Skip to main content

21 Days – NO Sugar, NO bread!


I am about to embark along with a whole lot of other people on 21 days without bread or sugar.  Read more about the initiative here.   I think perhaps one of the only ways I might actually do this is if I blog about it here.  I’ll be blogging as a very ordinary human being who is 44, a mother to 4 and leads a fairly busy, moderately healthy(?) lifestyle.

The challenge has come at a favourable time for me as I had been exploring the Real Food/ Tim Noakes/ Banting/ LCHF way of eating and whilst I accept and laud the broad strokes (lots more veg, less refined stuff) I find it hard, nearly impossible in terms of time, money and taste, to follow it legalistically.  So this challenge which focusses on just sugar and wheat seems much more do-able.  I don’t have to stress about whether butternut is orange or green (banting joke).

Also I find 21 days do-able.  Of course I know the goal is to change my habits and to feel so wonderful that I will turn my back on sugar and wheat and become a born-again bantist baking all sorts of yummy xylitol and coconut flour treats (another banting joke).  But I sort of like the idea that after 21 days I could also ditch it and go, “You know what? I tried it, it did nothing for me.” And then go and make myself a large peanut butter and honey sandwich on white bread.

My last reason for embarking on this now is that I tried to donate blood last week and was turned away (again) due to low iron levels.  This is a recurring theme with me and I take supplements on and off (the good ones are very pricey) but clearly I need a lot more meat, nuts and leafy greens in my diet.  The idea of downing large quantities of biltong is not unappealing.

Here are my issues:
·         I would love to have more energy.
·         I could lose 5-10kgs.
·         I drink about 6 cups of coffee per day with sugar. (Sweetners taste awful)
·         I love bread.  I love coffee and rusks. I love… food in general.

I also can’t stand anecdotal evidence.  It’s just so subjective.  So coming to the end of 21 days and saying, I feel so much better! Just won’t cut it with me.  I might be feeling better because I remembered to take my iron pills, or because it’s spring, or because it rained, or because I got a new pair of shoes or…. No, I’m going to need hard evidence.

So, I’ll be doing weight and tummy measurements.  I’ll also check my cholesterol levels before and after.  Energy levels are always going to be subjective, but perhaps by blogging regularly I’ll have a more accurate idea.

In my favour:
·         We already eat a healthy evening meal which is low carb or can be tweaked slightly to make it so.
·         I hardly ever drink fizzy drinks or eat sweets and chocolates, so no loss there.
·         I love vegetables.
·         I don’t smoke and I'm a once-a-week-glass-of-wine drinker.
·         I go to pilates once a week and my work has me standing a lot of the time.

Some of my family may join me on this journey.  Some, like my 7 year old are going to actively tempt me away from my goals as I will have to continue making peanut butter and honey sandwiches for him which will be torture.

I think it’s going to be awful.  If you’re interested in seeing just how bad it gets….


Stay tuned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can an Egalitarian attend a Complementarian Church?

Definitions: Egalitarians “believe that leadership is not determined by gender but by the gifting and calling of the Holy Spirit, and that God calls all believers to submit to one another.”  In contrast , Complementarians “believe the Bible establishes male authority over women, making male leadership the standard.” Carolyn Curtis James. Imagine attending a church where half the congregation is BLACK and half are WHITE.  After a while you notice that no BLACK PEOPLE ever take up collection or make announcements; they almost never get called on to pray, they never lead worship and they never preach.  On the few odd occasions when they do speak or pray they always pray for THE LEADERS (who are white) and always encourage the other BLACK PEOPLE to submit to the LEADERS.  Imagine that when you ask some of the BLACK PEOPLE how they feel about this they say, “Oh, we’re quite happy being behind the scenes we don’t want to preach or pray up front.” Your mind boggles....
9 comments
Read more

Birthday parties and other failures

So yesterday I held the ninth birthday party of my third child, which for the record means it was the 39 th time I was staging some kind of birthday celebration, and by now, you’d think I must be somewhat of a pro at this. (Snorts) But it’s been a very rough month in a very rough year in a fairly rough life and I was feeling, to use a theological term, ‘fucking awful’. (Credit to Annie Lamott for that little gem) So I sent an invitation on Monday via whatsapp for Friday.  And what ensued was one of those tiny miracles whereby everything went off quite passably with the help of my two gorgeous older boys. Broken bicycle notwithstanding. My older two had half term so they walked to my youngest’s school and then walked a motley crew of 12 third and fourth graders home.  This involved taking on pretty much all their school bags half-way home, which are heavier than you could possibly believe (are these kids carrying dictionaries to school?), and consequently they arr...
6 comments
Read more

Day 7-9: Legalism, Extremism and Common Sense

Okay, this is where I start getting the hate mail. A lot of these extreme health fads are a lot like religion, and the worst kind of religion – the kind that makes people nasty, intolerant and obsessed with rule-keeping.  When I started considering Banting, for example, I thought I could use some encouragement and tips so I joined a facebook group called ‘Banting for Beginners’, seemed fair enough. Soon after I posted the question, “ Can someone refer me to an article about whether it is necessary to cut out absolutely all carbohydrates as per the red list or can I just cut down?  I don’t quite see how I can manage it with a family of 6” .  I was thinking perhaps I could keep rice and pasta for some suppers and oats for breakfast…. Perhaps I expected a couple of links?  Maybe a succinct scientific explanation as to the need to be absolute? Some encouragement along the lines of, “That’s a great way to start, Natalie, yes, cut down carbs and increase what ...
6 comments
Read more