Did you guys enjoy apple month?! I sure learned a lot about added sugar and junk food. Like for one, it’s delicious terrible for you. And it has a huge impact on your diet.
GOALS THIS MONTH:
- spend one week eating normally
- spend the next week eating no junk food, alcohol or added sugar
- track both weeks on the My Fitness Pal app to take note of the difference in my nutrition
HOW DID IT GO:
Pretty well, thanks for asking!
When I know I am going to have a week where I can ONLY eat healthy, I tend to binge the week before. I consumed all the sugar and junk food inside my house, then I went to an Orioles game and let myself eat all the food there too. I also had a giant ice cream cone every day. By the end of the week I was actually excited to start my healthy week because I felt terrible - I was bloated, cranky, tired and felt awful working out.
The second week started off great since I just wanted my body to feel better. Then after about 2 days, the sugar cravings started kicking in. Those are hard to resist, but I have gotten to the point where most of the time I eat healthy enough that I don’t have terrible sugar cravings anymore. If I do have them, it’s because I binged on sugar recently and my body needs to readjust to not having that much sugar. It’s good to be able to recognize how easily and quickly having too much sugar can cause your body to feel like it needs it constantly.
I think most of the time when I have unhealthy food, it’s either because it’s free (who turns down free food?), or because I am thinking about junk food so I eat it in hopes that I can stop thinking about it, not because my body is actually craving it. But I was thinking about how much I wanted chocolate, so I found a recipe for no-added-sugar fudge that was mostly coconut oil, cocoa powder, almond butter and dates. It turned out to be really good and I ate a ton of it thinking that it was natural, therefore, healthy! Turns out though, just because it’s natural, doesn’t mean it’s healthy to eat a lot of. Once I plugged it into my food tracker, I realized it had WAY more sugar than most things I eat. Granted, it was more natural, but I think it made me crave more than if I had just had an apple or something with cocoa powder.
What I’ve learned? Just because something is natural, doesn’t mean you should eat unlimited amounts of it. And just because a food label says it’s natural, doesn’t mean there is no added sugar or unnecessary ingredients. Check all of your food labels and educate yourself on what goes into your food. You might be surprised to learn how many things you eat every day that have sugar or ingredients added that you are trying to stay away from. I personally like to stay away from sugar (other than fruit) and processed foods for most of my diet, and then eat a bunch of ice cream or junk food once a week. That way, my body doesn’t always feel terrible and I can feel good about myself staying in a healthy routine while still satisfying my inner fat kid occasionally.
And the most important thing I learned – eating poorly makes you feel like poop. It makes you uncomfortable, tired and not able to exercise to your normal potential. So if you save the junk food for the weekend like me, you don’t have to worry about not exercising well because I don’t exercise on the weekends anyway! Plus on Monday’s I just try really hard to burn it off and pretend it didn’t happen, which has worked well so far.
Here is my nutritional info from my app:
Goals set in my app (based on my age, weight and exercise amount):
Caleries: 1,800 per day
Protein: 93g
Carbs: 233g
Fiber: 25g
Sugar: 23g
Fat: 37g
Week 1:
Average Caleries: 455 over my goal per day
Protein: 12g under
Carbs: 21g over
Fiber: 7g under
Sugar: 23g over
Fat: 37g over
Week 2:
Average Caleries: 54 over my goal per day
Protien: 8g over
Carbs: 44g under
Fiber: 2g under
Sugar: 7g under
Fat: 26g over (while I did eat a lot of fat this week, it was more natural forms of fat that your body needs that come from things like avocados, not french fries.)
VLOG: (Video here)
FAVORITE RECIPE THIS MONTH: Green Apple Tuna Salad
Ingredients:
- ½ avocado
- ½ granny smith apple
- 1 can tuna
- 1 stick of celery
- avocado mayo
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Chop all ingredients and combine. Add avocado mayo to create the creamy consistency that you prefer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Serve on bread, with crackers or on lettuce wraps.
This blog post was prepared and accomplished by the author in her own personal capacity. The opinions expressed are solely of the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of Merritt Clubs.
