Food & Fitness

Day Five of the Sugar Challenge and the Quinoa Recipe!

You can view the recipe for my Quinoa with Chickpeas and Shrimp by checking out my Living Well article at The Uniter!

How are we all doing? There has been far too much talk of cupcakes in my life- between cupcake recipes on Twitter and people mentioning how they will make cupcakes as snacks while we work on a group project later today (I think I’ll be making more crackers so that I can have a healthy snack to munch on while everyone else enjoys the cupcakes… might have to put one aside for me for Sunday though!). But the cravings haven’t been too bad at all. I keep really wanting savory foods instead.

Yesterday I found myself eating more than was strictly necessary, and I’m not sure if it was because I’m more aware of being restricted in what I can eat. I was snacking lots on almonds and raisins! Food like that is being an enormous help right now because of the sweetness and the fats, I think. I am not used to eating very many higher fat foods (the cheese is also full-fat, whereas usually I choose reduced fat cheeses) so it’s “sticking to my ribs” very well and satiating my taste buds.

Yesterday I ate:

– 1 glass skim milk

– 1 apple, 1/2 with almond butter and 1/2 with peanut butter (couldn’t decide which kind of nut butter I wanted, so I figured I’d go with both!)

– 2 bowls of oatmeal mixed with water, banana, cinnamon, peanut butter, and a splash of skim milk

– 1 homemade wrap grilled on the George Foreman with homemade hummus, spinach, tomato, black pepper, and roast chicken

Homemade crackers with cheddar cheese

Quinoa dish

– Lots of almonds and raisins

Frittata

– 2 apples

16 Comments

  1. NeverSayDiet

    I had the biggest omelette of my entire life yesterday -seriously, it was spilling over the sides of the plate. Egg white, lots of veggies, no cheese. But I did use ketchup which is basically like liquid sugar with a red dye. I just grossed myself out. I also had some reduced fat peanut butter (I was at my parents house and that’s all they had) and my lord, that stuff is sweet! I think they add sugar to make up for the fat. I like the real stuff better.

  2. Jolene

    Sagan – Thanks for all the updates. I like your daily food lists! You have lots of great variety and your frequent eating is so important as well (not just to reduce sugar cravings). Great job!

  3. Sagan Morrow

    VeggieGirl & Sharon- so much tasty goodness of food.

    Leslie- homemade ketchup is good stuff! You should try it 🙂 And I like regular peanut butter too, although I do LOVELOVELOVE PB2 with its reduced fat high sugarness hehe.

    Jolene- I’m glad! Trying to get in as much variety as possible, but sometimes its tricky when there’s some stuff that I just want constantly haha.

    Chocolate Covered Katie & Rupal- quinoa is soooo good.

    Cathy- it really has been! There’s still lots of options for tasty stuff.

    FatFighterTV- Thanks! I’m having tons of fun with this.

  4. Lance

    Hi Sagan,

    This has been very good for me – to be doing this myself! I’ve found several times where I’ve been tempted to grab something that wouldn’t “pass the test” – and I’ve walked away. So – thank you!!! This is making for a very good week for me! I understand about eating more – I found myself doing that on Wednesday – in an effort to avoid some freshly baked brownies…

    Anyway, you’re doing awesome!

  5. the Bag Lady

    Sounds like you are eating very well, Sagan!

    Good for you.

    And you know, of course, how simple it is to make your own peanut butter? That way, you can control how much sugar is added…..

    Just buy some unsalted peanuts and whir them in your blender/food processor with a tiny bit of oil (I use peanut oil) and honey – you can adjust the amount to suit your tastes. Yum…… (but you must keep home-made peanut butter in the fridge as it goes rancid faster than store-bought…. probably because it doesn’t have all those preservatives in it!!)

  6. Sagan Morrow

    Dr. J- hurray you can post comments now!

    Spring Girl & Kristisummer- quinoa is delicious. If you follow the link there’s an article explaining what quinoa is, but basically it’s a “grain” that can be used interchangeably for anything from oatmeal to rice. It’s super adaptable and very healthy!

    Lance- oohhh yes, I do that; eat more to avoid other things! Mmmm brownies.

    Bag Lady- I’ve thought about making my own peanut butter, but I like SUPER smooth and creamy peanut butter… and I’m not sure if my blender could quite manage that! The PB that I eat just has peanuts in the ingredients list (it’s my love of “PB2” that’s the problem because it’s got the added sugar and salt… hmm, I wonder if I can make my own powdered reduced-fat peanut butter? Hehe)

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