#21DSD ~ Day 15: "I love my food."

I loved my food so much that I just kept on eating today.  Everything I had planned was delicious.  I found that I was full on several occasions.  I was so full, I literally could not eat another bite.  I really enjoyed the fact that I was now feeling completely satisfied after each meal.  I believe there are two really important factors that have led to this change.  One, I've come across some fantastic, mouth-watering, belly-pleasing recipes.  It just goes to show, you should never get stuck in a rut when it comes to cooking.  Try some new things and you just might hit on a recipe that will make Day 15 of your sugar detox a food heaven.  Second, I'm on Day 15 which means I'm a seasoned veteran now, my body can't remember what it was like to have sugar and I'm totally pumped about the 6 remaining days until I can have my glass of red wine.

Now for the meals.  There aren't a lot of pictures on this post because I ate a lot of leftovers.  If your really curious, just reference yesterday's blog.

Day 15 (6 days to go!)

Breakfast - Leftover Oatmeal and coffee.  Like a good little fiscally responsible girl, I brought my coffee from home.  Imagine my delight when I got to the office and there was a huge container of Starbucks coffee on the grab counter.  I'm a store-bought coffee addict.  Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Wawa...it doesn't matter...they are all a treat in my mind.  I was feeling particularly spunky today so I sprinkled in some Cinnamon and got to work.

Snack - My favorite part of the day.  Those home-made crackers I was telling you about were everything I dreamed they would be.  I made my own "cheese" dip which consisted of almonds, garlic, fresh chives and some other things I can't remember.  It was delicious and super filling.

Lunch - I barely finished my left overs of Shrimp Pad Thai.  Not because it wasn't good, but because I was still full from my snack.

Dinner - It's great to have supportive friends.  The plan for the evening was to get together and catch up.  I ate an apple before leaving work.  Enjoyed a hot black tea from Starbucks then proceeded to my friend's house.  She had a wonderful array of sugar-free snacks.  Salami, guacamole and some quinoa chips from Trader Joe's.  Loved it! It was such a treat.

#21DSD ~ Day 14: "Culinary delights"

Whether it was the yummy recipes, less time in the kitchen or simply getting over the lack of sugar...today was awesome!!  Everything was on high alert.  I felt more energized and positive and less hungry.
Today I got it right.  

Even with my late night of cooking, I woke up refreshed and ready to take on the day.  All day I felt like superwoman....now before you start thinking I need to take a dose of humility please reference the last three blog posts.  I worked hard to get to today.  I deserved it and I enjoyed it.

Day 14

Breakfast

Vanilla Bean n Banana Oatmeal.  Of course!  I loved it as always but was bummed that I forgot the nuts.  You know how crazy I am about my nuts.  I was thoroughly disappointed.

Lunch

I can't say enough about lunch.  I cooked this one up last night.  It looked yummy.  It smelled yummy.  It tasted amazing!  I'm so glad I have even more leftovers of this soup waiting in my fridge.  It's called Mexican Chicken Chowder and it's from a new cookbook by Danielle Walker called Against All Grain.  I was so excited when this awesome little book showed up on my front doorstep.  (Love you Amazon Prime)  I just had to pull a recipe from it for this week's menu planning.  

Snacks

I had a Granny Smith apple with almond butter. I wasn't even very hungry for it but figured I should try to stay out in front of my hunger today.  Lesson learned.  Note:  hubby packed away some homemade crackers I made last night.  I was so delighted when he called AND e-mailed to tell me how much he enjoyed them.  Now that's a winner.  Can't wait for my turn with those tomorrow.

Dinner

Another favorite...Shrimp Pad Thai (and chicken).  I love this recipe because I can pull out my nifty little toy.  It's a vegetable noodle maker and it works miracles on zucchinis.  Imagine a pasta made out of zucchinis.  What can be healthier than that?  Even better, it's super easy to put together and turns out noodles in minutes.  I realize I'm beginning to sound like an infomercial, but for just $29.95 +shipping and handling you can change your life.  Just look at those babies steaming up a storm.  And if that doesn't work for you I have another picture of the end product.   And it was delish!

Another day down and getting in the groove.

#21DSD ~ Day 13: "Short and sweet"

Today was a real turning point for me.  The short of it?  today was a good day.  The sweet of it?  No cravings, no temptations, no cheating.  I now feel like I could really finish this thing.

I’m going to keep it short because I’ve spent most of my time grocery shopping and preparing meals for the week ahead.  All I have is my lunch hour to get this thing out so here goes:

Day 13!  I can’t believe I made it this far.

Breakfast

Rather than scarfing down my boys’ donuts and cheating as I seriously contemplated this morning, I settled for a green smoothie and some coffee.  I’m so thankful that I stuck with it.  Once breakfast passed, I no longer felt the urge to cheat.

Lunch

I ordered in a portobello mushroom cap with roasted red peppers, extra spinach and a side of julienne

vegetables.  It was surprisingly delish!

Dinner

I ate dinner at my desk as the plan was to grocery shop over the dinner hour.  Dinner consisted of pistachios, two hard-boiled eggs, carrots and a green apple.  I topped it off with a slice of fresh prosciutto from the deli at the grocery store.  After trying that freshly sliced prosciutto I am never going back to pre-packaged.  It was amazing! 

I was motivated to cook and ready to enjoy myself.  Promptly upon arriving home I set to unpacking the groceries and cooking up some soup, the next day’s breakfast and some home-made crackers.  I took the liberty of sneaking bites periodically.  Boy am I excited to have these meals over the next couple days.

I was so pumped and energized that by the time I went to bed a 11 p.m. I was still not tired.  I think I’m finally reaping the benefits of this whole darn thing.

Thank you to all for your support.  Just 7 days to go!!  And all by the book.

#21DSD ~ Day 10-12: "Can I just quit now?"

I’m pretty sure I've seriously considered quitting about 5 times a day over the last three days.  Most people on these detoxes experience their crash between days three and five.  For me, it hit over the weekend.  I've been somewhat of an emotional basket case.  Hangry would be one way to describe it.  On top of that, I feel like crap.  I’ve been waking up with headaches, feeling down but not knowing why and crying at the drop of a hat.  I really wanted to get on here and tell you all that this detox is easy.  Everyone should do it.  But, to be perfectly honest, it’s way harder than I thought it would be.  It’s one thing to cut carbs, but it’s a whole other matter to cut sugar.  I’m realizing that this “detox” is not just lip service.  You really are detoxing from a major ingredient that your body has become dependent on.

Every time I sit down to eat, I need to muster up my motivation to make it through one more meal.  Every time I wake up, I need to encourage myself to start the day fresh and get through it without cheating.  And thanks to my readers out there.  I won’t cheat.  I can’t let you all down.  Or at least that’s what I tell myself at six in the morning when I want to break down and eat a donut. 

As for my meals, I’ll give you the highlights…

Day 10

I cashed in my leftovers.  I had leftover Oatmeal for breakfast and we enjoyed leftover meatza for dinner.  I was grateful for a lunch meeting at which I could order in a salad with some olive oil for dressing. 

I tried to convince hubby to pick up wine, again, and was denied.  Instead I indulged in some hot tea.  Not exactly wine, but it was enough to satisfy my craving to slowly sip on a beverage before bed.

Day 11

Still no cooking!  It was awesome.  We went out to breakfast where I ordered two fried eggs and a side of bacon.  Lunch was a mish mash of things leftover in the kitchen.  Prosciutto, sliced English cucumbers, baby carrots, guacamole and sliced green apples with almond butter. 

Dinner will get its own paragraph because it was the absolute hardest moment in time for me on this detox.  We showed up to this wonderful restaurant known for gluten free options, fresh seasonal ingredients and low calorie meals.  Perfect!  Except they have this wonderful bar area where a musician is playing and people are cheerily talking and drinking martinis and wine.  Ughh!  I wanted a glass of red wine like it was nobody’s business.  We sat in the lobby for a few minutes feeling miserable.  I finally decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and we walked into the bar and did the unspeakable….we ordered a hot tea and coffee.  It was wonderful.  I could still enjoy the atmosphere and sip on something without cheating on the detox.  When we sat down to our meal the waiter asked San Pellegrino or tap water?  San Pellegrino, of course.  Hubby gave me a weird look and I replied with “if I can’t indulge in wine, I’m going to indulge in water.”  It was fabulous.  The meal was also wonderful.  We ordered chili rellenos for an appetizer which is essentially a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with chicken and chopped bell peppers.  Followed up with a side of lobster and a filet with roasted mushrooms (I really almost typed marshmallows here…you can tell where my head is at) and spinach.  We got to talking and discovered that we’re both really struggling with this. 

Day 12

I whipped up some green smoothies since I had all the ingredients.  I just had to substitute kale for the spinach.  And we enjoyed some leftover quiche that I had frozen from the week before.  Promptly upon entering church, my boys grabbed a donut, took a few bites and handed them over to me for safe keeping.  They have no idea!  I quickly found a spot to set them down and brushed the icing off my fingers before I had a chance to lick them.  We had lunch out which was basically a burger without the bun and a side of veggies.  Again, I ordered a hot beverage to keep myself busy and thoroughly distracted.  This has definitely become my go to strategy for making it through this detox.  We were so hungry mid-afternoon that we snacked on some nuts, more veggies and guacamole and apples with almond butter.  By the time dinner came around, we still felt unsatisfied but not necessarily hungry.  I made some Sesame Salmon with Balsamic Red Cabbage.  I think I was just going through the motions because when we sat down, we were both

barely hungry and unable to completely finish our meals.

Tomorrow is another day and I’m hoping to regain my strength and motivation to finish this out strong.  Wish us luck!

#21DSD ~ Day 9: "I think I'm going to turn into a nut."

I think I might turn into a nut.  Maybe a Macadamia nut or an Almond nut, but definitely some kind of nut.  The winter storm rolled through leaving me stuck in the house which means my snacking radar was on high alert.  And seeing how my quick grab and go options were limited and I didn’t feel like creating a snack from scratch, I ate a lot of nuts.  Handfuls and handfuls.  I completely lost count and by the time dinner rolled around I wasn’t very hungry.  I don’t know what has gotten into me the last couple of days but I really want to go back in time to Days 1-5 when I felt completely satisfied with each meal and I wasn’t on that emotional rollercoaster of hunger.  To make matters worse, my boys have brought home their Valentine’s candy and are constantly waving it around in my face.  Asking me to hold half-eaten lollipops and open mini packages of chocolate.  You’re killing me!

The meals for the day weren’t bad. 

Day 9

Breakfast

I started whipping up some scrambled eggs and remembered I had a zucchini in the fridge that I hadn’t used yet.  So I chopped that up and added it to the eggs.  I decided to bake the bacon rather than fry it and let me tell you, that was the best bacon I have ever cooked.  Yum!

Lunch

We had leftover chicken chili from the night before along with a coconut biscuit and a sliced green apple with almond butter.  Super tasty.

Snack

Macadamia nuts, hard-boiled egg, Macadamia nuts, Almonds, 2 more Macadamia nuts just to tide me over until dinner.  Almonds dipped in guacamole and a slice of prosciutto.  No wonder I wasn’t hungry for dinner.

Dinner

Pulled Pork and roasted turnips and broccoli with plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.  Yay for leftovers!  They make life so much easier.

Now, as for Day 10, I want to have words with you.  No more taunting me with my kids’ candy, don’t you dare let me eat gobs and gobs of nuts and please let me go one day without craving endless amounts of food.

#21DSD ~ Day 8: "I'm hungry all the time. All the time I'm hungry."

This was bound to happen.  I was just cruising along until - bam! - things started to get hard.  I mean really hard.  Today I was well prepared so it wasn't an issue of food, I was just plain hungry and nothing I ate felt satisfying.  Between planned meals and snacks I scarfed down handfuls of Macadamia nuts, consumed an apple so quickly I  barely had time to swallow or breathe, and picked at the biscuits I had cooling on the stove wishing I could just pile them all on a plate and go to town.  Prior to leaving work I called Troy with the objective of convincing him to cheat on our diet and pick up some wine on the way home.  When he denied me, I abruptly hung up like a little school girl throwing a temper tantrum.  Today was a hard day!  It was also one of those days that highlights the benefit of not doing this alone.  Without my hubby, I surely would have fallen off the wagon.


Day 8
Breakfast
Now for what I ate.  I was so happy to have this leftover oatmeal.  This is surely going to be a staple of my diet post 21DSD.  I loved the added chopped Hazelnuts and Macadamias.  I don't think I would be able to survive the detox without this recipe.

In between meals I snacked on a handful of almonds I had packed for today.

Lunch
Work has been packed with meetings lately so I needed a quick and easy lunch.  Today it was prosciutto, guacamole and a green apple.

By mid-afternoon I was starved so I ate my very last morsel of food...a hard-boiled egg....and crossed my fingers that this would take me through to dinner.

Dinner
By this time I was a raving mad-woman with two raving mad kids.  We arrived home to discover our furnace was out and as our handy man was not yet home and I wasn't in the mood to sit and wait in a 54 degree house, I called up the husband to have him walk me through it.  I realized almost immediately that there was no way I was going to make it through this ordeal if I didn't eat something quick.  Unfortunately this realization didn't hit until after I had made a fool out of myself on the phone.  I quickly shoved some Macadamia nuts in my mouth and got to work.  Several lost calls, some yelling (by the kids and mommy) and a few trips to the furnace and back our heat was on.  On to the next emergency.  Food!!  My crockpot meal was ready to go but my body was craving more.  I quickly whipped up some biscuits made with coconut flour, rosemary and coconut oil.  These baked up to perfectly scrumptious little rolls.  I scarfed one down pre-dinner.

By the time we finally sat down to eat it was a little past seven, but the meal was worth the wait.  I dished out the chicken chili and topped it with some chopped avocados for the perfect winter storm meal.  And because this was a Crockpot meal, the post dinner clean-up was very manageable and I have plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

#21DSD ~ Day 7: "Cutting corners not meals."

I committed the cardinal sin when eating healthy.  I skipped breakfast!  I would say that it slipped my mind as I was leaving the house, but in reality, I was just too darn lazy to open the fridge and throw a few things in a bag for breakfast and snacking.  I was riding on the mentality that I could figure it out as I go.  Big mistake!  By 11:45 a.m. I felt moderately hungry while my body felt completely deprived.  When standing too fast I even felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded.  I called in an order for a grilled chicken salad hoping this would make up for my missed breakfast and snack as well as sustain me for the afternoon.  By 1:30 p.m. I was so hungry I had to make myself a hot tea just to keep myself busy with something.  I walked aimlessly around the office hoping to catch sight of something that would be detox approved ready to swipe, steal and scarf down anything I came upon.  No luck.

Emergency Snack Pack

In between meetings I rushed across the street to Wawa to pick up an emergency snack consisting of carrots, hard-boiled eggs and a green apple.  I ate them all at once and immediately felt better.  Let’s just say I won’t let that happen again.  It was not worth the extra trips out of the office and the extra money spent on food.  It's fine to cut corners but not meals.  Over my lunch break I worked hard to plan out some more simplistic and less time consuming meals and worked in some easy snack ideas.  I will not leave this house this week without my food!

A post-work grocery shopping trip was next on the list.  It just so happens that the timing also makes this a pre-storm stock-up.  The produce section was out of bananas and the aisles were jammed with people.  I got the essentials and got out of there scarfing down some prosciutto and an apple on the way home.  Tonight's meal preparation was pretty simple.  I made a double batch of the Vanilla Bean Banana n Oatmeal with my last two bananas.  I through in some chopped Macadamias and Hazelnuts and put it in the fridge to chill overnight.  

I have to admit, the lack of preparation sent me reeling with sugar cravings today.  To avoid any more temptations I'm just going to take my sorry butt to bed.  Wishing for dreams of creamy chocolate and cheesy bliss.

We are now one week into our sugar detox.  Two more to go!  This week I have crockpot meals planned and some simple dinner options.  Crockpot meals are a great way to cut corners and ease the stress of menu planning and detoxing.  More tomorrow.