Day 5 - no added sugar challenge

Hey there, how are you doing without sugar now that we hit the day 5 mark? Headaches? Agitated? Or feeling great and going great guns? All is well here and I am loving the fact our kids are embracing this challenge! Noah is even wanting to do this forever, he said;

"This challenge shouldn't be for 14 days Mum, this should be the way we eat forever!"

Bless his heart and I love him so very much. He is my rock. Everyone here is doing exceptionally well. Having said that Oscar (just started Prep) apologised yesterday for eating a muffin to celebrate his class mates birthday! I told him, it's okay and that he didn't need to apologise. Thanked him for telling me and then told him "BUT NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, ALRIGHT!!!!!" Juzzzzz kidding! I love how honest our children are with us, I really do hope this continues throughout their teenage years because I know, I was a shocker!!!!!

Didn't manage a workout today but busy running around with the kids today and some swimming got my heart rate pumping!

Vitamin D

We also got a chance to lay in the sun for a moment. Do you get enough Vitamin D? Even though Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin, it's more of a hormone. Vitamin D is necessary for strong bones and muscles. Without Vitamin D our bodies cannot effectively absorb calcium, which is essential to good bone health. That's why my Mum goes back to Serbia for the summer to warm up her bones and ease her arthritic pain. Get your Vitamin D today and the best way to do that is to eat fish! Vitamin D is rarely found in our natural foods and is typically added to milk, cereals and eggs (if the chicken was fed the vitamin).


Breakfast

Quinoa smoothie with banana and raspberries
180 Nutrition coconut protein powder
1/2 cup fresh raspberries (you can use frozen)
1 cup of milk
2tbs yogurt
1/2 cup of cooked quinoa

Breakfast smoothie

Snack

1 apple and handful of almonds

Lunch 

Vegetable beef muffins

Snack

1 apple sliced with peanut butter and cinnamon sprinkled

Dinner

Turkey chicken burgers served with salad

Healthy burgers

I try to add as many vegetables to our meat and with our heat today, the kids just had them in bread. I was happy they had all their nutrients in the one burger!


Ingredients:
Mince of your choice
grated celery and carrot
Chopped parsley and mint
2 eggs
S&P

Method:
Mix all ingredients together and make into burgers. Allow to chill for 10 minutes and then oven bake until cooked.

See! I try to make my life as easy as possible (and yours I hope), I was supervising all our kids beside the pool deck, so what better way to cook than the oven doing all the work!

I hope you had a great day today and thank you all for your lovely comments here, FB and Instagram. BTW those of you that have bought her book, how are you finding Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebook? How divine are the recipes? Would love your feedback.

Thanks for posting your comments daily and look forward to reading how your days have been going without added sugar!
Xx Dani
PS: Look who else has no added sugar :-)

David Beckham has no added sugar

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Day 4 - no added sugar challenge

Hello my beautiful friends, how are you?

Me? A little pressed for time tonight, so I will need to make this post real short and sweet. I also need to find MORE time and get stuck into Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebook and get the nutritional table and food comparisons to you PRONTO!!! For those that cannot wait, I urge you to grab yourself a copy here (or click on the right hand side picture) so it can assist you with your sugar cravings.


What can you do to avoid eating sugar foods? Plan your meals. This is key! Even if it's for 2 days in advance. For an example;

Take your piece of fruit and walnuts when you go out.... to a play date, friends catch up, shopping WHEREVER?? You know what you are putting in your mouth rather than the muffins they will be serving or those nice smelling donuts you can smell in shopping centres!!! You are in control remember, if you want this you will pack your food and prep your meals.


Exercise today

Did my resistance training today and man I ALWAYS get a complete body workout. I love the fact that it only takes me 15 minutes to workout in the comfort of our own home while I can still play with the girls. Had a refreshing dip in the pool afterwards with a cool down stretches.



Style update

I get such a buzz when I can still look like the Gwen Stefani's of the world without paying the same price tag! Today I snapped up 3 pairs of jeans for $30! Back in the days I would've spent $250 on a PAIR of jeans alone!!! But no! Not today! They are such a lovely pastel colour, just the right summer denim to slip my legs into! Either go to your local Factorie store or simple buy online www.factorie.com.au and snap this bargain!

Coloured denim in lemon,  iceberg and baby pink 

YAY NO SUGAR TODAY!!!

Breakfast

Waffles with ricotta and blueberries

Blueberry waffles

Same as my crepes mix, I either blend oats into fine flour or wholemeal AKA wheat, add some eggs, vanilla beans and buttermilk. Typically I make the mixture that little bit more thicker. This was a lot quicker for our breaky this morning using the waffle machine and we ate them with ricotta and fresh blueberries. Then flew to school drop off!!!!



Snack

Yogurt with fresh raspberries

Lunch 

Vegetable frittata 

Snack

Fruit smoothie with 2 serves of fruit

Dinner

Vegetable and beef stir fry

Again a super quick meal for me when I'm short on time and swimming in the pool all afternoon with the kids!!! 

Method:

1). Heat olive oil in wok and add chopped onions and crushed garlic

2). Add beef strip and cook through

3). Add your choice of vegetables (frozen is fine) and preferred sauce and dinner is done!

We served ours with brown rice tonight. 

How is everyone coping without sugar. I have done this before so I am doing okay. As long as the stuff isn't in the house, I'm good. However I won't lie as I type this, I could easily open up a block of chocolate and smash it!! 

I won't though, we are doing this together. If I can't, YOU CAN'T!!! We can do this!!! See you tomorrow. 

Xx Dani

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Day 3 - no added sugar challenge

Gosh last night was tough, I was really craving that block of chocolate and those ice creams we had down the beach. I now officially know how it feels to become an addict of something. Sure. You may just think it's sugar and not a real drug but it's still considered an addictive "unhealthy" substance so really, I can put it in that category if I wish.

So for someone that has been eating relatively clean and then binging on all this sugar, I sure am paying for it. Moody. Agitated. Tired.

MIND over MATTER.

I can get through this. Trying to educate myself over the internet and re-reading the Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebooks as some of you that know me, I am not a huge fan of reading at the best of times. Much rather be looking at those pretty pictures in Belle, Vogue, Inside Out etc.....magazines. Also her books cover heaps on all this sugar stuff so for those asking all these sugar questions, I highly recommend this book. I will also do a book review once I have fully read it, for those that are wanting a  sugar free bible to assist them in their day to day food choices.


Special blog guest


I am in the process of also writing up an additional post about which foods to avoid that have added sugar and also what to look out for in the ingredients list and nutritional tab. My lovely friend Karin is a Nutritionalist and Health Food Coach in New York and I will invite her to do a blog post on her views on sugar and finally be clear on some of those questions you have been asking. I really want us all to be on the same page. This is new to me, even though I ran this challenge last year. So I will clip on as much information as I can and hope you too can help with any of your resources.

Apologies once again for my delayed responses to the last few days of my posts, we have been in over drive here at home (wend preparation) as kids go back to school again and my husband starting a new job so I don't see him from 6am-8pm. So I am a one woman show and heavily tied up with managing our family and home so please be patient with me.....


I managed to do my FYM workout this morning and I love the fact that I don't have to spend hours at the gym and can do a workout between 15-20 minutes per day. What's your workout like? How long do you workout per day? Per week? Do you prefer to workout at the gym or can you motivate yourself and workout at home?

Breakfast

Pear and cinnamon porridge

I have so many variations that I make with our basic porridge concoction, so feel free to type in porridge or oats in the very top left hand corner box to see what I mean. I have added strawberries, orange, etc.....to our fave breakfast meal. What's your favourite?

Snack

2 hard boiled eggs with vegetable sticks

Lunch

Chicken wrap with feta, tomato, cucumber and spinach 

Snack

Tzatziki dip (yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice & garlic)
with vegetable sticks and rice crackers

Dinner

Chicken tenderloins with cauliflower, broccoli and beans

Okay another super quick dinner tonight as we have a few things on.

Method:

1). Season chicken tenderloins with S&P, tarragon (omit or replace with your favourite herb), garlic and lemon juice
2). Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes while you wash and prep your favourite vegetables.
3). Steam veggies as you either bake the chicken tenderloins or I prefer now to use my Chefs Toolbox as I can leave in my sauté pan with the lid on and attend to whatever one of our 4 kids are wanting from me at this busy hour (5-7pm is mahem at our place)
4). Once all vegies are cooked to your liking I like to mix up some yogurt, seeded mustard and glaze the vegetables so they have a bit more flavour!

How did you survive Day 3 of our no added sugar challenge? Thanks again for coming and I really do love you all visiting, please tell me about how your day is going. See again here tomorrow.

Xx Dani

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