July 31, 2015: Day 212

I decided to make things interesting today and go on a 24-hour sugar detox. I’ve been reading a lot lately about sugar consumption (particularly over-consumption of sugar in the U.S.), and have since been trying to cut back on the amount of added sugar that I eat. This is pretty difficult since sugar, whether we realize it or not, is in almost everything- but not always under the name “sugar”.

I’ve read about people doing week long or even 30 day sugar detoxes. That seemed a little unattainable to me- so I decided to just try it out for day. No added sugar. This includes other varieties of sugar including honey, molasses, and corn syrup just to name a few. It also included artificial sweeteners and ingredients that are actually a form of sugar but called something we don’t typically recognize. http://skinnyms.com/50-names-for-sugar/

Most foods, including fruit, veggies, dairy and grains contain some amount of naturally occurring sugar. So these were allowed.

Overall, the day wasn’t too bad. The worst part was probably my coffee. I always add a little sugar and cream to my daily cup of java and have not yet mastered the fine art of drinking it black. But I managed to guzzle it down whilst making many unattractive faces.

Breakfast was a little tricky. Cereal was out, as was the vanilla yogurt, granola, and flavored oatmeal. Luckily, one of my favorite breakfast go-to’s contained no added sugar.

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1 banana. 1 cup of milk. 1 tbsp rolled oats. 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa. 4 ice cubes. Blended.

Lunch was pretty easy. Instead of my typical slice of toast (our bread had at least 3 types of sugar in it) with a couple of cooked eggs- I opted for a potato and onion hash. No ketchup though. Sad day.

Snacks were definitely a challenge. I didn’t want to go through another coffee ordeal. Yogurt and granola bars were out. I ended up eating some plain oatmeal- which was not great, but it did the trick.

I decided to do veggie and quinoa stir-fry for dinner. The challenge here was to come up with a “sauce” that didn’t have sugar in it, like the ones I usually use. I found that using a bunch of spices worked just as well. It even had enough kick that I didn’t have to use sriracha. Which is truly an accomplishment.

It was really interesting to see what foods had hidden sugars in them. And the amount of refined and added sugar in some foods is just astounding.

All in all, not too bad. I would definitely try this again- but maybe not too soon. I’m not in a hurry to drink my coffee black again 😉

July 13, 2015: Day 194

Real food is good food. 

Inspired by my latest summer reads by Michael Pollan, I made some simple recipes from scratch. 

First up was this cinnamon vanilla granola. The recipe I used called for only six ingredients (all of which were natural) and was low in sugar (which I’m trying to cut back on).

  
For dinner, I whipped up some “stir-fried” quinoa with veggies and scrambled egg. This was super simple, only used six ingredients (plus the vegetables), and really healthy. Not to mention delicious. 

  
#YUM 

July 10, 2015: Day 191

Did you guys know that I love food? I love food.

I bet that was kind of hard to guess considering the amount of food pics I post on here. 

Even though I don’t always eat the healthiest things (see picture if delicious and fattening FroYo below), I really enjoy all things health/fitness related. 

  

Today I watched an excellent documentary on the food industry’s role in childhood obesity. It’s called Fed Up and I highly recommend it. This inspired me to pick up a couple of Michael Pollan books at the library. I read part of his well-known Omnivore’s Dilemna for a class in college and really enjoyed it. We’ll see how they are. 

  
I was also tempted to check out Julia Child’s Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, but ain’t nobody got time fo dat. Or enough butter.

July 9, 2015: Day 190

So I’m more than halfway through the year. I thought it might be good to reflect on this project so far.

This project has definitely been more of a challenge than I expected. Mostly because I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it the best I can. Taking a picture everyday and posting it isn’t hard. But posting pictures that are unique, that mean something, that look decent- that’s the hard part. Although those aspects weren’t necessarily required, that has been the expectation I have tried to live up to as an aspiring photographer. I wanted to challenge myself in more ways than just posting any old picture.

Lately, I have been lacking inspiration. Occasionally, I find something great to take a picture of- and I get really excited about it. But over the past couple months, it’s been the case where I forget to even take a picture until a few hours before midnight and it ends up being something unimaginative or something I feel I’ve taken a picture of many times before.

The other thing that I feel like I could be doing better is taking more photos with my DSLR and not my smartphone. I love taking pictures on m smartphone. It’s quick and convenient. I don’t have to worry about not having it on my person, and it only takes a minute to edit it and post it. But that doesn’t mean it’s always my best work. I know I could be taking and posting photos of a much higher quality. But I get lazy. I don’t want to drop the pictures I take onto my computer and take the time to edit them well. It really wouldn’t even take that much longer, but again- I get lazy.

This project can be constricting sometimes as well. For instance, I took a bunch of pictures last week in Cincinnati- but on the day that I took them, we got back home so late that I wouldn’t have even been able to edit one picture. Which is frustrating, because there are so many more pictures I would like to share with you all.

So for the second half of this year, I am going to attempt to try a little harder. To make my picture-taking a little more intentional. To take the time to edit and post pictures that I am proud of. To be more consistent.

I appreciate the patience, support, and encouragement I have already received from you, followers. I hope that will continue for the rest of the year.

Peace.