Four years ago today …

Well, where do I start?

Things have been busy. That’s possibly part of the reason I quit writing about my “kicking” the sugar eight-week goal as soon as I met it.

• An eye opener
• A huge first week

What happened after?

I’m glad you asked. Quitting sugar was the best thing I ever did. As a 22-year-old woman I was completely hooked by the white stuff and I didn’t even know.

The day I decided I was bettering my health, the day my mind allowed me to drive through the challenges thrown at me. There were a lot of them and most of them were wielded by my mind and the people closest to me.

But I have to say I’ve succeeded.

After I finished my eight-week challenge I stuck to my “no sugar” trial not just for a few more weeks but for years. Apart from the occasional dark chocolate (my weakness), or mouthful of cake at a wedding, I never looked back.

It was easy.

It was a lifestyle change. If you don’t buy crap, you don’t eat it. If you become more conscious about what you put in your body, your body will love you back.

I’m not a hard-out, dedicated human either. Over the last four years I have frequently bought gym memberships for an entire year only to hammer it in the first three months and just about stop completely. I pick up hobbies and drop them again. I always tell myself I’ll start that project, tomorrow. I’m human.

Avocado, salmon and eggs? Yes, please.

 

There have most certainly been occasions when it was easier to pick up a heavily iced slice of finger-bun from the shared office snack table than go for the grapes, cheese and biscuits.

I can tell you though not only is that little voice, called cravings, irritating when it comes back to haunt me but that stuff just makes me feel like crap. A few days off the band wagon and the fat on my stomach re-appears. YES, that quickly! My skin begins to break out in pimples, the tiredness is back. My will to live …

But kicking the white stuff for good was different. I can see the benefits every day I do it. I imagine it’s probably how a reformed smoker feels after never wanting a cigarette ever again.

And, yeah I’m totally going to liken eating sugar to smoking because I know how addictive it is.

Even now when I allow myself that slice of grandma’s cake, an innocent bowl of ice-cream, or a biscuit to go with my tea a little voice inside my head always speaks up after the final mouthful. It yells incessantly at my body: “Why don’t you just have another slice? You’re not hurting anyone, you know you like it. You only live once. F@#$ it!”.

STEP AWAY FROM THE CAKE! Put that fork down and calmly remind yourself how you felt before you bypassed the junk isle.

They call it “junk” for a reason. And I was fed-up with polluting my body of what heavily-marketed, multi-billion-dollar companies were telling me was good for me.

My body knew better and it still does.

The sweet life, no sugar added.

 

Where am I know?

For some reason I was compelled to look at my blog today. I didn’t even know it was my four year anniversary from the day I opened the account.

I wanted to reflect on those first moments when I was enlightened to a different, better lifestyle – for me.

Words like lethargic, sick, moody and frustrated jump from the pages of my early posts. I can happily say that none of those ailments bother me as much as they used to.

I still refer to Sarah Wilson and, now, a plethora of others for knowledge or just a gentle reminder of why I need to stop and remember to love me.

Life is busy. I work more hours than I ever have in my life. I exercise, even in the smallest way, every day. No lethargy letting me down anymore.

And I love my sleep, so much. You know, I never realised how much sugar affected my sleeping habits until I stopped? It’s about 50-times worse than any coffee buzz I’ve had to reckon with.

Roast vegetable wrap with Greek yoghurt for the body, a good book for the mind.

 

I’ve been living.

When I kicked the white stuff, it freed up my mind, body and spirit to just get on with what I wanted to do. Nothing is holding me back now and it shouldn’t hold anyone else back either.

I moved from Australia to New Zealand last year and while I was confronted with some dietary changes because everything is so expensive here I’ve stuck with what I know and have shared a bit along the way.

Over the weekend I climbed Mt Robert in Nelson Lakes National Park on the South Island and I never felt better. You can read about my outdoor adventures on my other blog: Trailblazing.

Every day I come across someone who is screaming out for a change. You don’t have to look anywhere else but to yourself. That’s what I learned.

Arm yourself with knowledge. “Knowledge is power.” –– James Murray.

It’s about the little things. Do what makes you happy.

 

Coco-crazy

I was unfortunate enough to be completely turned off the idea of using coconut oil a fair few years ago. My parents have always been healthy people, in-particular, my Dad. So my Dad decided, along with the advice of his naturopath, to start using coconut oil. When he cooked with it, all I can remember is this horrible rancid smell that felt oily in the air and clung to my hair and clothes. Naturally I decided that cooking with this type of oil was not for me.

Since then however, I have had info. coming from left, right and centre about coconut oil’s amazing health benefits etc. This includes my new favourite, Sarah Wilson. She is a lover of all things coconut and in particular coconut oil.

By chance, through my travels to other people’s kitchens, my cousin had a jar of coconut oil on the bench. It didn’t look like my dad’s bottle – a plastic bottle with a dark yellow oily substance within. It was this beautiful crystal white colour and not runny but firm. So naturally out of curiosity what did I do? I opened it and took a big whif…MAGIC…it was like a bottle of sweet lamington yumminess and all I wanted to do was eat it, so I did. And it was sooooo good. Immediately converted!!!

So what was the difference? I had to find out, so I went home that night and I did some research. Here is what I found. I hope it clears a few things up for you as it did for me. I think it is really important for people to know the difference between the types of coconut oils out there on the market.

Below is a description of Copra (or Coconut Oil) I found through my research.

“Fiji was not only raised on coconut and coconut oil as part of daily life but also cut copra to make a living on his small impoverished island. Copra or dried coconut flesh is what is made into basic COCONUT OIL. It is a completely different form of oil compared to Virgin or Extra Virgin Coconut Oil now on the market.

When copra is cut, first coconuts that have fallen on the ground are gathered and cut in half to remove the white coconut meat. The coconut meat is then usually dried on a rack over a fire (they call them copra smokers), which helps to dry out the coconut meat, and it turns a grey colour and has a rancid smell. The biggest and most abundant amounts of wild coconuts are found in remote villages scattered across the Pacific and Asia. Sometimes it can take up to 3-4 months before the villagers can get their bags of smoked copra to the big copra mills in town. The mills are usually situated 100’s of miles away from these villagers. The copra mills resemble a smaller version of a sugar crushing mill and processing of the copra is similar to that found in the sugar mills. The copra is pressed and because the coconut is very smoky or rancid they use chemicals to bleach and clean the oil. This happens in all the basic edible food oils today in the market place. This is also the reason why this style of COCONUT OIL (Copra) processing became known in the old days as poor man’s oil or dirty oil.”

 

And this would be the type of oil my Dad was using (hence the smell, YUK!), thinking and being told by the market place, that it was natural and wholesome oil.

 

“But for people in the villages in Fiji, they only used freshly processed coconut oil and the premium or special oils that their grandmother’s made from freshly squeezed coconuts were put aside and bottled for the special ceremonies in the village. Today this special oil is known as Extra or Virgin Coconut Oil and any comparisons to the processing of olive oil should not be used. The term for Extra Virgin Coconut Oil in the Coconut oil industry today means that this form of coconut oil processing is the most unrefined and most natural form and no artificial filtering or expeller pressing (centrifuge spinning -also known as oil polishing) is used. The oil remains in its most natural form and retains a rich smell and sweet taste of coconut.

Good quality Extra Virgin or Virgin Coconut Oil should taste and smell like coconut. It should be a very fine oil and will quickly melt in the palm of your hand with body heat. If it does not solidify or melt quickly you know it is a much thicker and inferior oil. Extra Virgin Coconut Oil should be in a natural form and gravity or natural filtering of the oil is used. This type of Virgin Coconut Oil will still retain a level of fine coconut particles and usually a very high level of lauric acid. This type or premium VCO should not contain any microbe activity or foreign matter.  If wild forest coconuts are used and are very mature trees they retain a very high lauric acid level and the oil can retain a slight golden colour. 



Today because of the high demand for Virgin Coconut Oil many unscrupulous manufacturers are getting cheap copra oils and running them through centrifuge spinning machines to clean up the oils and also state they are ORGANIC. While the centrifuges remove the smell and all flavour from the oils the Copra COCONUT OIL is a much thicker oil that will NOT quickly absorb into the skin and does contain TRANS FAT. Accept for a higher level of lauric acid it is very similar to all other trans fat food oils on the market due to the processing. If you put this type of oil on your skin it is just that OIL and will clog the pores of your skin.

While some of the Virgin Coconut Oils currently on the market are crystal clear in appearance they usually are made from the soft immature coconut flesh before the nut hardens. This type of coconut processing usually makes it easy to remove the coconut flesh and extract the oil with fermentation or boiling off the liquid. Because the coconut is not as mature it usually has lower lauric acid levels and the smell and flavour of the oil is not as strong. It must be remembered that all coconuts when opened will quickly ferment and unless the moisture   is removed properly during processing the oil will sour.  Good quality Virgin Coconut Oils should have a shelf life of at lease 2 years without any deteriorate of the oil at all. When cooking with Virgin Coconut Oil the oil will fry at very high temperatures. Good quality Virgin Coconut Oil can be mixed in both hot and cold drinks.”

 

So it is safe to say that the Virgin Coconut Oil my cousin was using was the really good quality stuff that you should be using. I hope you get the difference now too.

After my research and my discovery I went out in search of amazingly beautiful coconut oil and boy did I find it. Not only did I find oil, but I found this incredible organic, new age grocer called About Life. This place was heaven! I can’t even describe it. Next time i’m there I’ll just have to take a bazillion photos to relay how fantastic it was. What was even better, was that they had Sarah Wilson’s book up everywhere, so naturally they had everything from her book and recipes there.

BEST DISCOVERY EVER 🙂

Another great week and going into week three. Still strong and loving every minute.

A huge first week

Ok so week 1 was a huge one. The first two days were the hardest for cravings, as soon as I said to myself that I was officially starting my sugar free diet, my body immediately started to crave it (so mean!). I re-read the first weeks guide lines in my copy of Sarah Wilson’s book and just had to make sure I kept telling myself, ‘I’m doing this to see if it makes me feel any better’ – the only way to see change is to do it, so I can’t give up.

Sarah’s tip about substituting a hot chocolate with some warm milk and a little cinnamon was a life saver, that’s all i’m going to say!!!! Amazingly after those two days, the cravings subsided rather rapidly…Thank God!

It was a massive social week for me, so I had friends offering…no, more trying to tempt me with chocolate, ice-cream, desserts, lollies and my favourite, nutella, and no part of me wanted even a little bite. I was so proud of myself. Definitely have strengthened my little “I don’t want sugar” muscle.

Interestingly enough, just like Sarah said there would be, I had trouble with one person, in particular this week, who was giving me a really hard time about giving up sugar. She seemed rather offended that I wanted to do this to be a healthier, happier version of myself and made a mockery of the idea. Strangely enough, this woman is a nurse (but doesn’t eat terribly well herself), in the end I’d had enough and just had to say, “Look you should be promoting what I am doing, I’m doing this to be healthier and trying to give something up, just like you wish you could see all smokers doing.” After that she seemed to leave me alone a bit, but I was still frustrated by her manner. If I had said I was giving up peanuts she wouldn’t have given a toss. Lucky for me it has only made me want to pursue this even more to prove to everyone that:

a) it’s really not that hard

b) my health is benefiting from it

c) I feel amazing for being able to do it

d) I feel and look amazing from the effects of giving sugar up

The next couple of days I was horribly sick – sore throat, sneezing, sore muscles. Basically everything a really bad cold can throw at you. There may have been a little detox soreness chucked in there too but I couldn’t tell really.

This week I completely cut out added sugar, sugary things and natural sugars like fruit and honey. I’ve been focusing on eating good fats and protein to replace what i’m taking out of my diet (sugar) with stuff that is great for me instead.

Check out this amazing chickpea and feta salad I had for lunch this week OMG YUMMMM!!!!!!! The peppermint and liquorice tea was so sweetly satisfying too. Thanks for the tip Sarah 🙂

When I was at the fitness expo last weekend, I was lucky enough to come across an Alkaline Food Supplement packed with vitamins and minerals it’s a natural, organic superfood product which I have been taking all week and can already feel the difference, it is amazing stuff. Feeling the benefits already, from a shorter flu period (only 2 days instead of my usual week laid up in bed), I have more energy and my digestion is working perfectly.

If anyone is interested you can find their products on their website here. They also have a great range of proteins.

Loving all my new little discoveries. Such an adventure packed week, and already getting into week 2.

Keep you posted.

Get Ready For It…

So last week, for me, was all about reading my copy of “I quit sugar”, cleaning out the cupboards, fridge, freezer etc. shopping and getting mentally ready to start my big experiment tomorrow – Monday, 22 April, 2013.

So pumped!

An eye opener

Over the weekend, a good friend accidentally left Sarah Wilson’s “I Quit Sugar” book at my house. At first glance I eye balled the S#@! out of it thinking…what the hell is this crap?? Another stupid diet ‘fad’ that no one can possibly stick to?? Then my friend mentioned something about having to give up fruit (later to find out only for 2 weeks) and I was like WHAAAT!!!!!!!

Still the book played on my mind a fair bit because I have been searching for something to help me change my diet, not so much to lose weight, but to feel better and stronger. I constantly feel lethargic and exhausted and since realising it’s not so much my fitness, I have to put it down to my diet.

Eventually I warmed to the idea of reading this “I quit Sugar” book and BOOM! It was like a slap in the face of everything I didn’t want to hear about my very real sugar addiction  and what it can lead to…not a pretty picture Hurrah! it seemed to give me a reason for my slumps too.

I read further to discover the nasty diseases which are now proven to be accelerated by sugar and one in particular really gripped me – over active Thyroid problems. Now I may only be 22 at the moment, but every woman on one side of my family, has had to have their Thyroid removed after the age of 40…motivation much? I think so.

After finishing the book I discovered it seemed totally achievable and thus I shot down to the nearest book store, grabbed myself a copy and started this blog to help remind me of my journey to KICKING THE WHITE STUFF FOR GOOD!

Wish me luck.

Jess x