Sugar-Free Week: Day 5

Hello lovelies! This will be the saddest post to date, but as I have a 6 hour lay-over in the Calgary airport right now, I figure I should post something. 

All I have evidence of eating yesterday is this:

Yep, a good old footlong cold cut combo. I was ravenous, okay? I should mention that this is one of the best subs I've ever had from Subway before (did I finally get to sample some of that "oven fresh" bread I've always heard about?).

Secondly, I should mention: I'm done with sugar-free. This life just isn't for me. I got to five days...kind of. I had a cupcake... It was incredible. I should say though, the past five days have seriously cut back my need for excess sugar! This morning I grabbed a grande pike place roast, and only put 2 packets of "sugar in the raw" in that puppy! I'm really proud of myself. My mad cravings have even disappeared! Am I really on the road to better health?!? Perhaps...we'll see! 

I'm sure this week with Chloaye and Tatomme will be good for my eating habits too, as Tatomme is quite the healthy young lady, as you can see on her blog, Cereal Salads. Not to mention that I just received a phone call from Chloaye asking if she should buy a mother load of avocados that just happen to be on sale. If packing a case of juicy avocados all the way across the country doesn't say dedicated healthy lifestyle I don't know what does. I cannot wait to get to Toronto! 

Anyways, to make up for this lousy post, you can all look forward to a Mariel's Noms X 1hundo collabo post coming soon! It will be a good one, I promise! Even I am excited to see those gorgeous photos shot by the man himself!

Oh yeah, I guess I should add this: Day 5 of sugar-free week = failed. But that's okay. 

:)

xoxo

Mariel

Sugar-Free Week: Day 4

Hello folks! It's day 4 of the sugar-free week...and surprisingly, is getting easier! I did not think this day would come, but here she is! However I also have a brief correction to make regarding yesterday's post. It turns out that Day 3 may have actually been a big old fail. In my morning rush yesterday, I seemed to have forgotten that the ketchup that I drowned my scrambled eggs with is loaded with the sweet white stuff... Oops.

So here we are on day 4, making adjustments. I had eggs again - but this time I topped them off with a sugar-free alternative - salsa! Not only did this substitution not contain any sug (I checked the label), it was way tastier too! Gave my eggs a little kick. I have a bagel soaked with butter (well, margarine actually) on the side. Here's something else I realized...I'm sure there's a hefty amount of sugar in pretty much all bread products, but I can't live without bread, so I'm just going to pretend that there isn't any sugar in bread... This is my challenge to myself though, and I get to make up the rules...right???

With breakfast I had a double shot of my newfound (newly remembered) savior - espresso. Goes down quick and easy and keeps me going for the day!

Then it was out the door to head to school to try and finish up a whole 1/2 semester's worth of design in 1 and 1/2 days. I love life right now...thank you, past self, for being such a perfectionist and not wholly finishing any one project in design thus far.

 :)

I realized when I got to school that I had forgotton my camera! Which I guess wasn't too much of a loss because I didn't eat anything all that interesting at school. One especially pathetic nom that I indulged in was a little can of tuna that I found in my backpack. Upon realization that I was also without fork, I was in no mood to venture far and wide to find one - so I made do. What does this mean, you may ask? Well let's just say if you were wandering the Rutherford library 4th floor on Thursday, you may have seen a girl sadly spooning tuna out of a can with the tuna can lid... It wasn't even a normal can lid. You see...Clover Leaf tuna has apparently switched up all their lids to "easy peel" tops. Good for the difficulty of removal situation. Horrible for the "I forgot a fork" situation. Oh, and I "made do" with the camera situation also...

As you can see. It was one of the most pathetic lunches/snacks ever.

Then, the only other thing I ate this day was a measly little 6" sub from Subway (cold cut combo on Italian herbs and cheese, extra pickles, mustard, mayonnaise, ranch, salt and pepper) mid way through the evening! OH, and I had a late night black coffee with soy milk from Starbucks too (no sugar)! It was so, so much better than Folgers.

So...success? I feel bad calling it a success when I barely ate anything all day! Hopefully I nom a little more tomorrow.

xoxo

Mariel

Sugar-Free Week: Day 3

Hello everyone! So I hate to admit it...but this sugar-free thing is getting harder and harder by the day! Why did I do this again??? Anyways, as much of a challenge it was today...I was still successfully sugar-free (added sugar free, at least).

My day started off with a nice big plate of scrambled eggs (4 eggs, to be exact), and a piece of rye toast with almond/cashew butter (probably the driest thing I've ever eaten).

After breakfast I settled into my little workspace to try and make some progress on my final essay that's due on friday. 

Let's just say that didn't go so well... It was really hard with THIS:

Beside me all day...seeing this little cutie snoozing so soundly all day just makes you want to do the same thing...

After a fairly brief nap in the nice afternoon sun, I was hungry again! And desperately craving something sweet...I raided the cupboard to find something that would tide me over for a while, and was very happy to see these:

I had totally forgotten that we had a little stash of "no added sugar" fruit bars. I told you...I love Superstore.

As naturally sweet as the fruit leathers were...it just didn't quite cut it for me, and I ended up nomming on a gigantic handful of dates (boring, I know, but that's as sweet as it gets for the no added sugar world)!

Early in the evening I fixed myself a bizarre "dinner" of Sunny Boy cereal (I diversified from oats)!

I whipped this bowl up in the microwave, and added some chopped dates in as I cooked the cereal.

On top I sprinkled on: hemp seeds, unsweetened shredded coconut and spooned on some almond/cashew butter. Then I doused my Sunny Boy with unsweetened soy milk!

It was okay...a little bland...but filled me up. 

Since I can just not bring myself to finish a cup of black coffee in our house (Folgers, I realized we use), I have turned to another source of caffeine that I had totally forgotten about! Espresso!

I poured myself a shot and downed it before I headed out the door to accomplish some mad studying at the university tonight (so much to do, so little time to do it...before TORONTO)! Oh yeah, I'm going to Toronto! I can't wait. Me and Chloaye are going to go visit Tatomme for reading week. Will Toronto be able to handle three Flanagan girls all together? I'm not sure...

Anyways, that was my day in food. Succesful, again (I find it hard to believe myself)!

xoxo

Mariel

Sugar-Free Week: Day 1

Hello all! So it's the end of my very first sugar free day, boy was adjusting difficult! First of all, I have to say how this is making me realize how much sugar I really do consume on a daily basis...every time I went to reach for a meal or a snack, it was so tough consciously picking something with no sugar in it!

It all started with breakfast. For some reason, at the time, I didn't remember that eggs exist...which would've been the obvious choice. But, with my lack of memory, I whipped up a pretty dry breakfast of white cheddar rice crackers topped with cheddar cheese and cucumber slices, dusted with salt and pepper. With this I had an apple cut into slices, which I dipped into almond/cashew butter. This natural sweet treat is actually so delicious! I was very happy when I read the almond/cashew butter label and saw that there was no added sugar. I don't know if I could live without that stuff!

The worst part of the morning was the black coffee...I just couldn't handle it. I think we may buy really cheap coffee...I guess it does come in 3 pound cans... Anyways, I just couldn't stomach the horrible bitter taste and couldn't finish my morning cup.

Later in the morning I was hungry after my light breakfast, and still a little groggy due to my lack of morning caffeine. A snack was in need! I nommed on a banana, a piece of rye toast with butter and cinnamon on it, and a mug of chai tea with milk only. I needed to get that caffeine into my system!

I love Superstore...

Then came lunch. I was busy working away on my essay that was due at midnight tonight, so I just had a yummy little sandwich that Dad had made for me this morning. I think he used sopressata salami and provolone cheese. With this, I had a big glass of water. By the way, this is another thing I'm going to challenge myself to do during this week of no sugar...I am going to attempt to drink 8 glasses of water a day!

After a day full of fairly light noms all around, it was finally dinner. I could barely wait for dinner tonight! We had an Indian rice/vegetable dish and chicken quickly baked in the oven. It could not get on the table fast enough!

We used a nice mix/paste for the rice and vegetables, it was really good! A little spicy...but tasty.

The package came with a little pouch of  a bunch of whole spices and dried herbs to "season" the pan before cooking up the vegetables, I thought that was kind of neat! The pack included a bit of cinnamon, some gigantic bay leaves, anise, and cardamom. It smells wonderful cooking up in the butter!

Then we added in the vegetables that had been marinating in the paste that came in the package. We used green beans, cauliflower and carrots.

When the vegetables are all cooked after a good simmer in the pan, you mix these flavorful veggies with some rice:

And soon enough the chicken was done, too, and dinner was served!

I did it! No sugar today. It was difficult, but it definitely is do-able...I can do this! I even drank the 8 glasses of water today, too! Now only 6 more days to go of this sugar-free lifestyle...

xoxo

Mariel

This Week's Challenge: No Sugar

Hello everyone! So this evening during a particularly slow night at work, I had a lot of time to think. As my mind drifted to cravings of chocolate bars and candy, I realized how much of a sweet tooth I have. Then I started to think about how my levels of sugar consumption probably aren't the healthiest. Then I started to think about the stares I get as I pour sugar into my coffee (for at least a 10 second steady pour) as people line up behind me, waiting for their turn with the sug. 

So this is what I am going to do: no sugar for a whole week, no artificial sweeteners, no honey, stevia, nothing!

The only types of sugar that I am allowing myself to consume are going to be that of the natural variety: for example fruits and vegetables. This will be a sort of mini-detox type thing. As far as alcohol goes, all that will be allowed is vodka, whisky, rum etc. and wine! No beer.

And yes, I do realize that this week long challenge will edge into the first weekend of reading week, but I can do it!

I think the hardest things to get used to will have to be: black coffee, fruit as my only source of sweets, NO sweetened up beyond belief oatmeal, and no chocolate! 

So prepare yourselves for a week full of documentation, and notes on how unbelievably hard this challenge will be (I just realized this), and what I will be eating instead of sugar. Wish me luck! 

xoxo

Mariel