The people who have read my posts in the past know that I am clearly not a fan of sugar and that I try to explain as simply as I can why it is so bad for our health.
When I came across the "Quit the Sugar Challenge" (you can check out the original post here ) I said this is right up my alley, except.... I have a unique problem: I have already "mostly" quit sugar for more than a year now. By "mostly" I mean the fact that I had certain moments when I ate sweets, for example when I bought a cake for the birthday of somebody who is very dear to me ;). Of course, I had to partake in eating said cake otherwise I would have been kind of a party pooper. I thought of buying a cake without added sugar, made with sweeteners for example, but that is very complicated and expensive, and it also takes a long time to get it delivered. So, there were situations where I slipped of the sugar-free wagon, but I tried my hardest to stay on it.
That being said, I still wanted to join this challenge even though I don't currently eat sugar. The solution? - to make things challenging even for myself with the "No sweets challenge". What do I mean by that?
No chocolate bars or other products that contain sweeteners.
I'm not doing this just to make things difficult, but because I have a tendency to binge on those as well, which is not helping me reach my fitness goals at all. Even though I could easily do this challenge while enjoying a ton of sweet stuff without actually eating any sugar; I would cheat when it comes to the spirit of this whole process, which is to get rid of addictions and to improve your wellbeing.
I admit that I like sweets (with or without sugar) a lot and it won't be easy sticking to my plan, but feeling good and looking good is far more enjoyable than the instant gratification of tasting something sweet.
For me this challenge is not a x number of days challenge, rather is a forever challenge, meaning that I'm trying to make these improvements long term and stick to them. That being said, I will allow myself to eat sweet things (with sweeteners) and even sugar when hiking or on long runs because intense physical activity sometimes requires eating something that will boost your energy levels. But those are about the only exceptions that I will allow myself.
As a part of this challenge I will try to document what I eat on certain days. This is what I ate on Tuesday:
1 In the morning I had a couple of bananas and some puffed rice cakes, which despite their name don't contain sugar and as a added bonus, are gluten free.
I usually don't eat in the morning but because I recently started working in the afternoon, it kind of messed up my normal eating schedule which is based on intermittent fasting.
2 I then went for a run and had a protein shake, in order to help my muscles recover because it was a 13 km run nonetheless.
source
I forgot to take a picture of my actual protein shake :P
3 On my way to work I had a prosciutto sandwich with some vegetables and cheese in it.
4 After coming back from work I had a tuna salad
source
It looked similar to this - my picture was out of focus because of poor lighting
5 And finally some sugar free chocolate bars which also have some added protein to them but not much and it's inferior to whey protein:
I won't be eating those anymore, except for instances which require physical activities.
That's how my usual meals look like during a normal day. I'm against counting calories because as long as those calories come from healthy sources, the number doesn't matter except for particular situations like for body builders.
I hope this sugar and healthy eating rant will help some of you to give it a try :)
Take care and stay healthy.
My name is Adrian a.k.a "The nearsighted traveler". I'm a running enthusiast who loves to spend time enjoying nature. I write mostly about running, the places I explore and the interesting stuff I learn here on steemit.
If you are new to this platform you might want to check out these posts:
5 Easy Rules for Navigating The Steem Ecosystem
The 6th Easy Rule for Navigating the Steem Ecosystem
And if you want a good laugh you can visit my other account @cmmemes where I fail at being funny but persevere anyway :)