Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Merry Christmas! And Look What December Has Brought...

My last post was on December 11th...  So busy...  yesterday was the first day to slow down a bit, and it felt great!   Naps, catching up on reading... feels so good.  Today I slept in.  I woke up at 6:00 AM, but didn't get out of bed until 7:30.  I read, and then watched an episode of Chopped. 

I'm rereading Natalia Rose's Detox for Women, because I've had a relapse of candida.  You know my last post on the 11th?  After that point I was pretty lax on the sweets I ate- I was more lenient with chocolate, and homemade sweets (like carmel) that came our way.  I did buy some dark chocolate to eat instead, but it didn't work.  I ate that AND the sweets.  And now, over two weeks later, I'm already having some female yeast issues.  I've also felt more bloated and gassy.  Not cool.

One good thing that has come from all of this is that now I know what I was doing WAS working (besides the weight loss), and that it is important to stay with it.  I love rereading things that I read at the beginning of my journey, because now different things stand out to me.  It's very motivating, and I'm ready to give it a go again (starting January 1st!!! :)  For one month I'm going to be really strict, like I was in August.  No fruit, honey, or maple syrup (as well as sugar of course).  And I'm going back to JUICING!  That will replace my breakfast, like before.   My next doctor's appointment is the first part of February, and we'll be doing blood work again.  Hopefully I'll be able to see a difference in my results, compared to August.

On Christmas Eve I decided to go to a Santa Hat fun run.  I didn't know anyone who was going, but it sounded like fun.  When I got there it turned out I knew a couple of gals, and it was fun to run with them.  The best thing of all:  They run together every Mon-Wed-Fri at 5 AM!  And they invited me to join them!!  And they're about my speed (a bit slower, but that's okay)!!!  And they're going about as far as I want to go! (5 miles)  I've been wanting to find someone to run with for YEARS, so I hope this works out.  They're training for the Utah Valley Marathon in June, and I'm a bit torn.  I REALLY want to do it, but I think I'll wait & see how my training goes in January and see if I have enough energy while I'm doing this stricter diet.  Maybe I'll go with the half marathon.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Oh, the Temptation!

Christmas season has hit full force.  I love it so much- I'm really in the Christmas spirit this year.  But I wasn't anticipating the TEMPTATION.  I've been so good to stay away from crappy food, but I feel it wearing away at me.  The goodies are tempting me more & more (like the ice cream I mentioned last post). 

The neighbor gifts has started coming...  corn puffs (the chip-like puffs that I USED to use to make into carmel puffs to take around for our neighbor gifts), homemade fudge with marshmallows and nuts.  I have to admit- I tasted the fudge.  And WHEW- sugar rush.  So sweet I could hardly eat it, thank goodness :). 

But I've got to prepare mentally for the weeks ahead & make a plan.  I think I'll get some more extra dark chocolate that I ate back in August & allow myself some instead of whatever goodie I'm trying to avoid.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Hummus? I wish.

When I went to Costco last week I gave in and bought some Hummus.  There was a lady giving out samples on those yummy gluten free multi-grain chips, so I tried it.  I purposefully didn't look at the ingredients list on the Hummus because I didn't want to know.  I knew it was pretty healthy for you. 

Well, no one around here likes it but me, and now I know my body doesn't like it.  I feel crappy every time I eat it.  Here are the ingredients:  garbanzo beans, canola oil (a no-no), water, tahini (sesame butter), lemon juice concentrate, salt, garlic, spice, extra virgin olive oil, sodium benzoate (?!), and potassium sorbate (?! a preservative citric acid).   

I also tried to eat Bryer's ice cream.  (It says all natural).  But I didn't look down the full list- one of the ingredients listed is WHEY.  I didn't feel so great after eating that, either.  Okay, okay!  "Uncle"!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

GASP-- IT'S DEAD!

Ohhhhhh..... I made a bummer of a mistake this morning. 

The day started off with my morning run- 7 miles, and beautiful!  Until the last mile and 1/2, that is.  I was running into a headwind and it was COLD.  Even though it was harder against the wind I ran faster, because I was anxious to get out of the cold!

When I got home, I got everything ready to make breakfast.  We were having sausage in scrambled eggs, and sour dough pancakes.  Before my run I poured my entire sour dough start into a bowl & fed it, wanting to make sure I had enough start for the pancakes.  When I got home it was nice & bubbly, and I got all the other ingredients ready to go.  My 6-year-old and 10-year-old daughters like to pretend that they run a restaurant, and they were helping in the kitchen.  I got another bowl out to mix some of the ingredients before adding the sour dough start.  I asked Janessa to crack an egg and put it in the bowl (I was on the other side of the kitchen getting maple syrup and vanilla out).  I walked over to where she was and there she was stirring the egg INTO THE BOWL WITH THE STARTER IN IT!  My entire start.  The one I've babied for weeks and weeks, tenderly feeding and babying.

At this point I'm not very proud of my reaction...  I shrieked and said "NOOOOOOOOOO!"  And looking back, this part is hilarious:  I flung myself back into the fridge (about 6-7 steps)saying  "NOOOOOOOOOO!  That's MY START!"   and put my hands over my face.  I think I freaked poor Janessa out.  She was just staring at me, then she walked out and started to cry.  Poor thing.  I went & got her and told her it wasn't her fault... I had said "the bowl", and why wouldn't she think it was the one with the stuff that looked like pancake batter?

Well, the pancakes turned out great (so everyone says... I still can't eat them).  And now I have the chance to make my own start.  Thank goodness for gnowfglins.com.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Slowing Down in Posting... But Still Going Strong!

When I started this blog it was meant to be a journal of my experience going sugar-free.  I thought it was so crazy... so unusual to go sugar free, so why not blog about it?   I started studying all that I could about sugar-free, candida diets, etc, and one thing would lead to the next, to the next, etc., etc, and here I am.  One huge surprise:   There are TONS of blogs out there about being sugar free.  There are tons of blogs out there about anything you want to find.  Ha.  Some of you may laugh because that isn't a surprise to you.  But maybe it shows my age (40 next year!!!!!)...  I'm a little behind on the technology trends.  Heck- I didn't even use the Internet in college.

But it still is fun to record what I'm going through.  The past four months have been hard.. satisfying... busy... emotional... rewarding... exhausting... confusing... humbling... worth it.   I'm kind of surprised I haven't found my groove yet.  The feeling of constantly adjusting and searching is annoying at times.  I'm still aiming for some sort of normalcy in the midst of all of change. 

In retrospect, I think I've gone over the top with too much change too soon.  It's pretty drastic to do the candida diet, but then all the other things I've done on top of that... all good things, but overwhelming.  My day is a whirlwind:  up early- exercise- rush home- breakfast/scriptures- piano lessons (1 hr.)- take kids to school- study/research/cook/grocery shop, lunch, Shiloh down for a nap, piano lessons (2 1/2 hours), dinner, drive kids around to activities, kids homework, kids bedtime, computer me-time, fall into bed.  Get 5-6 hours of sleep then start over again.

TOOOO busy.  The clutter in my home has gotten a bit out of control.  It's a constant burden hanging over me, but my focus right now is on food.  My kitchen computer area, my laundry room, and my master bathroom & closet are really needing help.  When I do have a bit of cleaning time it is spent doing the mountains of dishes that it takes when you're making home made everything.  My kids all take turns with dishes in the evenings, but I always have to do a load earlier in the day, too.

A few years ago I found a cleaning plan (yes... I like to follow programs.. menu plans... financial planning plans...  everything.  I'm crazy like that) that tells me what to do every day, which helps catch all those little things that are forgotten as we're trying to manage all the big things (like dishes).  It worked amazingly for about 6 months, then summer came & I got off of schedule & never got back on.  My hope is that once I get into a better food system, I'll be able to step back into the cleaning system, too.  I need some B-A-L-A-N-C-E.

 So I'm going to do a little less time blogging, and a bit more time cleaning :).  I still plan to write at least 2-3 times a week, but we'll see with Christmas coming.  So much to do, so little time.  Now, maybe as I'm cleaning I'll come across my camera cable cord... I can't download any pictures right now because it's missing in all the clutter.