Day 4

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Breakfast - granola with milk or plain yogurt

Lunch- snacks around the house-fresh fruit, chips and hummus, leftovers

Dinner-grilled steaks, kabob mushrooms, peppers, and onions, macaroni and cheese, chips and dip, grapes, cherries, Tex Mex salad, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes. We had planned grilled pineapple with whipped cream for dessert but were too full to eat it.

We had a great 4th working around the house and then having a great dinner with friends.

Week 1 day 3

Well 4th of July is almost here.  At first I was a little nervous about planning a sugar free 4th of July.  no ice cream.  No strawberry blueberry flag cake. No smores.  But I am pretty excited about the menu I have planned for tomorrow.

Today's menu is nice and easy.  For the month of July (and hopefully long after) I am designating Thursdays as breakfast food for dinner nights.  I have a feeling tonight will be quiche since Hannah has been asking for it daily (sometimes hourly).

Breakfast
Sally- plain yogurt with honey
Aaron and kids - oatmeal

Lunch
Sally-leftover spaghetti, apple
Aaron and kids- smacked thru lunch

Dinner- whole wheat honey waffles with fresh fruit and maple syrup.

We also had frozen blueberries and bananas as snack after dinner (and an epic water gun fight)

Sugar Free - Day 2

I feel much better today.  I'm not falling asleep at my desk which is nice (then again the 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep may have something to do with that too).  I am still craving sweet but so far the strawberries and bananas as filled the need.

Breakfast
Sally- Granola bar made by Aaron - oatmeal, raisins, almonds, cashews, honey)
Aaron and Kids- blueberry banana smoothie

Lunch
Sally- leftovers from Sabore, strawberries, triscuits
Aaron and kids- Quesadillas (in homemade tortillas... man my hubby rocks)

Dinner- Spaghetti.  The sauce is homemade so I know that there is no sugar added (that I can remember)

Overall today was better.  The kids were still a bit to handle but not as bad yesterday.  They are amazing me with their willingness to do the sugar free challenge.  Today Titus came up and asked for some tea to drink.  When I told him we weren't drinking tea because it had sugar in it he kind of laughed and said "ha-ha. ohhh yea. I forgot tea had sugar. Ok.  I'll drink my water." and that was it. No sadness.

And they both enjoyed telling me about when they go to Trader Joes and find Buddy (the stuffed hipster alligator) that they would not take a sucker but ask for apiece of fruit instead.  These kids are amazing.  The only thing they are super bummed about is not getting to take vitamins for a month.

Sugar Free Week 1- Day 1

July 1st-  I (Sally) woke up getting ready for work and realized I had nothing for breakfast or lunch that I could grab and I was running late so there was not time to make a smoothie.  I decided to wing it with the snacks at my desk.  When I got here I was severely limited.  I had some almonds and cashews and an apple with peanut butter (Trader Joes does not add sugar).  By noon I was starving and went to Publix and got some bananas, strawberries, apples, yogurt with honey, and triscuits.  I snacked on these items for the test of the day.
The biggest hurdle so far is that I am so tired.  It was all I could do to stay awake at my desk or in the car.  Normally I would have justified buying a bottle of Diet Coke or gotten a coffee (with lots of cream and sugar).  Since I cant drink coffee without cream and sugar, I was out of luck.

When I got home I saw it had been a rough day there too.  I'm not sure if it was because of the sugar fast or just an off day but the kids were at each other and very quick to break down.  Poor Aaron was at his wits end trying to keep them separate and get something accomplished.  In the end, after multiple melt downs, I sent them to bed early, which as you would expected started another series of melt down. Hannah told me " You just made this my worst day ever!" while brushing her teeth because I wouldn't let her have a drink of water before brushing her teeth.

Meals
Breakfast
Sally- almonds, cashews, apple w/ peanut butter
Aaron and kids- scrambled eggs

Lunch
Sally- greek yogurt with honey, triscuits, banana,
Aaron and kids- leftovers (grilled pizza)

Dinner- steak, brown rice, broccoli

Surprise sugar invasion
1) I ate some dried mango (mixed with almonds and cashews).  Later I found out it had sugar added.  Now we know not to eat the mango in our trail mix.
2) Aaron used everglade seasoning on the steaks.  It had sugar in it.  Aaron was shocked when I checked and told him.  Since I'm not about the throw out the steaks because the last ingredient in Everglade seasoning is sugar, we ate them... and they were amazing.

Surprisingly has sugar

Regular triscuits do not but all flavored triscuits do.  I was amazed all the flavored varieties had it.
Publix Greek yogurt with honey (yogurt on one side, honey on another pocket to be added to you liking) did not have sugar.  It only contained cultured yogurt and honey.  All other varieties had sugar added to the yogurt and usually the fruit.  I was amazed that this was the only one that did not have a sweetener and a lot of other chemical added to it. 

Sugar Fasting

I know its been a long time since I blogged on this website but I thought it would be interesting to journal about our family sugar fast during the month of July.


First, why? 

1) I've been wanting to do it for a while and finally got enough energy and enthusiasm
2) June was a big month for eating out, eating processed foods, and eating dessert.  Traveling to IL and back for vacation did my system in.  So July seemed like perfect timing to cleanse our system of the bad  and regulate the good.
3)  I have noticed my sugar addition becoming really bad.  I wanted a way to dial back the sugar need and intake.  Also I have also noticed a growing irritability in the children when a sweet was not part of the meal.  I thought this would be a great way to cut them off from sugars and let their bodies get back into a better mode of needing sugar.

Attitudes?
Sally- Super excited to do it.  I know it will be hard (Goodbye diet coke and DD iced coffees) but I look forward to ridding myself of an addition, even if it is an acceptable one in the US.

Aaron- very reluctant mostly because he feels "we're already doing enough by eating less processed" and "but I'm the one that has to cook for the kids when your at work."  I totally understand his viewpoint.  He has agreed to a week and will think about the full month.  To make things easier I have come up with a dinner menu for the entire month and a list of food options for breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dessert that we can enjoy this month.

Kids- We didn't tell the kids until dinner on June 30th.  Amazing (and very surprisingly) they are super stoked.  They started volunteering how they would handle situations when people tried to give them candy and pointing out all the foods that they do eat that have sugar in it.  Its amazing how much they realize food has sugar.

Lily- ok so she's 7 months will she really notice?  Maybe.  I noticed when returning from my trip to visit family in IL Lily was starting to get cradle cap again and has a few red/dry spots on her legs. I think it may be from the (obscene) amount of processed foods and sugars I ate while on vacation.  I am very hopeful that it will regulate her system and get rid of these skin issues.

Second, What do you mean by sugar fast?

I have done a lot of reading about people who remove sugar from their diet.  People are all over the spectrum in what and what is not acceptable.  I have decided out family will not be eating any food with added sugars (HFCS, corn syrup, sugar, aspartame, stevia, agave syrup, etc).  You may think that list is a little off.  Yes I have "good/healthy/organic" sugars mixed in with the "death sugars" but I want to remove as many as possible.  I know the black and white of the topic and most of the gray have also been removed.

What my family can have is as much fresh fruit as they want.  And we will be using small amounts of honey and maple syrup.  Small amounts.  We will not be eating pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast every day.  But we will be making bread with a little honey.  Hope you get the idea.

Third, when?

All of July 2014.  We have started July 1st and will end August 1st.  For the next 31 days, I will blog about what we ate and how we are feeling.

January 2014

This is really only a small glimpse at the last few days of January but I wanted to post some pictures.  Some day I hope to be as good as my twin and post pictures and stories at least once a month.

Grammy Ruth was very excited to come down and meet Lily Ruth in January.  They were also able to leave PA weather (-18F one day) and come down and enjoy some FL weather.

All the grandkids had a blast spending time with their grandparents

McQuaid Family Photo (and it only took 2 times to get this photo)

A new family photo.  Yes, I'm looking down but it was still the best of everyone combined.

Titus wanted to take a few pictures too

 Titus is a great big brother and loves holding Lily and kissing her any chance her gets.

Hannah had her fall ballet recital at the Westside Baptist church.  All the ballerinas did an amazing job

While killing some time at the church (sound check at 4:45, service at 6:00) I took a few more photos

 

Look how beautiful and grown up she is.  She loved wearing make up for a few hours.

This is Titus winking at the camera

Lily's beautiful red hair

Titus photo bombing my picture of Aaron and Lily.  but what a great smile

Random photos from my phone