My Sugar Free Week and Flour-Free and Sugar-Free Cake Recipe #1wksugarfree

When I woke up this morning, I weighed myself and measured myself so I can let you know the results. I lost another .8 lbs over night, which makes my total loss for the seven days of going sugar-free (and  low carb) is exactly 10 whole pounds! In a week! I am stunned. I know it won't continue going down quite so quickly; there is always a point where it levels out, but I'm still really thrilled with these results.

As for my measurements, I didn't measure until I was already a bit into the sugar-free week, so these measurements are since only the last five days of my sugar free week. I have lost 1 1/2 inches from the smallest part of my waist, and measuring around where my belly button is, where I have the most weight to lose, I have lost 3 inches. Yay!

Something I hadn't even considered would happen when I started this - my finger nails are stronger now. I am taking that as a sign that I am getting better overall nutrition.

I know the week is over and this was meant to only be a one-week challenge, but I know I will be continuing it. I'm sure I won't always be 100% with it, and I will not keep myself from eating whole grain pastas, wholegrain rice and potatoes completely either, but I know I can limit those things to a great deal, and I'm pretty sure that I can avoid sugar most of the time. As the week has gone on, it has gotten easier and my cravings have been reduced enough now that I really want to continue this way of eating.

I would love to hear how you are doing so far with the challenge and any changes you are noticing, any part of it that you have been struggling with, anything at all that you've noticed since starting. Please let me know in the comments below.

And because I know some of you are still finishing your sugar-free weeks with a few days to go still, I will leave you with another sugar-free, flour-free recipe; this one is for cake! It does use sweetener, but the amount used can be lessened and I think it is still a better way to fulfill a sugar-craving than having sugar and flour.

Flour-Free & Sugar-Free Cake


Ingredients:


300g 0%-fat Greek Yogurt
4 eggs
5 tablespoons granulated sweetener
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 x 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
fruit of your choice (I use strawberries on top and raspberries for in the middle)

Directions:

1. Separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff
2. In another bowl, mix the yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, baking powder, 100g of the yogurt and 4 tablespoons of the sweetener
3. Whisk half of the egg whites into the yolks mixture, then carefully fold in the rest
4. Pour mixture into a tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a pre-heated 160C/320F oven for 25 minutes or until golden and cooked
5. Mix the rest of the yogurt, 1 tablespoon sweetener and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   
6. Cut the cake in half. Spread the yogurt mixture over one half of the cooled cake and top with fruit (I use raspberries for this step.)
7. Place the other half of the cake on top of the first half and cover this with yogurt and then tip with sliced strawberries.
   
   Serve and enjoy!

 

If you want to make this into one full round cake, double layered, then double the recipe and use two cake pans. Skip the cutting in half part. My kids, husband and I all really enjoy this cake. I hope you do too.

(And since I loved my belly dancing class so much yesterday, I will write an informational post about belly dancing tomorrow, so please stop by again!)


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Day Six Sugar Free & Flour-Free and Sugar-Free Pancakes Recipe #1wksugarfree

I know it's only evening here and I still have hours left before the day is over for me, but I decided to post early today because things are going really well. I had a moment where I struggled, which I will describe in a moment, but other than that, remaining sugar free is getting easier.

My momentary struggle happened when my husband and I went grocery shopping. We needed food, so I hadn't eaten much by then and I was hungry.  You should never go shopping while hungry. We passed by a large pack of marshmallows which were on sale for £1. For a brief moment, I really struggled not to buy them. I could even picture myself opening the pack and eating some on the way home. I remembered how they would taste. Until that moment, I didn't even know that marshmallows could be a problem for me. I like marshmallows, but my cravings usually fall more towards chocolate and caramel. Did you know that marshmallows have a smell? They do, and in that moment, I remembered it.

We continued on and there were a couple of things that called to me, though none as strongly as the marshmallows had. Pink & Whites (a wafer-like thing with marshmallow between the two sides) were on sale for 50 pence a pack, and my husband even drew my attention to them, but I shook my head "no" and quickly moved on. Alpen Light cereal bars were on sale too, and we usually buy those when they are on sale. My husband asked the question, but I wasn't even tempted for me. In fact, I told him he could buy them for him, as I knew I would be able to control myself around them.

 I ate lots of grilled chicken and salad ingredients today. I had a bit of cheese and some yogurt. I also had some watermelon and plums. Later, I have some strawberries that I can enjoy if I get hungry after my workout on the elliptical crosstrainer. We have bought some eggs, so I will probably make myself an omelet for breakfast, complete with peppers, onion, a sprinkling of cheese and some lean bacon.

As of this morning, my weight is down 8.6lbs. I have to admit that I am thrilled, especially when my weight loss had been stuck for several months.

How are you doing with the challenge so far? Let me know in the comments below.

Here is a recipe for pancakes that doesn't use any flour or sugar. It does use sweetener, but you can reduce the amount at your discretion. I sometimes like adding cinnamon to my pancakes. I recommend topping the pancakes with fruit and/or yogurt.

Flour-Free and Sugar-Free Pancakes

Makes 2 pancakes.

Ingredients

4 tbsp sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Directions

1. Separate the egg yolk and the egg white into separate bowls.

2. Add 2 tbsp of sweetener to the egg white. Using an electric mixer, whip up the egg white until it makes stiff peaks.

3. Add the vanilla extract and the rest of the sweetener to the egg yolk and mix well.

4. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture.

5. Spray a pan with Fry Light and pour half of the mixture into the pan. After a minute, flip the "pancake" over.

6. Take it out a minute later and repeat the cooking process with the rest of the mixture.

Add your favorite topping and enjoy!


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Eating Sugar Makes Me Feel Sick

I've spent two days indulging in "treats" from the US. It adds up to a lot more sugar than my body is used to. I have not weighed myself, but I'm sure Monday's weigh-in will be a bad one.

What has eating all of that sugar done? The effects of all that sugar on my body are not good. I feel bloated, crampy, a bit sick to my stomach, really tired and sluggish, and the irony is that all that sugar just makes me crave more of the same!

I haven't felt this awful in a really long time!

The worst part is that I am also forcing myself not to exercise. I am CRAVING exercise.

Why am I living in an unhealthy manner, you ask? Basically, I put my body into starvation mode by being overly strict with my eating in the past seven weeks and over-exercising. (I spent all of last week consuming less than 1,000 calories daily and exercising 3 to 4 hours a day.) This is also unhealthy, and my goal is to be healthy, not just to lose more weight.

So this week, I am eating a lot of food (although the rest of the week, the food I will be eating will be healthy food, even if I eat a lot of it), and I am laying off of the exercise (except for an hour or so of walking).

Next week, I will be eating healthy, but not limiting the amount of food I eat. (With Slimming World, you can eat as much as you want of the good stuff.) And I will add in a bit of exercise, but not the crazy amount of exercise I have been doing.

I expect a gain on the scales this week. I'm terrified it is going to be some huge amount, but whatever it is, I'll deal with it. And hopefully, the following week or the week after, I will be able to see my weight start moving down again without my having to over-do anything.

I'm having to retrain my thinking. Putting my body into starvation mode where it fights to hang on to every ounce of food I consume, and then increasing my efforts continuously, is not a healthy way for me to lose weight. It's counterintuitive to eat more and exercise less in order to lose weight, but, in my situation, it really is the right thing to do.

Eating the junk food these past couple of days was just an experiment of mine though, and I can honestly say that it is not something I want to repeat. Bleh!