Today, since I knew I was going to to be out and about most of the day, I packed my lunch, drinks and snacks. The day started out with a fairly big breakfast including another Mediterranean omelet with the usual "free" veggies, a slice of gluten-free toast with olive oil and my bowl of fruit and yogurt (getting the Sugar counts in early in the day, so I could use them to get through the day - I learned from yesterday's fatigue!) I packed a couple of mozzarella cheese sticks, a small container of tuna, and lots of celery with a dab of almond butter on each one. I also included about 1/4 cup of roasted pumpkin seeds and a Virgil's Diet Root Beer (sweetened with stevia). This seemed to hold me through the day all right. I was pretty hungry when I got home, and Richard had prepared a light dinner for us that included some hummus with endive, and guacamole and 15 blue corn chips and a chocolate protein drink mixed into some unsweetened Almond Breeze. Of course we had to each have an Almond Butter Cup afterwards. Yum.
Richard's pretty tuckered out, as am I. We are a bit challenged by the fact that we need to limit our servings of fish each week to help decrease the amount of mercury we ingest. Richard is a vegetarian who eats fish, so it looks like we need to look into some tofu options to increase our protein intake, along with the protein shakes we drink every day. Everything I've read about greatly decreasing sugar in the diet is that it is supposed to increase your energy... maybe we are going through a natural process of fatigue as our bodies realize that it doesn't have free access to sugar anymore.
We're still in it, I continue to give Richard an "out" if he's not feeling well, but he plugs away with me, meticulously accounting for those Sugar grams and Carb counts. Also, I notice that we are not getting to the 15 grams of Sugar every day, even if we eat 6 servings of Carbs, so maybe if we made sure we get all 15 grams that would help energy-wise.
We did just a short walk around the neighborhood, about a mile, and it felt good. Not much else to report here, except I am looking forward to seeing what results show up on Monday after all of this accounting of sugar and carbs, plus those crazy "mini" toning workouts every morning. Maybe I will sneak a peak at the scale tomorrow morning, maybe not. :-)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Day Two of the One Week Challenge - ow!
Ok, I can barely move! I felt great this morning, if a little hungry, and eagerly did my seemingly simple upper body exercises for the prescribed 8 minutes. However, we just returned from our four mile walk, which was a challenge, because I not only felt the effects of yesterday's 8 minutes of abs work, but also today's arm workout, plus I think my body suddenly realized that it hasn't had any significant sugar in over 24 hours, and it may not (likely!) get significant sugar in the near future.
Richard and I agreed (AND pinky swore) that psyllium husks are NOT going to count as a Carb serving for us on our plan. We have only 6 Carb servings each day to work with. It just seems so silly that something that provides so much extra beneficial fiber and is nasty to drink, has to count against our total carb count. It is highly unlikely that I am going to get a severe craving for psyllium husks or even become a closet psyllium husk eater, so I think we are safe with this slight modification. I did tell Richard that if we end up gaining weight and/or belly inches, that we will have to go right back to counting the psyllium husks as a Carb serving.
We also made our yummy green tea (matcha) frappuccino after our walk, but without the 1/2 cup per serving of heavy cream from yesterday's drink. This is definitely preferable, I simply substituted some unsweetened Almond Breeze, and it was a much lighter drink than yesterday, so hopefully we won't have that sluggish feeling (if I'd even notice it with the recovering muscle aches) that I had last night. I also planned ahead and pre-made and cooled the matcha green tea drink, which takes awhile to cool down before it can be blended successfully into a cold and refreshing beverage. This way we could have it more immediately after our walk.
When I awakened this morning, I had a sensation of belly fat melting, my muscles, especially my abdominal muscles seemed to be heated up. Let's hope so!
We both chose to not have a piece of toast with our breakfast this morning, to save the precious Carb serving for later in the day. I also made an experimental recipe of almond butter cups (Recipe: Almond Butter Cups) that will count for 1 Carb serving, and no Sugar (I have a particular weakness for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (21 grams of sugar and 25 grams of carbs) so am hoping to create an alternative I can live with).
I am going to need to plan ahead for tomorrow since I'm going to be on the road for most of the day at various appointments. I plan to pack all of my food which will include snacks, drinks and lunch.
Today's Menu looked like this:
Breakfast: Mediterranean omelet (spinach, kalamata olives, garlic sauteed in olive oil, served inside cooked eggs with feta cheese and fresh basil) no toast, hot green matcha tea, water
Snack: Unsweeteened Almond Breeze with a scoop of chocolate whey protein (Jay Robb); two tablespoons of roasted pumpkin seeds
Lunch: tuna melts on Udi's whole grain gluten-free bread. (Tuna mixed with mustard and mayonnaise, topped with part-skim mozzarella cheese and alfalfa sprouts and 1/4 sliced avocado)
Snack: Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino (Unsweetened Almond Breeze, 1 scoop Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (Jay Robb), match green tea with stevia, ice cubes.
Fruit: strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries with goat yogurt and a bit of stevia
Dinner: Huevos Rancheros (Richard is foregoing his corn tortilla, which counts as a Carb serving (no sugar), since he had a Zevia earlier in the day) eggs, bit of cheese, a couple tablespoons of black beans, tomatillo salsa and a corn tortilla softly cooked in light oil, for me, and a salad on the side which this week we are making our way through arugula and spinach, tossed with a little shaved parmesan cheese - mmmmm, tasty!
After dinner snack: 1 Almond Butter Cup
Yum! Hopefully I will be able to move easily tomorrow when I awaken! Burn, Baby, Burn! (Says me to my belly fat!)
Richard and I agreed (AND pinky swore) that psyllium husks are NOT going to count as a Carb serving for us on our plan. We have only 6 Carb servings each day to work with. It just seems so silly that something that provides so much extra beneficial fiber and is nasty to drink, has to count against our total carb count. It is highly unlikely that I am going to get a severe craving for psyllium husks or even become a closet psyllium husk eater, so I think we are safe with this slight modification. I did tell Richard that if we end up gaining weight and/or belly inches, that we will have to go right back to counting the psyllium husks as a Carb serving.
We also made our yummy green tea (matcha) frappuccino after our walk, but without the 1/2 cup per serving of heavy cream from yesterday's drink. This is definitely preferable, I simply substituted some unsweetened Almond Breeze, and it was a much lighter drink than yesterday, so hopefully we won't have that sluggish feeling (if I'd even notice it with the recovering muscle aches) that I had last night. I also planned ahead and pre-made and cooled the matcha green tea drink, which takes awhile to cool down before it can be blended successfully into a cold and refreshing beverage. This way we could have it more immediately after our walk.
When I awakened this morning, I had a sensation of belly fat melting, my muscles, especially my abdominal muscles seemed to be heated up. Let's hope so!
We both chose to not have a piece of toast with our breakfast this morning, to save the precious Carb serving for later in the day. I also made an experimental recipe of almond butter cups (Recipe: Almond Butter Cups) that will count for 1 Carb serving, and no Sugar (I have a particular weakness for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (21 grams of sugar and 25 grams of carbs) so am hoping to create an alternative I can live with).
I am going to need to plan ahead for tomorrow since I'm going to be on the road for most of the day at various appointments. I plan to pack all of my food which will include snacks, drinks and lunch.
Today's Menu looked like this:
Breakfast: Mediterranean omelet (spinach, kalamata olives, garlic sauteed in olive oil, served inside cooked eggs with feta cheese and fresh basil) no toast, hot green matcha tea, water
Snack: Unsweeteened Almond Breeze with a scoop of chocolate whey protein (Jay Robb); two tablespoons of roasted pumpkin seeds
Lunch: tuna melts on Udi's whole grain gluten-free bread. (Tuna mixed with mustard and mayonnaise, topped with part-skim mozzarella cheese and alfalfa sprouts and 1/4 sliced avocado)
Snack: Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino (Unsweetened Almond Breeze, 1 scoop Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (Jay Robb), match green tea with stevia, ice cubes.
Fruit: strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries with goat yogurt and a bit of stevia
Dinner: Huevos Rancheros (Richard is foregoing his corn tortilla, which counts as a Carb serving (no sugar), since he had a Zevia earlier in the day) eggs, bit of cheese, a couple tablespoons of black beans, tomatillo salsa and a corn tortilla softly cooked in light oil, for me, and a salad on the side which this week we are making our way through arugula and spinach, tossed with a little shaved parmesan cheese - mmmmm, tasty!
After dinner snack: 1 Almond Butter Cup
Yum! Hopefully I will be able to move easily tomorrow when I awaken! Burn, Baby, Burn! (Says me to my belly fat!)
Stephanie's Low Carb Almond Butter Cups
Low Carb Almond Butter Cups
serves 12
Made in one mini-muffin pan (12 muffin cups)
Ingredients for chocolate shell:
8 ounce bag of Hershey's sugar-free chocolate chips (sweetened with maltilol, no sucralose)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
Filling Ingredients:
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
1/4 cup protein powder (sweetened with stevia, not sucralose, i.e. Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein Powder)
dash of salt
Instructions:
1) Melt chocolate chips at very low heat, ensuring they do not burn, or separate.
Stir in vanilla and salt.
2) While chocolate is melting, mix together the almond butter, almond meal/flour, vanilla protein powder, and dash of salt until dough easily forms into balls, add more protein powder if it is too sticky, add more almond butter if it is too dry.
3) Put heaping tablespoon of melty chocolate into the mini muffin tin. If thick enough, push up the sides of each space.
4) Form almond butter dough into 12 equal balls. Push each one into the center of the chocolate, and push the top of each ball so that it's flat.
5) Chill the entire mini muffin pan in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour.
6) Remove from refrigerator and run hot water over the bottom of the pan for a few seconds.
7) Using a thin knife to insert at the edge of one of the cups to see if the cup can be turned and easily popped out. It may need another few seconds of heating the bottom of the pan under hot water.
In the entire recipe (all 12 servings), there is a total of 89 grams of carbohydrates, and 7 grams of sugar.
Each serving contains: 7.42 grams of carbs, so one Carb serving in the Belly Fat Cure, and 0.58grams of Sugar. (<0.5grams of sugar is not counted at a Sugar) Most of the sugar comes from the almond butter, so that could be reduced, to some degree, to make each serving less than 0.5grams of sugar) Of course if you have two, you have to count the Sugar. :-)
Monday, August 8, 2011
Day One Update 8-8-11
Update on our plan, and foods discovered:
The day was successful. It is quite eye-opening to discover just how much sugar is in our usual healthy foods. For example, for 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, we had to count 2 Sugars. Rice wine vinegar would have cost none, but I didn't have any on hand for the dressing I was making with the olive oil and garlic. 1/4 cup of brown rice has 38 grams of carbs, which count for 2 of the 6 Carb servings we are allowed each day. It's only a 1/4 of a cup, which is not much, but good to remember when it comes to portions eating out.
I tried the green tea frappuccino recipe in Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure book, he calls it the "Energize Me Green Tea" with only 1 Sugar count and one Carb serving count, and I'm not sure where he's coming up with either. It's meant to be a replacement for Starbucks "Belly Bad" Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino Blended Creme beverage (at 69 whopping grams of sugar for their "lightly sweetened" version.) Yikes! This healthier recipe contains a total of 1/2 cup of heavy cream per serving, which is a LOT more saturated fat than we are accustomed to. It definitely creamed up the drink, and the product was mighty tasty, but Richard and I agree that it was a bit too heavy, and it would probably be just as good with the unsweetened Almond Breeze instead. The recipe calls for Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein Powder which would help thicken it up a bit even without the heavy cream. It was a good experiment though. I will definitely feel better about it without the thick cream. Regardless, even with that thick rich drink we managed to stay within our 15 grams of Sugar and 6 Carb servings.
We found a little challenge with getting Sugar counts without Carb serving counts, because everything we'd had in the day until that point had both. We solved that by having berries (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries) with enough goat yogurt to count for Sugar but not Carb servings.
On that note, we were a little dismayed to find out that our stevia-sweetened drinks (like Zero Vitamin Water and Sobe-life water) also contain maltilol, a sugar alcohol, so they each contain 1 Carb serving, even if they don't count in the sugar counts. so, those will have to be incorporated carefully. We were, however, delighted to discover that the Virgil's Diet Root Beer and Diet Cola are sweetened only with stevia, so count for no sugar grams and NO carb servings. Hooray!
Even our psyllium husks count for a Carb serving, if we take the full 2 1/2 tablespoons. So, since I was out of Carb servings, I took only 1 Tablespoon, which kept the total grams of carbs at 4 grams, so zero servings, and I still got some beneficial additional fiber.
We walked our delightful route into and through town and around our local lake. It was a gorgeous day, and I feel very good about our first day of the challenge.
The day was successful. It is quite eye-opening to discover just how much sugar is in our usual healthy foods. For example, for 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, we had to count 2 Sugars. Rice wine vinegar would have cost none, but I didn't have any on hand for the dressing I was making with the olive oil and garlic. 1/4 cup of brown rice has 38 grams of carbs, which count for 2 of the 6 Carb servings we are allowed each day. It's only a 1/4 of a cup, which is not much, but good to remember when it comes to portions eating out.
I tried the green tea frappuccino recipe in Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure book, he calls it the "Energize Me Green Tea" with only 1 Sugar count and one Carb serving count, and I'm not sure where he's coming up with either. It's meant to be a replacement for Starbucks "Belly Bad" Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino Blended Creme beverage (at 69 whopping grams of sugar for their "lightly sweetened" version.) Yikes! This healthier recipe contains a total of 1/2 cup of heavy cream per serving, which is a LOT more saturated fat than we are accustomed to. It definitely creamed up the drink, and the product was mighty tasty, but Richard and I agree that it was a bit too heavy, and it would probably be just as good with the unsweetened Almond Breeze instead. The recipe calls for Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein Powder which would help thicken it up a bit even without the heavy cream. It was a good experiment though. I will definitely feel better about it without the thick cream. Regardless, even with that thick rich drink we managed to stay within our 15 grams of Sugar and 6 Carb servings.
We found a little challenge with getting Sugar counts without Carb serving counts, because everything we'd had in the day until that point had both. We solved that by having berries (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries) with enough goat yogurt to count for Sugar but not Carb servings.
On that note, we were a little dismayed to find out that our stevia-sweetened drinks (like Zero Vitamin Water and Sobe-life water) also contain maltilol, a sugar alcohol, so they each contain 1 Carb serving, even if they don't count in the sugar counts. so, those will have to be incorporated carefully. We were, however, delighted to discover that the Virgil's Diet Root Beer and Diet Cola are sweetened only with stevia, so count for no sugar grams and NO carb servings. Hooray!
Even our psyllium husks count for a Carb serving, if we take the full 2 1/2 tablespoons. So, since I was out of Carb servings, I took only 1 Tablespoon, which kept the total grams of carbs at 4 grams, so zero servings, and I still got some beneficial additional fiber.
We walked our delightful route into and through town and around our local lake. It was a gorgeous day, and I feel very good about our first day of the challenge.
One-week Challenge!
We started Jorge Cruise's One-Week Challenge today. Richard is joining me in this, so he measured his waist (which is, of course within the right circumference for his height). We measured according to Jorge's recommendation, at belly button level, parallel to the ground, and sucking in as much as possible. This is in contrast to the way I've been measuring which is with relaxed belly, and no sucking in, but still at belly button level.
My waist circumference measured this way is 42 inches (my goal circumference is 33.5 inches - which is half my height in inches - the general rule of thumb for women is <35 inches, and for men is <40 inches). I weighed in the morning at 203.4lb (so have lost a lb this past week.)
The One-week Challenge of the Belly Fat Cure is to eat 15 or fewer grams of sugar per day, plus limit our servings of carbohydrates to 6 each day. One serving is 5-20grams, Two is 21-40g, Three is 41-60g.
We started our morning with Jorge's 8 minute belly flattening exercises, which we are adding to the challenge. He prescribes belly toning exercises on Mondays, Wednesday, and Friday, upper body exercises on Tuesdays, and lower body on Thursdays.
Then we ate our delicious breakfast of a Mediterranean omelet (we used Egg Beaters since that's all we had on hand because a couple of the college boys were home for the weekend). I am now used to cooking our eggs in olive oil (I've done this for over a decade) so did not cook them in butter as Jorge suggested. I used kalamata olives, spinach, green onion, and garlic as the veggies (all "free" of countable sugars and carbs), as well as feta cheese (also no counts for sugar or carbs) and a couple fresh basil leaves from my herb garden. One slice of Udi's Whole Grain Gluten-Free toast (1 gram of sugar and 1 carb count), drizzled with a tsp of garlic olive oil accompanied our eggs. Richard makes the best stevia matcha lattes using matcha powder, unsweetened plain Almond Breeze (also "free"), and stevia to sweeten, in our cappuccino maker. It's a good start!
So far, it's not that much different than our usual breakfast, except where we might have had two slices of toast, we agreed we'd have only one, considering the sugar/carb content, even though it's pretty low for that particular bread. Also instead of using red peppers, which do count in the sugar and carb total, I used the "free" veggies: spinach, garlic, green onion.
Snacks that are free of sugar and countable carbs that I am going to implement today: celery stick with natural (no added sugar) almond butter, and a whey protein shake mixed in with unsweetened chocolate Almond Drink. For lunch we plan to have tuna sandwiches on low-carb gluten-free bread, and dinner is going to be tuna steaks with a salad and healthy carbs (brown rice, etc.) as we have any allotted left.
We will likely go on our usual four mile walk into town and around the lake today, and have done a lesson in A Course in Miracles. I am attempting to keep EFT in mind as or if any sugar cravings arise, so I can tap them out and move on happily.
Looking forward to feeling even better and better, and am excited to see how much sugar has been an issue, even with our pretty healthy current diets.
To Great Health and an Energized Day!
My waist circumference measured this way is 42 inches (my goal circumference is 33.5 inches - which is half my height in inches - the general rule of thumb for women is <35 inches, and for men is <40 inches). I weighed in the morning at 203.4lb (so have lost a lb this past week.)
The One-week Challenge of the Belly Fat Cure is to eat 15 or fewer grams of sugar per day, plus limit our servings of carbohydrates to 6 each day. One serving is 5-20grams, Two is 21-40g, Three is 41-60g.
We started our morning with Jorge's 8 minute belly flattening exercises, which we are adding to the challenge. He prescribes belly toning exercises on Mondays, Wednesday, and Friday, upper body exercises on Tuesdays, and lower body on Thursdays.
Then we ate our delicious breakfast of a Mediterranean omelet (we used Egg Beaters since that's all we had on hand because a couple of the college boys were home for the weekend). I am now used to cooking our eggs in olive oil (I've done this for over a decade) so did not cook them in butter as Jorge suggested. I used kalamata olives, spinach, green onion, and garlic as the veggies (all "free" of countable sugars and carbs), as well as feta cheese (also no counts for sugar or carbs) and a couple fresh basil leaves from my herb garden. One slice of Udi's Whole Grain Gluten-Free toast (1 gram of sugar and 1 carb count), drizzled with a tsp of garlic olive oil accompanied our eggs. Richard makes the best stevia matcha lattes using matcha powder, unsweetened plain Almond Breeze (also "free"), and stevia to sweeten, in our cappuccino maker. It's a good start!
So far, it's not that much different than our usual breakfast, except where we might have had two slices of toast, we agreed we'd have only one, considering the sugar/carb content, even though it's pretty low for that particular bread. Also instead of using red peppers, which do count in the sugar and carb total, I used the "free" veggies: spinach, garlic, green onion.
Snacks that are free of sugar and countable carbs that I am going to implement today: celery stick with natural (no added sugar) almond butter, and a whey protein shake mixed in with unsweetened chocolate Almond Drink. For lunch we plan to have tuna sandwiches on low-carb gluten-free bread, and dinner is going to be tuna steaks with a salad and healthy carbs (brown rice, etc.) as we have any allotted left.
We will likely go on our usual four mile walk into town and around the lake today, and have done a lesson in A Course in Miracles. I am attempting to keep EFT in mind as or if any sugar cravings arise, so I can tap them out and move on happily.
Looking forward to feeling even better and better, and am excited to see how much sugar has been an issue, even with our pretty healthy current diets.
To Great Health and an Energized Day!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Belly Fat
Awhile ago my husband told me about a show he watched where Wayne Dyer was talking about an eating plan where you could eat only 20 g of sugar each day, along with other nutritional foods like protein, vegetables, and complex carbs, with the result of quickly losing extra belly fat. I have kept this in the back of my mind since he told me about it, always thinking that 20 grams of sugar is not very much, and it must be pretty hard to stick to something like that.
As it turns out, it is The Belly Fat Cure, which allows only 15 grams of sugar, including the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables, so doesn't allow much extra anything in terms of sweets, unless one uses products with my favorite sweetener, Stevia. I am aware that most of the world is already aware of this eating plan before I am (even with Richard's knowledge of it) due to my lack of interest in commercial television and ads of any kind. Suddenly I am aware of all aspects of the Belly Fat Cure because it seems like a reasonable path on which to experiment since one of my recent decisions is to cut any extra and hidden sugars from my diet. I ordered three of his books that describe the eating plan, and so far, have been very impressed with Jorge Cruise's presentation of the data, and his ability to make it sound "simple". In his book, The Belly Fat Cure: Discover the New Carb Swap System, I have enjoyed his visuals for foods and items that are good for your belly (those that help reduce belly fat) "Belly Good", and those that increase belly fat, therefore "Belly Bad". Examples below:
One of the books I bought is Jorge Cruise's 8 Minute a Day exercises specific to reduce belly fat. Since this is the key area where I store extra fat, this plan seems to make sense. I will continue my aerobic and cardiovascular workouts, but will add these toning exercises in. I can accommodate my wheat-free status with this plan, and my desire to decrease saturated fats (even though he doesn't emphasize this in his plan), and really become aware of the hidden sugars in everything I eat. Our plan is to begin full force Monday and give the plan a whirl, the One Week Challenge, and meanwhile through the weekend, continue to observe and investigate the sugar content of the foods we eat normally, and decide how we are going to modify them further. I am excited that there are more and more stevia-based products on the market from which to choose, and that this plan looks doable. I will check in Monday morning with the stats (the main measurement for this is the waist circumference, but I will also be tracking my weight), and more of our plan. We have prepared by doing our grocery shopping for next week to have on hand the food and items we will need to be successful. Two of my boys will be home from college this weekend, and we want to remain flexible, food-wise while they are around.
It is pretty exciting to think that stevia is getting this amazing promotion. This is one of the most exciting aspects of this discovery for me.
As it turns out, it is The Belly Fat Cure, which allows only 15 grams of sugar, including the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables, so doesn't allow much extra anything in terms of sweets, unless one uses products with my favorite sweetener, Stevia. I am aware that most of the world is already aware of this eating plan before I am (even with Richard's knowledge of it) due to my lack of interest in commercial television and ads of any kind. Suddenly I am aware of all aspects of the Belly Fat Cure because it seems like a reasonable path on which to experiment since one of my recent decisions is to cut any extra and hidden sugars from my diet. I ordered three of his books that describe the eating plan, and so far, have been very impressed with Jorge Cruise's presentation of the data, and his ability to make it sound "simple". In his book, The Belly Fat Cure: Discover the New Carb Swap System, I have enjoyed his visuals for foods and items that are good for your belly (those that help reduce belly fat) "Belly Good", and those that increase belly fat, therefore "Belly Bad". Examples below:
 |
| Our beloved Zevia soda is on the Belly Good side, all other sodas on the Belly Bad |
 | |
| Belly Good items include most of the items we have already switched over to, including gluten-free bread items |
 |
| Belly Bad: all added sugars and artificial, man-made sweeteners; Belly Good: Stevia products |
 |
| Healthier chip and snack items on the Belly Good side, and traditional, even Baked Lay's! on the Belly Bad side |
One of the books I bought is Jorge Cruise's 8 Minute a Day exercises specific to reduce belly fat. Since this is the key area where I store extra fat, this plan seems to make sense. I will continue my aerobic and cardiovascular workouts, but will add these toning exercises in. I can accommodate my wheat-free status with this plan, and my desire to decrease saturated fats (even though he doesn't emphasize this in his plan), and really become aware of the hidden sugars in everything I eat. Our plan is to begin full force Monday and give the plan a whirl, the One Week Challenge, and meanwhile through the weekend, continue to observe and investigate the sugar content of the foods we eat normally, and decide how we are going to modify them further. I am excited that there are more and more stevia-based products on the market from which to choose, and that this plan looks doable. I will check in Monday morning with the stats (the main measurement for this is the waist circumference, but I will also be tracking my weight), and more of our plan. We have prepared by doing our grocery shopping for next week to have on hand the food and items we will need to be successful. Two of my boys will be home from college this weekend, and we want to remain flexible, food-wise while they are around.
It is pretty exciting to think that stevia is getting this amazing promotion. This is one of the most exciting aspects of this discovery for me.
Stevia Syrups Have Arrived!!
I have been waiting for stevia syrups to replace the Splenda-sweetened syrups I'd been using in my coffee and almond drink lattes. I haven't had many latts this summer because we finished up the syrups on hand, and I didn't want to order more, even if they were yummy. I was also getting Splenda in my Joint Juice for a few months last fall, and quit Joint Juice for that reason, and take my glucosamin and chondrointin in tablet form. I've also found a stevia maple-flavored syrup, which is still in transit, so I haven't tried it yet, it's traveling with Richard's stevia cherry-flavoring for his "cola" products.
I am sipping on my first Stevia Chocolate Raspberry (Almond) Latte at the moment, and I have to say... not bad! I am really hoping that Sweet leaf or Now or someone will come up with a Stevia pumpkin flavoring as fall and winter approach. That will be Heavenly!
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