Ok! Pack it up!

It is the last day of 2010. What were the final things that I wanted to eat that have sugar before the sugar fast begins? My favourite milk chocolate from Green & Black and some creme caramel.

Some outcomes I am hoping for from ditching the sugar:
- more energy
- improved mood
- weight loss
- clearer skin
                                             - improved sleep

I will return to that list from time to time and update on how I am going. I have turfed my tomato ketchup, castor sugar and sweet chilli sauce. Four and a half hours to go until My Year Without Sugar Begins. And now to whip up some lovely pasta with prawns and veg for the year's last dinner.

Happy New Year!

My last dessert with sugar for a year

I had some great friends over for dinner last night and I made three things that I have never cooked before and have wanted to for a long time. Roast chook followed by a pavlova topped with lemon curd and in season strawberries. I served roast potatoes and tomatoes, plus steamed baby carrots with the chicken and the whole meal was a success.

I'm glad that I snuck that pav in before the year ends because it is the best one I have ever had. Proud? Yes!! Although, I did raise my eyebrows at the 400 grams of sugar that I needed for the entire dessert. I used Karen Martini's pav recipe from her cookbook and this brilliant lemon curd recipe which produced a beautifully yellow, tart curd. I'll be saving that recipe for 2012. Although, I have been told that when you stop eating sugar and return a long while later, desserts and chocolate are sickly sweet. I think I have already had a lifetime supply of sweets so that wouldn't be the worst outcome of the impending challenge.

Today didn't pass without chocolate... thankfully only two sleeps remain until My Year Without Sugar.

Grocery Shop

The fridge was empty today. I have found that if I have a food plan in place I look forward to my upcoming meals and think less about snacking. I had a long list of items that I need for my roast chook and pavlova dinner party that I am having in a few nights but I also picked out a yummy sounding recipe for tonight's dinner.

With my list in tow I headed down to the supermarket and loaded my trolley up with everything I need and a truckload of veggies. The shop was quite enjoyable because I knew how each item was going to be used and I was so looking forward to trying a new recipe for dinner.

I made Jill Dupleix's Greek spinach pie with tomatos and feta. One of my favourite dishes growing up was my grandmother's spanikopita with spinach and feta or leek and feta - absolute flaky, salty heaven. However I can't eat food high in fructose anymore so that rules out the filo and leek. So Dupleix' dish includes the spinach and feta combo with brown rice. As I usually do these days, I substituted finely chopped celery for the onion and I popped some parsley on the finished dish. I served it up with some great tzaziki that I whipped up which was loaded with dill and mint. The whole meal was so satisfying that I wasn't even thinking about sweets after dinner. I think that will be a key to living without sugar: eat meals that are satisfying and tasty. Yum.

I did eat chocolate today - a bit of Black & Green Milk Choc with Butterscotch shards. How am I going to live without chocolate? It is going to be a serious challenge.

Four days until My Year Without Sugars begins.

Boxing Day Party

Picture: Mickrae

Today was the day of the promised jelly shots at my sister's bbq. What a great day. It was a great antidote to the akward whole family affair of yesterday. Today had great food, lots of laughs, music and shenanigans. I think 2011 needs to have much more fun that this year. I imagine that will help with the no sugar too - even though it will mean no jelly shots!

Five more days to go until My Year Without Sugar Begins. I'm looking forward to it. But tomorrow, I look up lemon curd recipes for my impending pavlova experiment.

Festivus

Said no to dessert at Christmas lunch today but I did have a bowl of berries. Yum! Did have some chocolate and some homemade rocky road that I recieved as a present. I recieved two boxes of chocolate today and thankfully for the gift givers neither were not Roses. I am going to give the boxes away.

This was the first Christmas lunch that I haven't pigged out. So many of my friends have posted up on Facebook and Twitter today saying that they have been sent into a 'food coma' and I am glad to say I am not. I just had a couple of huge prawns, a serve of roast lamb and some veggies and salad. Lovely.

I'm curious to see how I will have gone at this time next year. It would be incredible if I get that far without sugar. In the meanwhile, I have to find out how to make the perfect pavlova for dinner with friends in a few nights. It will be my first time and I have wanted to make one for years. I'll also be making roast chicken for the first time. I can't believe I have never made one before. I think the chicken will be great, and fingers crossed on the pav.

Six more days until My Year Without Sugar begins.

Christmas Eve

Believe it or not, I am almost looking forward to this no sugar excursion. I just went to the supermarket at 9pm and there were shoppers doing their Christmas grocery shopping in a bit of a frenzy and so many people were throwing chocolate into their baskets that it made me feel a bit flat. I know it's a common gift but 1- its boring and 2- it is no good for us. Less relevant point number 3 - people often opt for seriously shit chocolate as well which makes it even more offensive. If anyone ever buys me a box of Roses, I am going to stalk them and then hide and at an opportune moment I will pelt them with the individually wrapped choco-dung pellets. Until they cry.

Let's ponder some fairly inexpensive food gifts that we could buy instead of a box of chocolate.

• Good extra virgin olive oil
• Nuts
• Dried fruit
• Fancy salt (being the recipient of some a few years ago, I give this one a personal tick)
• GOOD QUALITY Balsamic vingegar. The cheap stuff is from the devil. Spend $4 more and then it can go in my mouth.Or,
• Apple balsamic which is genius
• Pomegranate molassas (if they like Middle Eastern flavours)
• Dukkah mix (see above)
• A spanking chutney or jam that has been made by a person and doesn't have artificial colours. 
• Some rosewater - it usually comes in nice bottles
• A pineapple - I gave one to my sister once as a mini-house warming gift and she loved it. This might only work if they like pineapple...

Any more ideas?

This list makes me realise that I am a food snob. So why do i eat so much sugary rubbish? Perhaps if I indulge that food snob a bit more, the next year might be a touch easier?

7 days to go until My Year Without Sugar

The Countdown Continues

I kept myself so busy today that I barely had time to think about food. But I did have a filling breakfast which helped keep me going for a while. I just had a small amount of chocolate. Lowest sugar intake in weeks. Nice. The weaning has commenced.

8 Days to go until My Year Without Sugar

Problem

So, I have noticed that I made the decision to do 2011 minus sugar that I have started eating even more sugary foods. I guess it is a panic response to thinking I won’t be able to eat those foods for a year. But it is giving me headaches and I fear that I will get to 90kgs by the end of the year if I keep eating like this so I am going to have to deal with this.

I think at this point the thing to do is pick a couple of absolute favourite things that have sugar and have them before the end of the year. Plus, make sure I otherwise eat well with lots of fruit and veg and get back to being active. So, some sugary treats before the tap gets turned off will include a pavlova that I am going to make myself for a little dinner party that I am having next week, I’d like to have a milkshake and then the jelly shots that my sister has already announced will be at her Boxing Day bbq. That’s it.

Nine days until My Year Without Sugar begins.

Why?

A year without sugar? Does that sound totally mad? I've been through it all in my head but the arguments to give a year without sugar a go have won out. 

I realised recently that my sugar intake is ridiculous. I eat chocolate most days; ice cream, jam, biscuits or cake once or twice a week; I use sweet chilli sauce and mirin in cooking; and I don't even think about saying no to lollies if they are offered to me. 

In the last 6 months I have put on somewhere between 8 and 10 kilos, have been suffering depression and anxiety on and off, not sleeping as solidly as I used to, the most pimply that I have been since I was a teenager and been feeling generally sluggish. I lay some of the blame for the emotional changes on having trouble finding work over the last six months, and also moving around living with friends or my partner, or house-sitting until I could afford to have my own place again.

Now I have found both a great job and a sweet little apartment and both will be mine two weeks into January 2011. Yet, even with those in the bag I still feel flat and sluggish and there is the issue of the weight to shift. The job is a bit of a dream job and I want to kill it. But I also want to have enough energy to give to my partner after work and to be able to socialise and exercise. I think that going into the year sans sugar might make the load a bit more manageable. Or at least I want to see if it does.

As time goes on I will elaborate more on why sugar is no good for us, and why I am doing this. I will chart my progress. I don’t even know if I will last. Let’s see how it goes.