Hi Friends!  How was your weekend? A few scenes from mine:

Got to spend a little time with my SIL, she took Nala to the vet with me to get her Bordetella booster.

Friday Night we went to the Covenant Of Love series at local church.  The speaker was a local marriage counselor and discussed the role of marriage and sexuality.  I have to be honest, whenever I go to something like that I always kind of dread going, but then when I get there I have such a good time and really enjoy the experience.  I think it just takes me a bit to break out of my shell?  We went out for drinks with friends after which was a BLAST!  Celebrated the end of “detox” with a  big glass of wine!

Super obsessed with eggs and avocado recently, this breakfast keeps me full for HOURS (had it this morning to but with fried eggs!)

Drove out to Casa Grande (it’s a city between Phoenix and Tucson) for a grocery store tour.  My GPS took me through the reservations instead of the main freeway, a little scary since there is no one around but absolutely beautiful. This picture isn’t that great, but I can only do so well driving people!

Saturday afternoon nap with my dare-devil kitty.  You guys she fell or jumped off the second story, she landed on her feet and BOLTED upstairs, she seems okay though.  Scariest moment of my life!

Oh ya… this totally happened… Joe’s Farm Grill is in Gilbert and was on the Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, we finally tried it!  I’ve been dreaming of Pizza since we went on our little detox three weeks ago.

I got their grilled pizza, half veggie and half cheese (I picked off the mushrooms in case you were wondering about the mushroom pile in the back.)

Mr. Hungry’s helped me with my pizza and ate his meal:

Dessert = sweet potato pie

It was carb- tastic in every way! 🙂 I’ll be adding these eats to my new Arizona Eats Pinterest Board, be sure to friend me for all things related to eating out in Arizona!

Sunday was pretty laid back just some cooking, cleaning, and working out!   I also got started on a few really great posts for this week including the results of my caffeine detox, comparing a meal plan & prep to a meal delivery service, my recent exposure to the reality of the supplement diet industry, and of course Recipe Redux this Friday!

Sugar Detox

Last week’s healthy challenge was detoxing from sugar (see the post here —-> How to Slash Your Sugar Intake), how did it go?!?!  Where are you at on sugar?  Just starting to pay attention to it or a pro at detecting it?  My SIL told me over the weekend she started to seek out added sources of sugar and slowly reduce them.  For instance, over the course of a week she put less and less sugar in her coffee until she had no problem drinking it black.  She didn’t stress about it, she just did it, that a girl!

As you guys know, Mr. Hungry and I decided to go on a sugar detox for the last three weeks, I paired mine with a caffeine detox which I will talk more about tomorrow.  I find that caffeine and sugar feed off each other, like many of my nutrition coaching clients, my cravings for both go up when I’m stressed, not sleeping enough and addicted to them.  Reasons why I chose to detox from sugar:

• Wanting sugar after every meal.
• Craving Quests bars like crazy.
• Needing something sweet at night, and fruit wouldn’t cut it I was a sugar monster.
• Energy swings like crazy.

What I avoided:

• Added sugar in any form
• Artificial Sweeteners (Quest Bars and gm are my major sources)
• Alcohol (I really don’t drink that much anyway except wine on the weekends)
• High sugar fruits – I took a break from my favorite bananas and dates for a while.
• Dairy – I also took a little break from dairy except cottage cheese.  Partially because I add a lot of stevia to my plain yogurt and partially just to keep it out of the house to help Mr. Hungry avoid his food sensitivities.

What I Noticed:

I’ve done sugar detoxes before and every time I do them I’m so happy I did.  (See Sugar Free September & Lifetime Detox Program Results) it totally resets my taste buds so I feel so much better after.  This time around some of the major benefits I noticed:

• That feeling of needing something sweet after any meal is gone.  Sometimes I still want something sweet and I usually have a couple of frozen cherries out of the fridge and I’m good to go.
• Increased control or will power.  There was a time in my life when Mr. Hungry could have copious amounts of candy in his “candy drawer” and it wouldn’t even phase me.  He would eat it right in front of me and I just didn’t really care that much.  I had other things I really liked to eat when I wanted them that kept me satisfied (like peanut butter dates).  For last year or so though, candy could not come into this house without me DEVOURING it on site.  No surprise since I was craving sweets after every meal.  Last night Mr. Hungry was noshing down on his beloved cadburry eggs that he waited 3 whole weeks to eat and offered me a bite of one of his cadburry egg cookies. I took the cookie, looked at and just didn’t want it, I gave it back UNTOUCHED.  That’s when I knew the sugar detox was worth it.  I didn’t feel restricted or upset, I just didn’t have that craving, it was glorious to feel that in control, instead of sugar controlling me.
• Quest bars still drive me mad.  If I eat one, I want another one and will negotiate with myself eating another half of one.  It’s no different from a diet coke, if I have one, I absolutely want another one.  While I don’t think quest bars are as bad as a diet coke at the end of the day they still have calories and over eating them isn’t good.  So I’m limiting myself to 1-2 per WEEK not per DAY.  I’m very aware that if I have one it should be because I’m legitimately on the go, not just because I’m lazy and don’t want to cook or whatever because I’ll end up eating more than needed.
• Absolutely zero energy swings.  This could be related to the caffeine detox as well, which I will discuss tomorrow!
• Reset taste buds.  Many things taste slightly sweet to me that didn’t before like fruit, nuts, and even unsweetened dairy.  Some things are actually too sweet, which is absolutely insane for me to think about.

Overall I feel back in control of my choices, instead of the sugar controlling me.  Stay tuned, this week’s healthy challenge will be posted tomorrow along with my caffeine detox results.

What was your favorite part of the weekend?

What workout do you look forward to most during the week?

I look forward to Leg Day and a good run. I posted the last Leg Day workout I did over the weekend (click here for the post with the exercise links), in case you missed it here it is!