Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Sugar Withdrawals

As I mentioned yesterday, today I am writing about my JANUARY DIET. I’m writing in caps to make it sound exciting…it actually isn’t.

Back in March, I signed up for a diet program on the interwebs with the total boring name of the “Diet  solution Program”, and I followed it for about 3 weeks.  Basically the program is about lowering sugar, and artificial stuff in your diet (so artificial sweeteners are out too).  Technically all of the food you eat is suppose to be organic, (everything, right down to your table salt) and that part I am just ignoring. Oh well. The program comes with a kick start guide, and that is the main thing I have used. I like that it has meal plans, and is pretty restrictive with grains and dairy. It is a little too restrictive for my normal life (especially if I am going to the gym) so I stopped doing it back in March. It definitely isn’t a long term thing (for me) but it has helped me discover new foods (almond butter, coconut butter, Omega 3 supplements) and think about meals in a different way (ex non breakfast food for breakfast).
Some of the foods I now use because of the diet plan

Since I ate way too many treats this Christmas/ December, I figured I wanted to start the New Year right.  It was time to redo the diet solution kickstart.  I didn’t have a hard time convincing my boyfriend either.  So I logged into my online account to find that the program had changed! Not a lot, but the meal plans are different, and the website was way cooler than 8 months ago.

Here is a little more info how the program works. Depending on your metabolism type (determined by a 20 question quiz) and how many calories you should consume in the day, the program comes up with lists of carbs (breads, fruits, veggies), protein (meat, eggs, dairy, beans), and healthy fat that are best for your system. Then it tells you how many portions you should have of each for what meal. The kickstart is basically the same, but it just gives a  list of food options and the serving break down, and depending on how you feel you can eat more servings of protein or carbs etc.  Because there are lists of available foods, the combinations are relatively endless, and if you just have all the right stuff in your fridge, you can quickly throw a meal together.

Now here is the hard part….all the carby goodness of bread, potatoes, and pasta, and rice are off the list (at least for the first few weeks). Even high sugar veggies and fruit are limited. This means no Juice, no squash, no melon. I have also opted to do the 2 week no dairy. I have also cut out caffeine. Ughhh.
You may be wondering why I am doing this… it is obviously because I am completely insane.


I know that if I followed Canada’s food guide, and went to the gym as much I as I am planning to (5 x a week) I will most likely lose weight, and be in good health.  I think I just wanted to do a challenge, something to get me out of “Christmas Mode” and back into normal mode. For example, there are left over Christmas chocolates sitting in my freezer. If I wasn’t doing this diet thinger, I would have eaten them, all of them, in one sitting. But because this is a CHALLENGE, I refuse to eat them. Testing my will power oh yah.  
Bag of Chocolates, Lurking in my Freezer

I also turned down “free work treat” today (it was chocolate cookies, not that I noticed, or thought about all day or anything), and that NEVER HAPPENS.

You may also be wondering what the heck I am eating this week. I did groceries on Monday, and I was pretty proud of my healthyness! Also it only cost 90 bucks so that made me happy too! It helps having Mike doing this too, because it means that I only have healthy stuff in my house so there is no temptation.

Here is a sample of what I ate today…
Pre Breakfast:  multi vitamin, and a omega 3 pill , Hot Water with Lemon and Cayenne pepper, this wasn’t part of the diet solution but other idea from chatelaine, it wasn’t too bad actually!
Breakfast: 1 low fat sausage (PC blue menu), spinach, ½ banana
Snack:  Almond butter, celery sticks, handful of strawberries
Lunch: Leftover Lentil curry bean and spinach soup (modified from here) I could have had a salad (with apple cider vinegar and EVOO dressing) with this, but I found it was filling enough, I did cheat and get a fruit salad, because I needed some sugar. (Haha fruit salad is a cheat..seriously why am I doing this)
Snack: Almond butter, celery sticks, apple
Supper: Chicken, Asparagus, Salad

Plate of goodness
It really isn’t that different from what I normally eat, I guess instead of having 2 veggie things (asparagus and salad) I would have 1 veggie and 1 carb (like rice).

But, I think cutting all sugar completely after eating a lot of sugar during xmas, may not have been the best option. I have had minor headaches starting after lunch, and I have been pretty tired. I did go to Body Pump last night and didn’t feel weak or anything, so I am not too concerned. I am going to give it a week and if am still not feeling 100% I am going to switch back to more carbs. It so isn’t worth it if it is making my brain fuzzy.  Hopefully though the symptoms will go away, and I continue this plan for a month. I want to just see if it makes a difference in how I feel (and added bonus, how I  look), and if it does cool, if not, well at least I got my veggie quotient in!

Like I said before this is not a long term thing for me. It is a heck of a lot of work (mentally), and I would rather go to the gym than have to manage everything single thing that goes into my mouth. I have always enjoyed food, and looking at it as an experiment definitely takes the fun out of cooking, and eating out!  Speaking of which the diet has one cheat day a week, and on Friday night I am going to the movies and getting a kids pack of popcorn with some diet coke. I’m already looking forward to it !!

Anyone else getting on the healthy eating train for January??

3 comments:

  1. Me! I am focusing on 2 things at the moment: 1) having a decent breakfast, I bought a bunch of yogurt and am planning on oatmeal with nuts, flax seed, and apples to add. I also bought a bunch of the prepackaged oatmeal so that even if I am rushing I won't go too far off track and 2) since my days will mostly be spent writing thesis instead of being in the lab running around at all ungodly hours of the day I am going to start actually planning lunch and dinner meals and try and eat at the same time every day (and stopping paying too much for bad snack food at Sexton's joke of a food provider when I miss lunch and am starving). I am also considering getting a pass to Moksha since my first New Years resolution in almost forever is to learn how to effectively relax and deal with my ever=resent stress (I should probably also cut out some people who contribute to this stress but I think we both know I am not very good at that :P).

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  2. YAY! That is awesome Lynsey! I miss Moksha so bad, I think I am going to go to a few classes now that it is cold out! IMO meal planning is key to eating healthy (and not spending a tution amount of money on bad Sexton food!)

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  3. I hate you for being able to do hot Yoga Lynsey... People look at me funny when I suggest such a thing here. Ok hate was strong. I miss Moosha and I'm jealous. Oh and I'm back on the clean eating mag plans. I didn't get too bad off track over Christmas due to the lack of partying and celebs. Vague silver lining I guess?

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