chubby, sick, tired..
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know mine ended up being a little more indulgent than I would have liked, but there’s nothing like a day of excess, with the added sides of bloating and guilt, to getcha right back on track! So first.. positive thoughts and NO negative self talk.. just gotta get Fitness & Nutrition right back on track tomorrow!
With that said, I thought there would be no better time than now to talk about my frienemy (sp?).. Sugar.
NUTRITION
Sugar-Free, Yes Please
Just the other day, Zen to Fitness presented the 30 Sugar-Free Days Challenge for January, which I am all about accepting! Me and Sugar have a love/hate relationship. I love it, it hates me. Even before having a strict diet for fitness training, I didn’t handle sugar well. What I mean by that is that I have no ‘off button.’ Once I start eating sugar I have a very hard time stopping. And now, on top of that, it seems to make me sick. Over the holiday’s I certainly had a few sweet treats, but I can’t say that it was worth it :/ I should be more specific though; I’m talking specifically about added white sugar, I’m totally fine with natural sugars in the form of fruits & veggies, and although I know I shouldn’t eat them, you’ve seen that I’m a big fan of some of the sugar-free alternatives.
If you happen to pick up the January issue of Oxygen magazine, Tosca Reno has an article on her hatred of white sugar too. So as I accept the 30 Day Challenge, which I’ll morph into the 175 day Challenge (aka the # of days until Jr. Nationals), I thought I’d put together a nice sugar-alternative list. Fortunately there are so many fabulous white sugar alternatives, I’ve found that once I go without the evilness for a few days I don’t miss it at all and I feel a million times better!
Alternatives
All Natural –
- Fruit & Berries – My personal faves are apples and strawberries & blackberries.
- Dates – Just in moderation because they’re just too close to the real thing :/
- Tea – Nothing better than a hot cup of tea to fill your stomach and your sweet tooth! I’ve been stocking up on the holiday flavors, I’ll have a whole cupboard full by the time they’re out of season
- Pumpkin & Squash – Haven’t managed to get sick of these yet!
Natural but..
More natural versions of the non-snorting white drug. If you’re going to have sugar, these are probably better alternatives, and for the most part you use them in much smaller quantities.
- Stevia – extracted from plant leaves, powder & flavored liquids available (fun fact: the FDA considers it a ‘dietary supplement’ not a ‘sweetener’.. who knew? :p )
- Agave Nectar – a great low-glycemic liquid alternative, a tiny amount goes a long way
- Date sugar – just ground dates, nutrient rich, digests slowly
- Brown Rice Syrup – liquid alternative made from cooked & fermented rice
- Xylitol/Erythritol/Sorbitol/Malitol – fermented sugar alcohols, some are extracted naturally from plants but most are manufactured .. depends how you define ‘natural’, but still nice alternatives to the other sugar-substitutes like aspartame (Nutrasweet), saccharin (Sweet N Low, Equal) and sucralose (Splenda).
Chemicalized..
These are really just the other size of the evil sugar coin. Most of the fake-sugar products I consume contain Splenda or Stevia, and I do my best to avoid saccharin & aspartame. A goal over the coming months is to reduce my intake of artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately, however, I know once I start cutting again in April it will likely shoot back up. I know I should have a more positive attitude about avoiding sweeteners all together, but when the fun carbs are taken away, and I’m hungry all the time, having fake Maple Syrup on my protein pancakes and Sugar-Free White Chocolate Syrup in my black coffee is what keeps me sane A few of my favorite products are..
- Walden Farms: maple syrup, salad dressings
- DaVinci sugar-free syrups
- Torani sugar-free syrups
- many Protein Powders
Parting is such (un) sweet sarrow
It’s addictive, fat producing, weakens the immune system, is linked to an onslaught of various diseases and is toxic, what more reason do you need to kick it to the curb?!
BUT WAIT… everything is fine in moderation right?! .. yes, I think so Personally, however, I just find it easier not to have any, than to tell myself I can have a little then suddenly a box of cookies is gone. So to those of you who have the capability to have just that one cookie, then amen sister (or brother) you go for it.. I’m just not that person.
Now where’s my Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea?!?!
What are your favorite go to non-sugar treats that help satisfy your sweet tooth?
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