21 Day sugar Detox complete!

They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit... coincidence that this sugar detox is 21 days?  I think not! Could you go 21 days with no sugar?  This means ALL sugar (with the exception of a few fruits), grains, processed foods and a whole lot more

The day after we came back from Women Rock Chicago weekend, I started my 21 day Sugar Detox adventure.  I knew it was not going to be easy but I also knew that it was something that I needed to do!  Here is what I found out over the last 21 days...

Day 1 - Since I didn't get back from Chicago until late last night, food options were limited for today but I made due with what I had and made it through the day!  Microwaved eggs in a cup were my lifesaver this morning with a little steak added in for good measure!  Who doesn't love steak and eggs for breakfast!

Day 4 - definitely irritable.  unfortunately my 16 year old son was the recipient of the irritability after I got home from gym after work.  Not his fault that I was irritable and I felt bad that I took it out on him.  Trying to plan ahead for the next few days as I was going to be traveling.  Wanted to make sure that I had plan approved foods and snacks so that is was not so tempting to just stop and grab something quick

Day 5 - Long day, but the planned snacks helped!  Dinner was definitely non-conversational but it worked.  Hard boiled eggs, bacon and baby carrots in the hotel room!

Day 6 - Long day, on my feet working a race expo.  So thankful that I can still have my EnergyBits, as they were really needed to help with keeping away the hungries today!  Lunch again was quick , but still managed to stick to my plan for the day! Pumpkin pancakes and bacon are really not that bad cold!

Egg bake breakfast!

Day 7 - Color Run morning, walking with friends, followed by a brunch buffet.  It would tough figuring out exactly what I could have.  I know brunch was not perfect, but I walked away from the buffet without touching the cheesy hash browns that I love, skipping the dessert table and no pancakes or waffles!  Thank goodness for carved meats and chicken, as well as a build your own omelette station!

Day 8 - Monday morning was not working with me!  With the busy weekend (race expo, lots of driving, plus a color run and grocery shopping), even tho I was asleep my 9pm, my body did not want to get out of bed this morning!  Thankfully I did at least some prep last night and had my egg bake waiting in the fridge!

Day 9 - Did ok all day, including figuring out options at the Boy Scout potluck that we had... but got home and to fend off the munchies, I grabbed a few tortilla chips and hummus...  oops!  But I guess that was better than the chocolate torte looking dessert that was staring at me earlier.  (I actually learned later that it was a s'mores dessert, not a chocolate torte so the middle layer that I thought was vanilla pudding was actually marshmallow fluff!  So now I don't feel like I missed anything as the marshmallow fluff doesn't even sound good right now)

sweet potato with bacon and ghee

Day 13 - this morning was the first run I had since starting this program.  I purposely waited until after the Women Rock Half Marathon to start my 21 days, but with my run calendar, it was impossible to avoid all races.  Today was the 5K Run for the Hill of it race out at Bairds Creek.  I ran this last year so I was familiar with the course and the terrain.  My overall pace was comparable to last year (last years course was a bit short so they added some distance to it this year to make it the correct length).  This morning, just a banana and EnergyBits to get me through... and then eggs and (uncured) bacon when I got home!

Day 14 - I really have to say that I have been feeling pretty good through the last 2 weeks!  I really have not had any huge cravings, even though by bag of chocolates from Chicago is still sitting on my night stand.  1 week to go!  Thankfully the family has been supportive of what I have been making for dinner.  There have been a few things that John has suggested for dinner that will have to wait, so I guess next week, we will be having French Onion soup for dinner one night!

Day 19 - I caved tonight!  We were volunteering at the Annual CP Center Auction and the appetizers that the servers were bringing around the room looked too amazing to pass up.  Did learn real quick tho - skip the meatballs, not worth it!  However the grilled chicken skewers were awesome!  The Bruschetta was awesome too, Yes I did have some and it was worth it!  Everything in moderation!

We made it!


Things I learned:
1.  I really don't drink a lot of coffee anymore, but for the first time in years, I can honestly say that I don't miss the flavored creamers etc in it!  I now am convinced that I can take it black, but on occasion I will add some almond milk or coconut milk/cream, just to change it up a little!

2. I really did not miss the sweets.  I picked up a small package of donuts for the guys on Sunday when I was grocery shopping and I really never had the desire to even eat part of one!

3.  At the end of 21 days, I splurged.  Not over the top, but enough that I realized really quick that I need to keep the sugar in check.  Natural sugars in fruit etc is one thing, but chocolate and breads are not my friend!  I was so tired, exhausted to the point that I felt like I needed to sleep for 3 days!

4.  There were several recipes that I tried that are going to make it into the normal rotation of meals (the Ginger Beef with Broccoli and the Buffalo Shrimp were huge winners!) and there were a few that I will never make again (sorry, the mini meatloaf's were NOT received well by my family and no one even wanted to eat the leftovers!)

Summary:

It was not perfect.  I had some slip ups, ate a few things that I should not have, and yes I had a few beers.  In the end, I am glad that I did it!  I proved to myself that I don't NEED the sweets, breads, and other processed stuff that I cut out in the last 3 weeks.  Yes, I missed my Spark in the morning, but that was about the only thing I really missed!

This morning I re-did measurements at the gym and I was happy with the results!
Down a total of about 3 inches between my chest, waist and hips and 3.8 pounds!!  I will take it.

 Aside from that, I feel great and am ready to roll!  I loved the extra energy that I seemed to have and am going to continue with avoiding processed foods when I can, limiting sugar to only natural sugars and trying new recipes!

Are you addicted to sugar?

I challenge you to 21 days!  You can do it and you won't be disappointed!

Hike, Bike and Ice: Munising weekend 2014 comes to a close

As always, any good vacation must come to and end. 

Unfortunately, that was today.  But I am not going to let it put a damper on any of the fun adventures that we had this weekend!  The weather was awesome (a little rain overnight on Friday didn't bother us since we were sleeping), we met some great people and of course kept busy!

I will admit, I had every intention of getting up and going for a run along the lake this morning, but that never happened!  I actually slept until almost 8:30 (a very rare thing for me as my internal clock rarely lets me sleep past 7am).  We finished off the stuff we had in the fridge for breakfast and started loading up the car.  By the time we got everything packed up and the bikes on the car, we figured that we would head into town to grab a quick (early) lunch at the Lunch Bag again since I had another certificate to use there.

As luck would have it, the Lunch Bag didn't open until 1pm, so we were not going to wait that long.  Since the certificate we had was only good for another few days, we decided to run back to the hotel to drop it off the certificate for Pam, the uber helpful gal that was working in the office most of the weekend.  If we couldn't use the certificate, she could use it to enjoy lunch one day!

Good bye Munising!  Thank you for another weekend of awesome memories and adventures!  Next stop, on the way home, the UP State Fair.  I have not been to this fair since I was probably Darrin's age, if not younger!  

A

This year, Sunday at the Fair was Scout Day!  All Scouts, in uniform, got in for free.  They also had scouts there doing demos on cooking, hiking, knot tying and more.  Once we got to the fairgrounds, the first thing Darrin wanted to do was find the Scouts... My mission was a restroom.  Thankfully the restroom was on the way to the scout tent!

When we got to the tent, Darrin was actually put to work, helping with some of the dutch oven cooking they were doing as well as helping with a Hiking preparedness presentation.  

We then spent the next few hours walking through the exhibit halls, browsing the fair vendors and eating a few fair treats.  We were just on our way our to the car and Darrin realized there was something going on in the grandstand. He said it looked like the Demolition Derby so we decided to go check it out for a while.

Come to find out it was actually "Armageddon on Wheels" - where demolition derby and dirt track racing collide! A Mini Van racing?  Chasing a retired police car?  Why not!

The next hour or so was filled with various races, interesting vehicles, lost of dirt and crashing!

Darrin decided one of the coolest trucks out of the course during the first part of the show was the modified Sprint Truck... truck?  Yes!  Someone modified their truck to resemble a sprint car!  Unfortunately, after he took the last jump on the course, his wings fell off the truck on his way off the track.  Hopefully he could get them fixed before the next heat!

The highlight of the afternoon (at least in our eyes) was the bus race.  Figure 8 bus races!  Everything from short buses to full size school buses were unleashed on the figure 8 track, with the mission to be the last one left standing, or the first on to finish 8 laps!  

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Finally we needed to hit the road for home so that we could get laundry and everything else done before it got too late. Once we got home, I had an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to take care of, thanks to our good friend Dean. (hence why I added "ice" to the title of these blog posts)  I was going to post a few pics here, but we actually only got a video and my computer is not cooperating and allowing me to post the video (I tried adding the ones that I took of the bus races at the fair and I have not been able to get it to work).  One of these days when I have time to play with it more I will have to post the videos.

Overall, it was an awesome weekend that I am glad we had the opportunity for!  This was the 4th year that Darrin and I made up to Munising.  We have not decided if we are going back to Munising next year for our summer adventure or if we are going to go somewhere else to get in some hiking and biking.

No matter where we end up going, you can be sure that we will find all kinds of interesting things and places to explore!

Total miles for today = 2.3
Total miles for the weekend = 30.8

Yes this is short of our overall goal, which I knew was going to be tough.  We may not have made 50 miles but the miles that we put in were nothing short of awesome!

Now time to switch gears and start preparing for back to school!

Avocado, Not just for guacamole anymore!

Avocado Fudge?

Yes please!

I am sure that, if you are anything like me, when you hear fudge, Healthy is not a word that comes to mind.  Most of the time, I think I get a sugar headache just from looking at fudge!  I do not eat a lot of sweets anymore, but once in a while you just need to keep it real!  Yes, I still have my favorites that I splurge on from time to time, but keeping it in moderation is key.  

SO, back to this fudge...  A few months ago, I was cruising the internet, trying to find a few new recipes to try.  I had about 4 avocado's sitting in my kitchen that I needed to use up before they were too ripe.  When I first came across this fudge recipe, I will admit, I was skeptical.  Chocolate and Avocado Fudge?  Together?  Admit it, when you read those avocado and fudge together, you thought it was a typo.  Would someone really mix THOSE two things together?  Not really sure about that combination myself, but I like both, so why not give it a try.  Worst case scenario?  I have a 16 year old that will eat just about anything! 

I originally found the recipe at Activeware.com and I have made it twice now, trying out different brands of chocolate each time.  Other than that, I have kept with the original recipe, but I am sure that over time I will tweak it a bit and make it my own!  Best thing?  ok, there are many awesome things about this recipe, but the fact that it only has 4 ingredients is a huge plus in my book!

The creaminess of the avocado blends perfectly with the chocolate to create the perfect balance of sweetness.  Several people that I have tried it did not believe me that there really was avocado in it!

Ingredients:
*2 very ripe avocado's (only 1 if you are not frosting your fudge)
*9oz dark chocolate
*1 Tablespoon coconut oil
*1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Directions:
Line an 8x8 or comparable size pan with parchment paper (or plastic wrap), leaving plenty hanging over the sides (this will come in handy later!)

Slice one of the avocado's in half, scoop out the insides from each half into a food processor.  Process the avocado until it's smooth, about 30 seconds or so.  If you don't have a food processor, you can do this part by hand, it just takes longer (or you can just have small chucks of avocado in your fudge - yes I have done this before! It still tastes great)

Scrape the avocado into a double boiler and add the chocolate and coconut oil and set this aside. Put water in the lower pan of your double boiler and bring to a simmer.  Once the water reaches a simmer, put the top pan on and get ready to see it all come together!

Stir the ingredients together until everything melts and is smooth (about 5 minutes).  Once everything is completely melted, continue stirring for another 5 minutes while everything starts to thicken.

Once the mixture starts to thicken, add the vanilla, stir and scrape everything into your prepared pan.

Chill in fridge for a few hours (or until firm enough to eat - you won't want to wait 3 hours for this!).

Once your fudge is firmed up and set, pull it out of the pan using the excess parchment that you left hanging over the edges.  Cut into desired pieces and enjoy!  This last time I made it, I added a bit of coarse sea salt to the fudge before serving.  

Frosting: (optional)
cut the 2nd avocado in half, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and mash to your desired consistency.  

I will admit that I have never actually frosted this fudge.  Maybe one of these days I might actually do that, but so far I have just been enjoying the smooth creamy sweetness of these squares of pure heaven!

Enjoy! But beware... a batch of this disappears faster than something in a David Copperfield show!

So what do you eat?

Ok, time to take things into a new direction. Well, maybe not in a new direction, but just shaking things up here a bit.

When I started this blog, it was named as it was, because I was looking to break some of the not so good habits that I had and replace them with new ones, tracking that journey as I went along.  That goal has not changed.  Over the last year, I have still written about some of that stuff, but my main focus had turned to all of the running that I have started doing.  Granted, that has been a HUGE new habit for me and I will continue to blog about my running adventures, but it is time to get back to adding more of the "other stuff" back in.

What exactly that will be it yet to be determined, but you can be assured that I will have fun with it along the way!

Now as I sit here, eating my lunch,  trying to decide what to write about today, it hit me... the one question I actually have people ask me all the time...

"So, what to you really eat anymore?"

I have been asked this question more times that I can count!  The answer?  A LOT!  Yes, I eat a lot, just not a lot at one time (just several times a day!).  This is not something that can easily be covered in one single post, so that brings us to the birth of "What I eat Wednesday"  Each Wednesday, my goal is to bring you a new recipe or food that I have tried, or something else related to "what I eat".

Over the last year I really have taking a look at the way that I was eating, as well as what I have been eating and made quite a few changes.  The biggest of these changes was last year when I started adopting more of a Paleo Diet.  This started last summer and I slowly started noticing more changes.  I wasn't getting headaches as often (I think I recall 1 migraine in the last 6 months), I wasn't getting tired shortly after eating lunch at work and I was sleeping better at night!  Then in November when I switched gyms and started at Fitness Renegades, I decided that it was time to just jump in.  The gym promotes a Paleo lifestyle so it was a great benefit to have an additional support system at my disposal.   There are many websites out there that will dig into the nitty gritty of a paleo lifestyle, but in a nutshell, its getting back to the basics.  Fresh fruits, veggies, meats and seafood.  It was a real learning process for me, and I am still learning.  Now, before you ask, or jump to any conclusions, what I eat is far from "perfect paleo" and I don't think I will ever get to that point.

I have eliminated virtually all bread from my diet - I think I can count the number of times I have eaten bread since November on one hand!  I also have eliminated most processed foods and dairy, I don't remember the last time I had a soda (probably less than 6 in the last year!).  Don't get me wrong, I still have my splurges!  I love dark chocolate and wine and will always find a time to enjoy those, along with a beer from time to time.  Everything in moderation!

One thing that has been a huge benefit for me is that my mom completely changed up her eating habits a few years ago and has been able to give me a ton of ideas on foods to try etc.  Plus is makes it nice knowing that when we get together with my family, I know that there will be options available for me to enjoy so that I don't feel like I am missing out on something good!

So, to answer the question, what do I eat?

Most weekday mornings, breakfast is eggs with whatever fresh veggies are in the fridge.  This week it's been sweet potato, mushrooms, green onions, spinach and 3 eggs.  I generally am never able to really eat right away when I first wake up in the morning, so I cook my breakfast at home and then take it to work to eat a little later.  

 While my breakfast is cooking, it is time to play with the juicer!  More fruits and veggies are juiced together and put into a travel mug to head to work with me for my mid-morning snack.  This particular blend was carrot, beets, green apple, ginger and pineapple.  There are days that I will also add some spinach or kale to the mix or change up the fruits, but this as turned into the pick me up that I need to keep my day going.

Now on to lunch.  Many times lunch at work is leftovers from the night before (if there is anything left) but this week I found huge tubs of baby spinach on sale!  So, I picked up some chicken breasts and cooked off 4 of them on Sunday to put in the fridge to use during the week.  Today's salad was my baby spinach topped with chicken, raw almonds, blueberries, strawberries and avocado, topped with an oil free pomegranate vinaigrette.

There is no going hungry for this girl!  Which is a good thing because with intense workouts that I get at Fitness Renegades and all of the miles that I run, I need all the energy I can get!  There are so many different foods that I have tried in the last few months that I will slowly share with you as time permits!

Now that What I Eat Wednesday has been mad official, it is time for this girl to get some sleep.  The foods that I eat definitely give me energy, but after a 12 hour work day, there comes a time when you just need to call it a day and get some rest!

Until next time...

Sweet Tooth alert!

This afternoon, while sitting at my desk working, I had a ginormous craving for somethign sweet.  Before I headed towards the vending machine to see what I could find, I remembered about my chocolate stash in my desk!  Thanks to a post on Facebook a few weeks ago and a trip to my local Target store, I had a small stash of "Unreal" chocolates in my desk drawer.  Up until that Facebook post a few weeks ago, I had never heard of this brand/company and wanted to give them a try.  For those of you that are not familiar with them, Unreal is "Unjunked candy".  Taken directly from the back of the wrapper:  No Artificials,  No Hydrogenateds,   No Corn Syrups, No Preservatives, No GMOs".  Sounds like a winner to me!

Up until today, I had only tried their Candy Coated Chocolates with Peanuts (ie Peanut M&M's).  Those were not quite as sweet as an M&M and had a very smooth flavor.  My son said that they had a slight carob taste to them.  I had to agree - and I do like carob so I was not going to complain.

Today was the Peanut Butter Cups turn!

WOW!

These are fabulous!  It is probably a good thing that I don't have another package of the in my desk, they would probably be gone!  Taste was wonderful, texture was perfect.  I decided to take a look at the nutritional information for these Peanut Putter Cups, compared to a classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  Overall the fat, calories and carbs were all lower with the Unreal version.  The biggest difference was in the sugar content.  The traditional Reese's has 21g of sugar, while Unreal Peanut Butter Cups only have 11g!  Plus counting the fact that the Unreal does not have any of the "junk" in the Reese's.  Taking into the account that the Unreal does have a lover sugar content as the Reese's  I did notice that I did not get that sugar buzz/headache that I usually get when I eat a Reeses (which is why I hardly ever get them anymore!)

Now before anyone says anything... I know that this is still candy and is not to be eaten daily!  I just know that I am always looking for ways that I can reduce (and eventually eliminate) artificial flavors etc form my diet, without feeling that I am completely depriving myself of occasional indulgences, like candy bars.

(side note)  I did try the regular chocolate candy coated pieces (i.e. &M's) and I did not care for those.  They were not terrible, just not something that I would buy again.