Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

raw

Day 30: Counting Down the Minutes

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Welcome to day thirty of the Sugar Free Challenge! Tomorrow is the last day for the challenge. Are you counting down the minutes or has it been easy for you?

Here is today’s sample menu:

Breakfast: Mini Smacks!

Lunch: Socca with a spinach salad topped with fresh bruschetta. Served with a hard-boiled egg.

Snack: Apple with Homemade Pistachio Butter.

Dinner: “Mac-n-Cheez”. Mix of brown rice, quinoa, green peas, and shredded chicken breast. Mix a couple Tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast in with a splash of water. Sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper!

Dessert: PBC Bars

Exercise Option: For those of you who chose to take part of the exercise challenge, your challenge today is to do 50 crunches, 10 squat jumps, 15 pushups, 20 1-legged calf raises (10 each leg).

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Are you counting down the minutes, or has the challenge been relatively easy for you?

Remember that you can track what you eat on the printable Challenge Checklist. 

 

Day 26: Iced Coffee

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Welcome to day twenty-six of the Sugar Free Challenge!

Here is today’s sample menu:

Breakfast: One Size Fits all Pancakes with fresh sliced strawberries and Peanut Butter Cream.

I also had some Iced Coffee. I had some fun taking these pictures and watching the almond milk mix with the chilled hazelnut coffee:

The almond milk slowly seeps down through the coffee…Kind of looks like a root beer float!

Mix! Mix! Mix! Look at that nice foamy layer on top!

Lunch: Baked Sweet Potato with almond butter and cinnamon.

Dinner: Steak, Corn on the Cob, Mashed Taters, and Fresh Watermelon!

Dessert: Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Exercise Option: For those of you who chose to take part of the exercise challenge, your challenge today is to do 50 crunches, 10 squat jumps, 15 pushups, 20 1-legged calf raises (10 each leg).

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Do you like your coffee or tea hot or cold?

Remember that you can track what you eat on the printable Challenge Checklist. 

Day 25: Other Blogger Recipe Ideas

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Welcome to day twenty-five of the Sugar Free Challenge!

Today’s sample menu is a compilation of other bloggers’ sugar-free recipes. I adore these recipes, and I hope you do, too!

Breakfast: Pure2Raw’s Pumpkin Pancakes with Coconut Chia Sauce

Lunch: Dana @ My Little Celebration’s Sweet Potato Veggie Chowder

Dinner: Katie Did’s Creamy Bacon Rosemary Polenta

Dessert: Leanne @ Healthful Pursuit’s Grain-Free Carrot Cupcakes with “Cream Cheese” Frosting

Thanks to you all (and more!) for inspiring me with your recipes.

Exercise Option: For those of you who chose to take part of the exercise challenge, your challenge today is to do 50 crunches, 10 squat jumps, 15 pushups, 20 1-legged calf raises (10 each leg).

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Have a favorite sugar-free recipe? Please share and provide a link or description below!

Remember that you can track what you eat on the printable Challenge Checklist. 

Day 23: Still Truckin’

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Welcome to day twenty-three of the Sugar Free Challenge!

Sorry my posts haven’t been very special these past couple days. The wisdom teeth extraction is still lingering, and it has taken most of the energy out of me. So here is another….boring post.

Here is today’s sample menu:

Breakfast:Chocolate Mint Smoothie-pudding style.

Lunch: Lightly sauteed spinach, green peppers, black olives, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, onions, and black beans served on a grilled brown rice tortilla. Side of sliced cucumbers.

Snack: Chocolate Almond Cookie Dough Bites.

Dinner: Hobos. Take a piece of ground beef and roll into a patty. Top with peppers, potatoes, onions, and carrots and wrap in foil. Bake at 375* for one hour. Tastes fabulous drizzled with dijon mustard or Homemade BBQ Sauce. Vegan option: Two Cans and a Potato

Exercise Option: For those of you who chose to take part of the exercise challenge, your challenge today is to do 50 crunches, 10 squat jumps, 15 pushups, 20 1-legged calf raises (10 each leg).

THOUGHT-PROVOKING, MIND-PRODDING QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Livin’ me up! Do you have anything interesting or exciting to share?

Remember that you can track what you eat on the printable Challenge Checklist. 

Day 2: Sugar is Addicting

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Welcome to day two of the Sugar Free Challenge!

Today’s Reason to be Sugar-Free: 

Some evidence from animal studies suggests that sugar can be addictive. A Princeton University research team has shown that lab rats accustomed to sugar display the cravings and the relapses that signal addiction, as well as brain changes similar to those associated with addiction to narcotics and nicotine. For example, the investigators found that the brain chemical dopamine is released when hungry rats drink sugared water and that a surge of dopamine occurs in the brains of hungry rats that binge on sugar. Over time, these increased dopamine levels resulted in fewer of a certain type of dopamine receptor and more opioid receptors in the animals’ brains. The same studies showed that rats deprived of sugar exhibited anxiety characteristic of withdrawal.  ~Dr. Andrew Weil

Here is today’s sample menu:

Breakfast: Bitter Chocolate Waffles with Sliced bananas and peanut butter whip.

Lunch: Socca with a spinach salad topped with fresh bruschetta. Served with a hard-boiled egg.

Snack: Apple Crisps with Peanut Butter Hummus Dip

Dinner: Brown Rice Stir Fry with carrots, onions, leftover chicken, bell pepper, ginger, soy sauce, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

 

Dessert: Fresh Fig and Plum Crisp

Exercise Option: For those of you who chose to take part of the exercise challenge, your challenge today is to do 10 crunches, 5 squats, 5 pushups, 10 calf raises. 

THOUGHT-PROVOKING, MIND-PRODDING QUESTION OF THE DAY: 

How was your second day of sugar-free? Did you create menus for yourself or just go with the flow?

Remember that you can track what you eat on the printable Challenge Checklist. 

Day 10: Last Day of Challenge!

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Welcome to day ten of the Sugar Free Challenge! Today is officially the last day of the challenge. I have had so much fun creating sample menus and helping you all with the challenge. A big thank you to everyone who joined! I hope you all had a great time learning about (and eating!) sugar-free food. Maybe you found that it wasn’t as hard as you thought? Or perhaps you found you ate too much sugar before?

Now for the winners of the giveaway. All those who joined the challenge were entered for the giveaway.

Winner of Artisana: Absie

Winner of Crunchmaster: Francesca Holland

Congratulations ladies! I will be emailing you shortly.

Now onto today’s sample menu:

Breakfast: Veggie Omelet

Lunch: Steak Salad. Sliced steak, spinach, cucumbers, red peppers, onions, olives, fresh strawberries all drizzled in balsamic vinegar and ground black pepper.

 

Dinner: Pesto Socca Pizza with Grilled Veggies and Chicken Sausages

 

 

Dessert: Crock Pot Cinnamon applesauce 

Again, thank you all so much! I have had a wonderful time with this challenge. I hope you continue to eat at least low-sugar (if not sugar-free!). A word of warning: be careful going back to sugar this week and weekend. Don’t go over board because your body is not used to eating sugar these past ten days.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

How was the sugar-free challenge???!!! Please tell me all your experiences and how your body feels! I would love to know!