Wednesday, October 15, 2014

WIAW- After 8 Week Sugar Detox

I'm back for WIAW! Don't forget to link up!

Please excuse my absence for the last 2 weeks. Our family took a much needed vacation last week! Technically it was a hunting trip. I will fill you in on all that fun in another post! For now, I should update you on weeks 7 and 8 of the sugar detox.

I ended up cutting the detox a week short. I knew there was no way I could go on a week long camping/hunting trip and adhere to all the rules of the detox! How can you go camping without smores? That's right, you can't! Week seven was to consist of cutting out all bread and starchy foods, and week 8 was to completely cut all sugars. I cut week eight and just eliminated both breads and starches, and sugars for week 7.  Here are some of my eats for that last week.



Clockwise from left: Slow cooker pork roast with roasted carrots and steamed broccoli; scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese with bacon and grapefruit; salad with broccoli, bell peppers, black beans, and peanuts with balsamic and olive oil and an all beef hot dog (sulfite/sulfate free) on the side; another salad with broccoli, bell peppers, black beans, left over bacon, and a banana on the side; 2 eggs fried in olive oil with bacon and grapefruit; roasted chicken breast with green beans and salad.

How did it go? Well I wouldn't say I ended the last week strong. Because I was trying to load everything up in our trailer for the hunting trip, I didn't have a whole lot of food to work with. I didn't want to have anything left over in the fridge while we were gone for a week, and I only have so much room in the trailer for food. Hence the black beans. Are black beans a starch? Or legume? Either way, they needed to be eaten before we left town!

So, what did we eat on our camping trip? Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of that. I'm not sure I want photo evidence of that anyhow! A lot of prepackaged stuff. At least a lot more than my family has been used to lately. I was able to make a few meals ahead of time and freeze them to eat while camping. I made spaghetti with my homemade canned spaghetti sauce and whole grain noodles, then I froze it in two ziploc bags for dinner for 2 different nights. It turned out okay, but the noodles were definitely too mushy. I also pre-made two pepperoni pizzas on this whole wheat pizza dough. I pre-baked the doughs for just a couple minutes, added toppings and froze. They turned out great! Another dinner we had was fajitas. Very easy! I purchased  pre-cut beef for stir fry, put it in a baggy with olive oil and my homemade taco seasoning and froze it. I then bought a bag of frozen sliced bell peppers. When I wanted to make dinner, I thawed the pre-seasoned meat and threw it in a pan with the frozen bell peppers. Cook through and place in tortillas with your favorite toppings. Yum!

I was very surprised at how much food I was able to fit in the trailer with a little preparation. Next year I will definitely do something similar by pre-making some of the meals ahead of time and freezing them flat in Ziploc bags to stack in the freezer.

I will definitely say that during the vacation week, I started feeling very bloated and actually was nauseous a few nights. I am sure it had to do with the food I was eating. Not enough whole foods and too much prepackaged snacks. It had absolutely nothing to do with the beer I treated myself to. Wink! Now that I'm home, though, I am feeling better! Yes I may have some sweets here and there, but I haven't been craving anything per say.

Will I ever do it again? I think I would like to do this once a year. I really did feel better, and I think it may help get my cravings back in check.

Have you ever thought about taking a sugar detox of any kind?