Here's the Skinny

I have been "bad".

I haven't updated this blog.
I haven't researched all the subjects I wanted to discuss.
I haven't been sticking to my rules.

MY RULES

Ok so I haven't broken them all, or gone back to the ways of the past. But I definitely have been a little lax the last couple of weeks.

I wasn't updating because I was moving - and my new place was a data black hole.  Along with the move came a new part time job - in a prep kitchen.

That alone has been a temptation.  There have been a few moments of weakness involving small amounts of chocolate and cookies. Nothing major and I know I work it off while I'm there.

I have also had fast food ice cream twice this week - once from Sonic on a work trip and tonight at Dairy Queen.

In the coming weeks I hope to get back to once a week (at least) blogging as well as watching the sugar/dairy. I am thinking that if I can get it back down to once a week (at MOST) eating out sugar than the little bits here and there will be insignifigant.

On the plus side, I am learning some new "healthier" recipes - chocolate chip coconut muffins (with coconut sugar) and pear (like apple) sauce to name a couple.

~Lisa

Sugar for Thought...

View More: Health News|Live News|More News Videos

CocaCola doesn't blame food for obesity.

Talk about a joke 

One Child at a Time

I spent everyday last week teaching an all day art camp to children and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. Well every minute but lunch time and snack time.

You can probably guess why.  The kids were told to bring their own lunches, and most of them all had a sugary drink (Capri-sun type) as well as a desert.  Not to mention the extra sugar from jelly on a PBJ and if there was fruit as well. To my horror I saw most kids eating the dessert first and sometimes throwing away the actual meal.

Snack time was no different. The Arts Center I work at provided those snacks and my choices consisted of Pop-ice, capri-sun, goldfish and oreos. I couldn't really avoid the sugar and I didn't mind giving it to those kids as long as I wasn't consuming it. But this whole week really made me wonder why.

Why must we allow the children of our country to consume such high volumes of sugar?

Here's one answer

Seriously, have you ever stopped to think about how much sugar a child consumes in a day? According to this article in Parents Magazine, the average child under 12 consumes 49 pounds of sugar PER YEAR.  But wait? The only sugar I sent in my kids lunch was a small cookie for dessert!

Wrong - As mentioned before, both the peanut butter and jelly have added sugar, as does the bread. The fruit roll-up that claims to be all natural is loaded with extra sugar, as is the gatorade that your child is drinking.

Who's fault is this really? The parents? I was able to see the documentary Fed Up last year and it really opened my eyes.  They talked to several over weight kids who just couldn't lose weight. They had tried everything, including eating healthier, but what big business doesn't want us to know is that they control what goes in our food and how it's promoted.Think about this - Gatorade is promoted as a drink for athletes to refuel, with electrolytes and such to do just that.  But it's loaded with sugar.  This can easily be burned off by someone who is as active as a football player, but what about a 10 year old who is going back inside after lunch to make art? Not so much. 

Back to the image above, sugary items are also cheaper, and thus easier.  I saw a news report about a month ago where they followed a family of four at the grocery store.  Said family chose to buy mostly packaged, processed items because they were less expensive then enough produce for everyone. I think it's depressing that we live in a society where it's cheaper to consume a bottle of SUGAR than a bottle of WATER. 

We can point fingers at big business (and believe me, I am) but we have to blame parents a bit. After all, there are healthy options out there (and not saying organic is best - even organics have sugar) and yet parents chose not to purchase them or take time to read the labels. I know that budgets are tight, but if we take the time to educate ourselves, we can find that the extra money we save buying cheap food will eventually lead the doctors visits due to repercussions.

That's my two cents anyway. I plan to do some follow up posts on this one at a later date. 

--

I shouldn't be talking, last week was kinda bad for me too.

My parents came to town to help me move and I broke down and had a mini-size blizzard at DQ. It wasn't awful and didn't make me feel icky, but I didn't miss it either.

The next day my boss bought me a frosty from Wendy's. Once again, totally unneeded but I couldn't just say no.

My beer consumption wasn't great either. 

Both of these things are changing this week that's for sure.

~Lisa 

One Month In ...

Can you believe it's August already? I know I can't! And something else I cannot believe is that it has been one month since I started my pledge.

This pledge began a month ago when I was traveling home to visit family and found myself consuming large amounts of sugar along the way. The first night I got home I sat down and decided something needed to change. And thus this list was born.

Let's look closer at each one and see how I've done at sticking to it!

1) I can say that I stuck to this one 100%. Every time I made something that required a sweetener, I used honey or maple only.

2) I can say that I was taught to make bagels by my uncle while I was home. I made another batch when I got back. Both had light corn syrup, but in a trivial amount so I feel like I did good on this goal also.

3) Ok, this one was a bit iffy. I have been nibbling on organic chocolate (Like 2 squares of a bar a day) and one of them did have some corn syrup (bought before the pledge). And I have a box of natural PBCookies at home with sugar at the bottom, but I believe that is really it.

4) This on I can happily say I stuck to 100% ! 

5) I broke this once - at an ice cream shop in Austin - but the ice cream was in store made. I still know that it was pretty loaded with sugar.  The gelato I had in Houston does not break the rules because I knew what it had in it and it's a once a month thing. 

6) Good thing natural sugars are ok, because I've been eating lots of fruit (and even making my own ice cream with fruit and coconut milk)

7) This was an easy one because I never consumed that crap before anyway. I am happy to report I have not had a single mocha/coffee drink since this started.

8) Ok..... This didn't go so well. I haven't had nearly as much beer or wine this last week, but weeks prior were not good. I am definitely watching this goal during August

9) I had one mixed drink last week - a wine/soda mixture. Definitely regretted that later.

10) Overall, I think I did good. :)

BONUS:

Ok the eating out thing still bit me in the butt. I didn't eat desert ever, and I tried to stick to mostly at home meals, but when you have a little extra money and really just don't want to cook, a taco sounds really good. I am hoping that once I get moved (this month!) I can get back to really watching my eating out consumption.

So I'm giving my self a B+ for the month, mostly because of the beer and couple breaking days. I can happily say, though, that I have no plans for awhile on going back to Dairy Queen/Sonic/McDonalds for ice cream or drinking mochas.  My body feels so much better! But, as mentioned in a previous post, that may be the lack of dairy. 

This coming month I am going to watch my alcohol and eating out. I work out 5-times a week and I know that if I could just watch my consumption on those two things I could actually lose a couple pounds without counting calories.

What do you think? Is this cleanse a dumb idea? Would you follow these rules? Any other rules I should add? Sound off!

~Lisa

One of those weeks

Yup. It's been one of those weeks. A very calorie heavy, rule breaking kind of week. Not good.

If you saw Monday's post you'll know that I had ice cream, thus breaking the rules. Happily that was the only time so far and before that I had gone two whole weeks (big deal for me seriously). Then Wednesday I had that smoothie - not a rule breaker but still any kind of sugar that late in the day isn't really a good thing.

Let's add that I had a 70% dark chocolate bar with caramel filling that I've been eating one square at a time on. I bought it before j really thought about the filling being bad and could not let it go to waste. But no more filling filled chocolate for awhile.

And you think that's all ? Think again. Last night was a going no away party for an artist friend. I knew there'd would be alcohol and was fine with it. What I didn't plan on was the alcoholic punch that was made with sprite , two wines and canned fruit. I had three small glasses but that was enough.  The sprite totally broke my rules even if the rest didn't.

I did go to the gym this morning and worked extra hard so I don't feel too bad. But breaking the rules multiple times in one week has me re-evaluating my pledge. If I want to get serious about less sugar and slimming down I need to learn to say no and to also not buy wine to keep in the house.

This week will be better...

~Lisa

Product Review: Smoothie King AND What exactly is Turbinado??

Happy Wednesday friends! Tonight's post is inspired by something I did today: Went through the drive-thru of Smoothie King.

Smoothie King is one of those places that I consider "Healthy" but still don't want to consume in high volume. And you definitely want to watch what you order there. The three/four times I have ever gone have always been the same - Lemon Strawberry Twist. It's basically strawberry lemonade.

Ingredient wise, it's pretty simple: Strawberries, Lemon Juice Blend, Papaya Juice Blend, Turbinado, Soy Protein. 

This is such with most of their smoothies - plain and simple ingredients with some protein and turbinado added.  You can also add extras - more protein, suppliments - for a full balanced meal.

So the question at hand is: What is Turbinado and is it really better then if they just added white sugar?

(C) Food.com

While good in a smoothie, further reading shows that you shouldn't replace table sugar with turbinado in baking - it adds extra moisture. Popular uses? Pie crusts, cinnamon cookies, and caramel cream. 

Also, it has nutrients! Wow, that was a surprise. Turns out that since it is minimally processed it is able to retain calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium. 

The above facts are from Wisegeek.com

Back to Smoothie King. Further poking around their website shows that you can actually "make it skinny" which means to not have the sugar. Turns out I could have saved 100 calories on my lemon/berry smoothie by doing this. If only I had known. 

My final review? I will probably return, but it's going to be on a seldom basis. Because sugar is sugar, refined or not.

Also, check out this review from a couple years back. Wondering if they still do these things? 

~Lisa 

Quick update

sooooo.    

I think I broke my pledge. Or if not I sure feel like it.

Let me explain.  I road tripped with my roommate to Austin, Texas today to spend the day making prints (that's a different story).  After dinner (and 3 glasses of white wine ! ) we went to get ice cream.  It was a little local place - Amy's - but it was still your standard ice cream and def didn't have organic or limited sugar like the gelato I had last week.  So between the wine and chocolate ice cream I definitely feel like I broke some rules.

Buts here are my thoughts. It's been 2.5 weeks without it. I think I deserve a break once in a great while. And tomorrow I am hitting both the gym and the rules.

Now you're probably thinking that what's the point of following along with someone who can't stick to her own rules. Believe me.... My stomach is already feeling the guilt. I promise this isn't going to happen a lot.

Have a great week friends !!!

-Lisa