Healthy treats for the win! .... and then Sweet temptations took over....

Christmas has kicked my jelly-filled, cream-puffed, sugar-plumbed butt. 

I started off in a most delightful way, making healthy fun snacks with my kids when Oma and Opa came over for a visit: 

 Snowman made with bananas, apple hat, grape, pretzels, and mini choc chip eyes/buttons

Baby Penguins!!! Made with Giant Olives, small olives, carrots, and cream cheese. I don't know why both my parents have such silly expressions...know we know why I'm such a goof-ball! It's in my genes. I can't help it :) 

We went on a trip (HessFest!2014) to a rental property with my husband's immediate family (17 people in all!) and I held strong and wasn't tempted by the Torte Napoleon, Apple Pie, and christmas cookies. But then... then the Trader Joe's Peppermint Oreo's (Jo-Jo's) made their debut and I crumbled like a stale sugar cookie. I was helpless against them. I probably ate 10...and then I just had to taste that apple pie. Then I just really wanted to taste those chocolate covered raisins. 

On Christmas Day, delicious chocolates filled our stockings, and we stuffed our faces with traditional German cookies (Thanks Julie!!!) and sweet potato pie (thanks Mom!). I think one good thing I did was to say to myself that on Christmas Day I would let myself have sweets, so I didn't feel like I was falling off the bandwagon. But MAN, it's hard to get back up. I feel like my sugar cravings were non-existent until after I had a few Jo-Jo's at HessFest. Then it all came back and I just HAD to eat more. It was really interesting to observe my own cravings 

So, now, Christmas is over, and my body feels really achy, tired, and slow. I have a new resolve to eat healthy foods and avoid sweets and added sugars. I love eating healthy fruits, veggies, whole grain bread, beans, lean meats, nuts, etc. I feel SO good when I eat REAL food and avoid processed, sugary, refined stuff. It's just a matter of remembering that when confronted with Jo-Jo's! 

Day 16!

http://eveschaub.com/no-sugar-recipes/

I wonder if maybe the Whey Protein, Protein bars and Propel that I consume have too much added sweeteners? I watched Eve Schaub's presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TDjqDRt6vE) and she talked about how stuff like Sucralose has the same effect on the body once consumed, so she suggests just using Glucose instead of other sweeteners. When the body has too much Fructose without enough fiber, it turns into fat stored in the liver. ewwww.

I have a box of Truvia (Stevia) that I use in my tea. I'm not planning on using it for baking or anything, but I wanted to research it, so I looked it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia
And it looks like Stevia is primarily glucose, so I don't need to go buy more glucose :) Maybe after I finish this box I'll try powdered glucose and see what happens!

It's been 16 days off of sweets/added sugar! Still going strong! I never really have cravings, fruit has started tasting REALLY sweet ( I just had an orange and it tasted like candy!), but I haven't really noticed any other direct effects. I don't have as big of an appetite lately, but not sure if that's due to my stomach flu bug I had over the weekend.

Day 10 Sugar free!

So, guess what. I bought some Costco muffins "for the kids".  And I haven't eaten hardly any (3/4 of one), but THEY ARE TEMPTING ME LIKE CRAZY!!!! Until I had those in my house I had NO cravings. It's like my body is still addicted even though my mind is made up that I KNOW I don't want to put sugar in my body. And the muffins aren't even that good....anyway. Maybe I should give them away or toss them in the trash. I don't mind if the kids eat them, but having them around is hard. I get scared that I will start having strong cravings if I give in to little 1/4 pieces of muffins. But I don't want to be a weirdo who can't be around sweets. I just need a little mantra to remind myself that I really truly don't want to put sugar in me. How about "Sugar makes me hurt, sugar makes me sad" haha - maybe that will work :)

Kristi shared with me this book/blog and I'm excited to read more:

http://eveschaub.com/category/a-year-of-no-sugar/