dinner: (20.00) Korean - style chicken wings (no batter or sauce, just wings with fresh chillis) with some onion rings and fries.

Total exercise: 7641 steps / 5.96km / 248kcal.

I use my phone to count my steps, so of course I didn't have it on me between 8.15 and 18.15 when I was running around the shop serving customers...given how much my legs tend to ache after work, I'm pretty sure I do well over 10,000 steps on those days!

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 7

Woohoo! It's the end of the first week, and I should be delighted but actually I'm pretty disappointed. I made it through the first 6 days and then today I just really fell off the wagon...

It started with brekki...The other half and I usually have a treat like pancakes, or a little mini-fry-up on a Sunday, just to spend a bit of time together because, as you can imagine with my schedule, we don't see an awful lot of each other these days. But as he had gotten up yesterday, and as we certainly won't be having pancakes for a while, I left himself to sleep... and turned to cereal instead. Cereal is a rubbish breakfast - it isn't filling, it doesn't keep you going for long and it was almost no decent nutritional value. So I got off to a bad start...

Breakfast: (08.00) Corn flakes with semi-skimmed milk.

On a Sunday in work I have to manage the shop so there is an awful lot to do, and not much time for breaks, so I usually just take 15 mins at the desk, typing emails while I eat.

Lunch: (13.20) Some hazelnuts and almonds.

Now, here's where my bad start set me up for failure...The last few weeks, my colleagues at work have been having a bake-off. I had better resolve during the week and I was able to turn down the sweet treats that they brought in...But today was a different story.

I wish I had a picture to show you the amazing cake pops that Simone had made - chocolate cake with chocolate icing and tiny little sugar flowers dotted on them. They were really expertly done and looked amazing. And because I was tired, and hungry because I hadn't planned ahead, I couldn't resist them...

Snacks: 2x cake pops

They were literally only a bite each, but obviously they are chock full of sugar - this wasn't just a little cheat, it was a full - on break.

Anyway, by the time I got home I was determined to get back on track and not give in to temptation again.

Dinner: (18.30) Gammon ham with broccoli and roast potatoes.

Here's to being better behaved in Week 2!

Total exercise: 6676 steps / 5.24km / 222kcal but obviously that is not counting the time I was in work, from 09.15 until 17.00.

Lorna's Sugar Detox Day 3 & 4

Today I feel:

My weekend has been pretty awesome. Went on a date with my husband to a Yakiniku restaurant and it was SO COOL. Yakiniku is similar to Korean barbecue, there's a grill in the middle of the table and you order meat and sides and cook it yourself. This particular place had just opened and they had a cool new system where you order your food on a touch screen iPad looking thing. It took us a minute to figure it out but once we got it we seriously couldn't stop ordering stuff. SO... MUCH....MEAT. It was an all you can eat place though, so definitely had to pay attention to those portions! Next time we go I'll definitely take a bunch of pictures and post em here.

Lorna sent me some more updates of how her sugar detox is doing. I didn't have time to post them this weekend so here are days 3 & 4!

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 3

Breakfast: (07.30) 2 pieces of crispy bacon & effervescent vitamins.

I know this isn't going to fill me, but I have a big bag of almonds to get me through my day. I am desk - bound today as I am trying to finish my thesis and I'm a bit nervous that being in one place all day will make me more likely to snack.

On Day 3, the thing I am really missing is chewing gum. I usually munch on 4-6 pieces a day in between meals but as even the sugar free ones contain sweeteners, I am trying to avoid them for the full three weeks. It makes me very conscious of my breath, though thankfully without my usual coffees if is not as much as an issue as I had feared - but it is making me keep a toothbrush close at hand at all times!

Snacks: (09.00-13.00) 110g almonds

Lunch: (14.00) Brown rice with chopped tomatoes, courgette, sweet potato & chicken. 

Snack: (17.30) Walker's ready salted crisps

Dinner: (22.30) Small lamb chop & asparagus.

I polished off an entire 2l bottle of water during the day, and a few cups of ginger tea, and then I drank more water in the evening.

Sadly, as I was at my desk for most of the day I didn't quite meet my 10,000 steps a day goal, but I did come agonizingly close to it!

Total exercise: 9795 steps (approx. 7.89km) which burned about 363kcal.

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 3

Breakfast: (07.30) 2 pieces of v crispy bacon, a poached egg and of course, my fizzy vitamins.

Snack: (12.30) Walker's ready salted crisps

These are the only kind of crisps that you can eat on the detox - and flavouring comes with a load of other additives that push it into the v bad category. But let's be honest, any kind of crisps at all are not exactly healthy so I don't want to make a habit of reaching for this kind of snack.

I need to stock up on more nuts and maybe some cooked meats - but I need to check the seasonings.

Also, I'm pretty sure that while I'm  (trying to) cut out sugar, my salt intake is sky - rocketing. Not good!

Lunch: (18.30) 2 x pork & herb sausages, mashed potatoes, peas, onion gravy and 2 x garlic bread slices. 

I know, I know - I shouldn't have had the garlic bread, but as usual with all my running around I had left it too long between meals and I was absolutely starving. I felt I had earned a bit of carb loading but I really just need to learn a bit of restraint - I won't see the benefits of this detox if I keep cheating.

Because I had had lunch so late I didn't feel like dinner with the other half, so I just had a little apple when I got in.

Snack: (20.30) A small green apple.

Total exercise: 14,028 steps (approx. 11.25km) which burned about 478kcal.

Lorna's Sugar Detox Day 2 (part 2)

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 2 (part 2)

By the time I got in though I was pretty hungry, but brain - dead from sitting on hot public transport for so long, so I just ate some fruit and drank gallons of water until Tom came in and we split a Spanish meat platter while cooking dinner together.

Lunch: (15.00) 500ml water; (16.30) Small green apple & 15-20g goji berries; (19.00) 60g 

Spanish cured meats; lots of water.

Dinner: (20.00) Brown rice with onions, bacon & peas cooked in a little stock; lots more water.

I know I should be avoiding fruit but I figured that was the healthiest snack I could grab... and I was fighting the urge to  make a big buttery bowl of pasta or some delicious white toast.

I definitely learned my lesson about not going too long between meals and snacks today though... when the other half came home and we popped to the shops for brown rice and meat, every kind of sugary treat was jumping off the shelves at me! Here's to a more sensible day tomorrow.

Total exercise:19,469 steps (approx. 15.55km) which apparently burned about 686kcal

Lorna's Sugar Detox: Day 2

Today I feel:

My husband came HOME from his TDY and I'm feeling pretttttyyy prettttyyy happy. I can finally start working out for my break instead of going home to let puppy-face out. Oh and the whole my husband is home thing is nice too!

We had Starbucks and Hotto-Motto (Japanese fast-food/bento take-out) so we can call it a "cheat" day today.

Now here's what you've been waiting for! Day 2 post of my friend Lorna's sugar detox adventure. Enjoy!

Lorna: 21 Day Sugar Detox, Day 2

Why do people complain about Mondays? Tuesdays are where the true evil lies!
People are prepared for Mondays, they know it will be a tough slog after the weekend so they prepare - whether it is getting up as soon as the alarm goes off or prepping their lunch the night before - people might not like Mondays, but they are ready for them. Tuesdays, on the other hand, just blindside you. Tuesdays are where all the problems of the week hit you.

Take my morning so far for instance...

05.55: Up
06.25: Out the door to walk to the train station
06.40: Arrive at the station and realise I've forgotten my travel card. Walk back home. Find travel card.
06.55: Out the door for the second time.
07.09: Finally get on a bleedin' train.

If ever there was a morning that deserved a giant, strong foamy coffee, it would be today but I will persevere. And look at it this way, my foolishness this morning is forcing me to get some extra exercise - according to S Health, I've already done 5,000 steps!

Himself is also attempting the detox, and he really missed coffee yesterday, complaining of terrible headaches but I reckon my first pangs of withdrawl won't hit until later today or tomorrow.
He is also trying new things - he doesn't eat nuts so he picked up a bag of that of t- touted superfood, goji berries, yesterday. Not too impressed by them. They are kind of like squishy yet dry raisins with a smokey aftertaste. But they say you should try any new food 3-5 times before you decide whether you like it, so we'll give them a go for a while.

My breakfast was a drawn out and bizarre affair today - I only managed my fizzy vitamins before leaving the house. Once I arrived in IKEA after my epic trek, I had some almonds to keep me going but then it was time to drive straight into camera tests ans showing the cinematographer around, and it was 11.00 before we could sit down to eat. Sadly that meant that we had just missed IKEA's bargain breakfast by minutes... and I had so been looking forward to it! Meat, eggs and a hash brown, while not the healthiest start to the day, would have been wonderfully filling and sugar free. Instead, as the lunch menu had already started, I had to improvise something breakfast-y. .. and that meant being a bit naughty and having some bread.

Breakfast : (06.10) Effervescent vitamins; (08.30) 30g almomds; (11.10) Smoked salmon (no dressing), minestrone soup with loads of veg, a wholewheat bread roll with butter and water.

We finished up in IKEA around 14.40 and because we had eaten breakfast so late we didn't fancy hitting the restaurant again but we were peckish. So we visited the bistro area on the way out... big mistake. The options are ice cream, doughnuts, milkshakes, hot dogs, meatballs, pizza slices and fries. I was standing in the queue wondering if fries or a pizza slice would be more of a cheat, and trying to reason with myself that at least the pizza had veg on it, when I caught myself - I couldn't give in on just day 2! So I just grabbed a bottle of water for the long journey home.

So proud of her for hanging in there! It's so crazy how our body reacts to not having it's regular dose of sugar and caffeine. We seriously get addicted to the stuff and have to go over that "hump" to kick the "habit". Everything in moderation is key, but seeing how you feel when you cut out sugar completely is important too. I felt amazing when I dropped sugar for a week and have lost my sweet tooth so when I do eat/drink stuff with sugar in it now I enjoy small amounts whereas the old me would think it tastes bland and not sweet at all. If you drink pop, seriously kick the habit cold turkey, you'll thank yourself in a week when you don't even like it anymore.

"Sugar sugar oh honey honey!"

Today I feel:

I haven't been blogging in a while. The reason is simple... I haven't had anything interesting enough to say. I've been posting a lot of food pics and random tid-bits on my Facebook page, but other than that I haven't really been inspired to write any long blog posts. I think it's because I've fallen into a routine that works for me, and I've already told you all about it. I am not really doing anything "new", just maintaining and eating delicious and healthy food (80% of the time ;) ).

Now that I sit here typing this up I realized that I actually DO have some new "news" (is that redundant? I think it's redundant...). I recently got a job at a gym on an Army Station minutes away from my house! This means I have ZERO excuses to skip the gym, I can literally work out on my lunch break! Plus there's fitspiration everywhere I look (and perspiration....but that's to be expected). I am just SO excited to work here and finally be "busy" and get out of the house. Did I mention it overlooks the beach? No? IT OVERLOOKS THE BEACH!!!

Now that I've updated you guys on what i'm up to, lemme tell you about my amazing friend Lorna!!! She's an Irish gal who is currently working and studying in England. She's probably the busiest person I know but she decided to CHALLENGE herself to do a 21 day sugar detox! She was also awesome enough to share her experience and allow me to post it on this blog. So, on that note, I'll be posting anything she sends me and maybe it will encourage some of you guys to kick your sugar addiction too!

Lorna: 21 Day Detox, Day 1

We decided to give sugar one hell of a send off, with a Ben & Jerry's Core Sundae and toffee popcorn at the cinema last night, followed by an extremely late dinner of peri peri chicken, fries, garlic bread, corn on the cob and peas - all from a certain ubiquitous Portuguese chicken chain which left us waiting 40 mins for our food so we ended up taking it home in a doggy bag.

The post-Python midnight feast meant that I didn't wake up as hungry as usual, which was a good thing given my carb - free brekki, and being in a rush I didn't even miss my usual few sips of coffee.

Breakfast: (07.30) Scrambled eggs with green peppers; water (I had an effervescent energy tablet in mine, which I am sure has sugar as it is orange flavoured, but I need to get my vitamins!)

The real challenge came at the end of my commute - the posh supermarket chain offers its customers free coffee so I have gotten into a terrible habit of picking up a glutinous post - breakfast pastry with my free latte every morning. This entire store will have to be avoided for the next 3 weeks to avoid temptation!

Lunch: (11.30) Tesco Finest Edamame & Pea Salad - without the ginger and lemongrass dressing because the very first ingredient on the dressing list was sugar. I washed down my crunchy veg with some ginger tea.

Having spent the morning in school, I then had to go to work for 3 hours, and then it was time for a research trip to IKEA. It's a pretty long trek from the posh, quiet village where I am studying to north east London so I stocked up on nuts for the trip.

Snack: (15.30) About 50g almonds. Sparkling water (500ml).

Today was our first day showing the production assistants around the store and talking them through what will be required of them during the shoot in September, so we spent over an hour walking around the store - and then it was time to hit the restaurant for dinner. I decided to forgo the famous IKEA meatballs in favour of their special of the day - bangers & mash.

Dinner: (18.30) 2x pork & herb sausages with creamy, cheesy chive mash and peas. Sparkling water (500ml).

Ok, so I am sure that the mash had milk, butter and cheese in it and I'm supposed to avoiding dairy but I reckoned it was better than chips...and it was really delicious.

And I didn't even feel a tinge when my colleagues were all indulging in post - dinner desserts.

We left IKEA shortly after 19.30 and I finally got home close to 21.30 (damn you 'planned engineering works') after taking the bus the last leg of the journey instead of walking (lazy, I know, but I was quite tired and I had already done over 10,000 steps!).

My other half hadn't eaten, so was settling down to what looked like a delicious dinner of roast chicken and roast veg (sweet potato, courgette & red peppers) so I said I would have a little as a snack - but a few bites in he realized that the chicken wasn't 100% cooked (our oven is not the most reliable contraption) so we both ended up just having a few bites of chicken and veg.

Snack: (21.45) A few pieces of roast chicken & some roast veg.

Total exercise: 13,897 steps (approx. 12.15km) which burned about 557kcal.

Day 1 down fairly successfully I reckon...

I hope Lorna share's more of her sugar-detox updates! I will most definitely post updates :)