No Sweets Challenge – The Next Step

It’s been a week since I renewed my pledge to have no sweet treats, after a not-so-good weekend. I went without a single piece of chocolate for five days! On friday I had a few chunks of chocolate covered marzipan,  and a small square of dark chocolate yesterday and today. I call that a success.

I realised that I can’t live without sweets forever, so I need to find an approach that works on a longer term. So this is my new strategy:

• No sweets at work. Only fruit and chocolate soy milk.
• Avoid processed foods. Home-made baked goods and dark chocolate are fine.

Quite a simple plan. But sometimes simple is better, right? No need to make life even more complicated.

Vegan Chocolate Banana Walnut Muffins

Questions of the day: Could you live without chocolate? Or peanut butter, chips, cake? What’s your ‘food weakness’?

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No Sweets Challenge

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been struggling with my motivation to workout. But unfortunately, that’s not all. Lately my eating habits have been really bad. While I usually do well on the weekends, I tend to snack mindlessly all day long when I’m at work. I’m basically eating my emotions, and even though I’m not an expert in nutrition, I’m sure this is not healthy. So I’ve decided to change my habits.

After some more poor food choices on Tuesday, I spontaneously decided to go on a No Sweets Challenge. This means no cookies, chocolate, desserts, or any other sweet treats. That also includes my beloved chocolate covered rice cakes and all home-made baked goods. I only make an exception for chocolate soy milk. This cocoa addicted girl can’t go completely cold turkey. Also, it’s all about “progress, not perfection”, right?

Whenever my sugar cravings are getting unbearable, I have some fresh fruit, like an apple or a banana. Or said chocolate soy milk, but not more than one small box per day, and I will try to phase that out, too.

Honestly, this is HARD!! I don’t know how long I can keep this up, I’m just trying to stick with it as long as I can.

Dang, I so need a smoothie right now!

How do you deal with sugar cravings? Do you ignore them? Or do you give in sometimes?

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Mini Detox – Days 3 & 4 & Final Thoughts

Today is officially my last detox day. But before I share my final thoughts, I want to recap days 3 and 4.

Day 3 - 2nd breakfast

For breakfast I had another slice of buckwheat bread, followed by a bowl of mixed berries with soy yoghurt and some oats.

Day 3 - Lunch

Lunch was another big salad with tomatoes, sweet corn, Sloppy Josephines, and avocado, served with a small bowl of brown rice.

Day 3 - Dinner

For dinner I made a vegetable soup with potatoes, carrots, leek, and brussel sprouts. I had it with a dash of soy cream on top and a slice of buckwheat bread on the side. It was delicious. Of course I went back for seconds. And I also finished my bag of trail mix. I think I have a serious problem.

On day 3 I finally started to feel a bit better. I wasn’t that tired anymore. Either I’ve already adjusted to not drinking coffee anymore, or I’ve just caught up on missed sleep.

Day 4 - Breakfast

Breakfast on day 4 was two slices of brown rice bread with a red pepper spread on the left and a nooch based spread on the right. I liked the brown rice bread better than the buckwheat bread, but nothing beats wheat or rye bread in my opinion. I know that my breakfasts are kind of monotonous, but I just love bread. Plus, it’s the fastest kind of breakfast I can think of.

 

Day 4 - Lunch

For lunch I chopped up a head of romaine, added some tomatoes, avocado, and balsamic dressing. I also had some of yesterday’s vegetable soup.

 

Day 4 - Dinner

My last detox dinner was cooked quinoa, marinara sauce, and pan-fried zucchini. Delicious, but not very filling. Too bad I’ve run out of trail mix.

Final Thoughts On Detoxing

Honestly, I don’t feel or look any different after this detox, but four days are probably not enough to see any changes. I really don’t think I could do this detox any longer, though. I miss bread and my occasional treats like muffins, cake, cookies. And coffee! So I’ll gradually re-introduce gluten, dairy, eggs, and decaf coffee. I don’t think that my body still needs caffeine, but I really like the taste of coffee.

There were a few things that I liked about the detox, though, like having a glass of fresh juice in the morning, eating lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, and salads. I’ll try to incorporate those things into my daily routine.

Now that my mini-detox is over, I feel like indulging a little. We’ll see what I can find tomorrow.

See you!

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Mini Detox – Day 2

Another detox day done, quite a lazy one, too. Anyway, here’s the food:

 

Day 2 - Juice

 

I started the day with a glass of lemon water and another glass of fresh grapefruit and blood orange juice. I really love having fresh juice in the morning, it’s so delicious.

 

Day 2 - Breakfast

In an effort to vary my usual breakfast routine, I made some rice pudding. I let some cooked brown rice soak in soymilk overnight and added raisins, a small chopped apple and a dash of cinnamon in the morning. It was quite good, but the rice didn’t really soak in as much milk as I expected. I also had a brown rice cake with peanut butter, to satisfy my savory tooth.

 

Day 2 - Lunch

 

Lunch was a salad with Sloppy Josephines (I accidentally made a HUGE batch), sweet corn, and guacamole. I also had a slice of buckwheat bread with vegan butter.It was good, but somehow I got hungry again about three hours later. So I had a small bowl of rice with soy sauce and sesame oil. Totally hit the spot! I do love salads, but sometimes I just need a hot dish.

 

Day 2 - Dinner

 

For dinner we had a pan-fried rice cakes (tteok) with carrots, zucchini, and black bean sauce. This is a slightly modified version of one of my favorite dishes, using plain tteok instead of udon noodles. I think I’m very close to perfecting the sauce, so I hope I can post the recipe soon. This dish wasn’t completely gluten-free though, as the bean paste contains some wheat flour. But as I’ve never had any problems with gluten anyway, I should be fine.

 

Day 4 - ChocoCocoNana Smoothie

 

Treat of the day was a smoothie with banana, soy milk, coconut cream, and cocoa powder. Not pretty, but very delicious. And yes, the seats of my kitchen chairs are covered with (fake) zebra fur. That’s what you get for living with an interior designer.

On my second detox day I still felt very tired, but I guess that’s because of the lack of coffee. I already feel better today.

See you!

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