Many of you may have heard of this new fad going around called Trim Healthy Mama. Everybody seems to be doing it. Even gals who aren't "mama"s are doing it. And yes, that includes my mother as well as a bunch of other female friends in my near area.
I think Trim Healthy Mama makes a lot of sense. It really does. But it also seems like a lot of work to me, especially when I am still kind of stilted as I am not buying my own food but eating as my family does with maybe a few things thrown in that I purchase with spare funds here or there. And if I want to make myself a dessert, I have to have unusual flours, sugars, and gums on hand. Coconut flour, oat flour, stevia, xanthum gum, etc, etc, etc. So me doing THM(as it is usually abbreviated) sounds just a tad unattainable at the moment.
So I decided to pick one large step, as my body has not been behaving up to speed lately, and it also is not doing all that a female body should be doing regularly. What was my "large" step? I went off sugar. Yep, no sugar, corn syrup, aspartame, evaporated cane sugar, or high fructose. I have known for quite a while that such things were detrimental to health, and that the immune system has to work overtime in order to process them. As I have had more than one issue with my immune system in the past, going off sugar seemed like a good step.
So almost 3 weeks ago, I stopped eating sugar. No sugar in my tea or coffee, no sauces made with sugar or corn syrup, no pop, etc. And it hasn't been easy. I also have a second priority of trying to eat a lot of good fats, and the combination of the two has been quite hard many days.
So what do I eat? The simple answer: cottage cheese and eggs. I have had so many eggs in the last few weeks, I could probably keep more than 10 hens busy supplying me. And cottage cheese is what I always seem to grab when my siblings are having a meal with sugar in it. A great protein, yes, but one can get pretty tired of cottage cheese pretty fast. (not to mention constipation issues).
But! There is a more complicated answer too. One that speaks of some fun meals I have come up with and been very proud of. Since eggs have become a staple, I started playing around with them, and made my first omelet. I love a pretty omelet that is golden on the outside and chock full of ham, cheese, onions, and peppers! I think next time I am going to try a chicken spinach omelet....
To get some good quick fats, I take a tablespoon of both butter and coconut oil, and heat them up with cream, vanilla, and a little bit of stevia(an actually natural sweetener). The result literally tastes like I am drinking warm vanilla whipped cream, and it is yummy! Cream is my new best friend, and I whip it up and add frozen fruit for dessert, pour it into my tea and coffee, or simply smile at it when I open the fridge.
One of my favorite new meals is what we like to call eggroll in a bowl. Essentially it is any combination of veggies that I can find along with ham cooked up in peanut oil, garlic, and soy sauce. Tonight I made it with cabbage, radishes, carrots, celery, onions, and green onions. Yum! Radishes actually lose their bitterness when cooked till soft, and can be used in place of potatoes. And this Chinese type meal is just so good. I especially love the incredible flavor that the peanut oil adds. And I happen to usually have it in the fridge as we every now and then get natural peanut butter, and will pour the extra oil in a jar to keep in the fridge and use later.
And the most exciting thing is that I found ice cream that I can have! It is Breyer's CarbSmart, and it really tastes like the real stuff! But there is no sugar, only sucralose very low down on the ingredient list. I like the vanilla, but it also comes in chocolate or even in a vanilla & almond ice cream bar. This was a favorite find of mine, and I will just take a bite on a spoon and slowly eat it, savoring the feel of ice cream that fits into my plan sliding down my throat. I really have no way to explain how happy that makes me feel.
I don't necessarily believe that everyone should go off sugar, or anything like that, but it has been a wonderful change for me. I feel more alive, more capable, and simply saying "I don't eat sugar" really helps me avoid a lot of those foods that I had a hard time passing up in the past. Now I have a really good reason not to eat that third oatmeal raisin cookie.
Some days it is really hard, and I really just want to drink a Dr. Pepper or pig out on normal ice cream. When my grandmother had a birthday recently, there were two different kinds of ice cream and cake. But none of the desserts were my favorite and I thought "If I am going to cheat on sugar, it had better be on something I really love." So I left it all alone. And then a couple days later there was cheesecake at work. I love cheesecake! So I had a piece, and I didn't really feel guilty as I hadn't cheated in a while, and when I did it was on something that I loved!
So that is my change for now. Next I shall probably be more purposeful in going off extremely processed grains. But for now, I am sticking with the challenge of no sugar. I hope that this change is one that is very helpful to my body and that I am able to be more of an aid to those around me and to my future family because of it.
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