Friday, November 8, 2013

The No Sugar, No Booze Diet

I'm a sucker for a challenge. I just can't say no. So when I was recently asked to participate in a Game On! Diet challenge, I quickly looked over the rules and said yes. There is a book with all the rules but I'm participating in a Facebook group with one expert (Hi Susan!) who answers all my questions. Anyone who knows me knows that I'd have lots of questions since I'm a stickler for the rules.

So yes, the rules there are a ton of them, but the main points of the diet are that you can't eat any sugar (including any products made with sugar) or any sugar alternatives (like Splenda, etc). You also can't have any alcohol or snacks (except cucumbers or celery). The game is scored on points which you earn for:

  • Eating 5 small meals a day (including a minimum of 2 servings of vegetables daily)
  • Exercising for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week
  • Drinking a minimum of 3 liters of water a day
  • Sleeping for a minimum of 7 hours a night
  • Maintaining a healthy new habit
  • Letting go of a bad habit
  • Communicating with your teammates daily
You are allowed one day off a week though where you can eat (and drink) whatever you want and one meal off a week, too. Those days are like godsends.

So yeah...I started the challenge last Friday so today marks one week. It has definitely been a challenge and eye opening. For anyone who doesn't know me well, let me make this clear - I LOVE SUGAR. I am a eat brown sugar out of the bag kid of girl. Oh, and did I mention this challenge started the day after Halloween? Do you know how much trick or treat candy was in my house with three kids?!

Basically, since you can't eat any sugar it really makes you eat food in its natural state - meats, nuts, fruit, veggies, etc. If you check the labels on just about anything else you will see some form of sugar in it. Also, some brands have sugar in their products while others don't. For example, the salsa we had in our fridge listed sugar as an ingredient. However, at the store I found another brand that didn't. Before this challenge I never would have even bothered to check for that. Conveniently, I had recently finished another crazy challenge where I couldn't eat any "bread" products so that helped prepare me for this challenge. I found that a lot of the gluten free products that I purchased do not have sugar in them so I am able to eat them. In general, I've found that the organic and more natural products do not have as much sugar in them. Of course, they are also more expensive though!

The no alcohol thing has been manageable since I can still drink one day a week if I choose. The main thing that has been a killer for me is no Diet Pepsi. I drink Diet Pepsi each morning as if it were my coffee so the first few days were hard. All I could think about each morning was how I wanted a soda! It has been getting easier each morning though. I do miss having something else to drink besides water though. I drink a ton of water anyway each day so I always meet the requirement but I miss having something different to drink each day. I was so desperate the other day I even drank a flavored seltzer water (ick!).

Soooo...anyway, that's my latest, crazy health kick that I've been working on. And I must say - it is working. I weighed in this morning and had lost 3 pounds in the last week. I really think the main reason I'm losing is because I can't snack on anything. I mean I guess I could eat celery but come on now, let's not be ridiculous.

Yum?
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