| I had my third visit to the gym today, so I feel like I’m on track to hit my goal before the end of the month. I have five more visits to tackle before the 31st. The interesting thing about incorporating a light workout into the experiment is that it feels like the results I’m seeing are accelerating. It’s like how compound interest can positively affect your retirement plan, a little exercise is compounding things away. Don’t feel like you need a gym membership either if that might hold you back. I’m doing the equivalent of a brisk walk and some light weight work, something you could easily do at and around your house. I wanted to talk in this blog about grocery shopping, because I feel like most healthy battles are won or lost at the grocery store, especially in moments of temptation. I write these following paragraphs knowing full well that what we do may not work for you, but at least it exposes you to a different technique. I also know that my wife takes a different approach to grocery shopping than I do, so some of you might think I’m crazy. My goal isn’t to make this a “man brain” versus “woman brain” thing, but let’s just be honest and admit that men and women approach shopping from two different directions. When I took over grocery shopping for the family, my goal was to make the process as organized and simple as possible. Below are the steps I took to get things going.
As time moved on, the family slowly readjusted their staple items or I slowly phased out some of them. In the beginning we were buying Cheez it crackers and Goldfish crackers for my youngest, but he eventually settled on one and I stopped buying the other. He was still happy and I was saving money. It didn’t take me too long to realize that we didn’t have the money for all the junk food that I used to request when my wife did the grocery shopping, so much of that was phased out. We have a strict budget of around 100.00 a week, so that didn’t leave much for Oreos and ice cream. After a year of sticking to this process, it was fairly easy to ask the kids to temporarily identify staple items that didn’t contain sugar or flour. Since they were used to a smaller variety of items, switching things out gave them something new to eat. What I ate today
Onward to day twenty-one! |  Cauliflower Stromboli’s Cauliflower Crust Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease it with olive oil spray. Set aside. In food processor, make the cauliflower florets into rice (it should be evenly chopped but not completely pulverized. Can also be done by grating cauliflower.) Transfer cauliflower rice (3 cups) to a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high for 8 minutes, until cooked. Place the cauliflower rice in a tea towel and twist it to squeeze as much moisture as you can. This is very important. The cauliflower needs to be dry, otherwise you’ll end up with mush dough and impossible to roll into a Stromboli. Transfer the cauliflower rice to a mixing bowl, add egg, mozzarella, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix well. Spread Cauliflower mixture onto the lined baking sheet and form into a large rectangle. Place in the oven and bake for exactly 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread tomato sauce over most of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border on one side. Spread half of the mozzarella, then meat, then the remaining cheese. With a large spatula lift the longer sides of the crust and roll into Stromboli shape. Flip the seam down and tuck/fold the shorter side to close the Stromboli. Cut slats in the top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and oregano. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes. Wait a few minutes before you slice and serve. Makes 4 servings: Per serving: ½ lean, 1 ½ vegetable, 2 ½ condiments |
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Not much to blog about today. I do find it funny though, that now when the grocery ads come, I find myself looking more at the fruits and vegetables on sale than other items. I’ve come to realize that eating healthier foods does mean you have to trim back in some other areas due to the cost involved. Not that it’s breaking the bank, but it does contribute to my getting excited when certain fruits we buy consistently are on sale.
This experiment has caused me to share some of the grocery shopping responsibilities now though. I realized I’m only good to buy the basics for the home and then some of the easier fruits, like apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and sweet potatoes. Much of the abnormal fruits and vegetables I leave to my wife who has a better eye for them than I do. I just spend too much time handling avocados with no luck in figuring out which one is best and often get strange looks when I ask people’s opinions on their fruit selections. I’ve also realized that I get too overwhelmed looking at yogurt options. Yogurt is not a food I enjoy and my least favorite thing is trying to figure out which ones to buy if my family asks me to get some. Do they really need that many yogurt options in the world? This has led me to just leave some money aside for Stephanie to find the best deals on fruit and go crazy. What I ate today
The goal tomorrow is to hit the gym in the morning, but it will be a busy day so let’s see if I make it happen. Onward to day eighteen! Saturdays have proven difficult for me. Not in the pizza wanting kind of way, just in a hectic, disorganized fashion. Seems I get up too late and I’m pretty much running around shortly after. Meals get skipped and water doesn’t get drunk to the level it needs to be. But I still survived and stuck to it , even with the driving from place to place. Some days I realize you have to plan a little more to prepare for the unexpected. What I ate today
Dessert was some strawberry mango smoothie based on your feedback dear reader. I’m still not much of a smoothie person, but can see how people enjoy it. I recorded a video of it for you and will try to add to the page. Here’s the link if you don’t see it on the side. https://youtu.be/WJ7gIbGzJyo Onward to day twenty! Yes folks, the sixteenth has finished and I’m on the backside of the month. It’s all downhill from here and I’d like to imagine things get easier, or at least stay the same as they are now. I did make the goal of going to the gym a total of at least eight times before the end of the month, so we’ll see how that goes. I can promise you that my time in the gym won’t be excessive and I won’t be wearing a muscle t-shirt, throwing the weights around. It will likely be rather boring routines that are more sustainable in the future. Today I just hit the elliptical for around thirty minutes and then worked my arms for a bit.
I had a chance to get my measurements taken again after two weeks doing the experiment, just to see what progress was made. While minor gains were made in most areas, the biggest surprise was the loss of 2-3 inches from my hips. I guess it’s true that you tend to lose weight in the last places you need to because my hips and butt are the last places I was hoping to drop inches. Hopefully the rest of me catches up with them soon. If you’ve been reading this and wondering if you could ever do something like my experiment, I recommend you give it a try. If a month is too intimidating, then go for two weeks because you feel so different after just two weeks and it might make you keep going for the month. While it’s not the easiest thing to do, especially if you aren’t a preplanner, it is still something that can be done if you put your mind to it. Once I hit day twelve, it was like a cloud lifted from my brain and I could actually feel my body being healthier. This feeling in itself is almost as addictive as the cookies and candy I used to enjoy. What I ate today
I think I’ve eaten more cauliflower this month than I have in the past few years, but it’s all been great. We had the cauliflower tater tots, then mashed potato style, and I’m sure Stephanie has worked it in a few other places too. I think she just bought three more cauliflower heads today, so we’ll see what she comes up with next. Well, onward to day seventeen. Hello all,
The question was raised about what I’ve been drinking during this time and it made me realize that I’ve only drank water for the past two weeks. I purposefully avoided milk because I knew that I would be eating a tad bit more cheese during the day and I didn’t want to overcompensate my sugar loss with tons of dairy. I read that article saying cheese is more addictive than some drugs out there and I completely agree. I absolutely could not live without cheese in my diet. Of course, three weeks ago I thought I couldn’t live without sugar and flour in my diet and I’m doing better than I expected. Before this experiment started, I was a big fan of Crystal Light drinks and that’s what we had with almost every dinner. I favored the Peach Tea myself, but was open to anything so the kids had variety. If we had pizza, then typically I was drawn toward Root Beer because it just made the pizza taste better. I feel fortunate that we have never been huge soda drinkers in my house, so I didn’t have to kick that addiction also. Trying to go without soda when you’re used to having 1 or 2 a day is tough and I feel for you guys that try to kick it. Of course, when I was younger, I drank a lot of soda like most people, but for some reason moved away from it. I guess I can thank Iced Tea in the summer for helping with that. So in the end, I’ve just been drinking water and quite a bit of it. It may sound super boring to you, but it isn’t too bad after the sugar has been kicked out of your system. I’m not saying that water tastes as good as punch to me now, but it doesn’t taste like the bland nothingness it used to either. I guess my point with this is that there are likely things you think you could never live without right now, but if you just give yourself some freedom from them for a while, it becomes easier to change. I have really surprised myself over these past couple of weeks and while I haven’t become the perfect picture of health, I know my body feels different. I don’t look in the mirror and have a biggest loser shock moment each day, but I have noticed my clothes fitting better and my shape becoming less “Santa Claus” and more “Santa Claus in his 30’s” (likely when he wasn’t drinking Coca Cola all the time). These results are even better to me because I haven’t really done much exercise and my focus has been eating full meals and never being hungry. At no point have I measured my food or counted a calorie during this time. If I get hungry, I make sure to eat, especially so my family can tolerate me. We do go to the store more to stock up on perishables like Bananas, but our shopping budget hasn’t increased. Right now there’s a lot more in the “wins” column of this experiment than there are in the “negative” column. I especially like that I’m not paying money for any special food or programs, but remember I have my wonderful wife supporting me, so that’s equal to a high-end program in itself. What I ate today:
My goal will be to eat some Strawberries this week, so stay tuned for that. Onward to day sixteen and the official passing of the halfway mark of the month Happy Pie day everyone, I hope you enjoyed a fresh pie of your choosing to celebrate the day. I, of course, did not partake in pie or any other delicious thing that involves flour and sugar.
I’m past the two week mark of my experiment and I still feel great. I find it hard to believe that the hardest part of this experience has been trying to drink 100 ounces of water every day. Giving up sugar and flour seems to be no problem compared to sucking down all that water every day. Today my family informed me that my snoring has softened since beginning the experiment. I no longer sound like a freight train barreling down the tracks, instead I’m more like an average locomotive. I’m counting this as a win in the health department. Along with the health check in, I feel thinner, though I can’t give you exact numbers since I didn’t weigh in before starting this. I will likely take my measurements again in the next couple of days and let you know if there are positive results. To celebrate my completion of the first half of my experiment, I’m devising a 2.0 version for the last half of the month. My goal will be to hit the gym fairly regularly in the coming weeks to combine the power of exercise with the eating program. I’d like to say I purposefully avoided exercise during the first two weeks so I could evaluate the eating change by itself, but in all honesty I just didn’t feel like going to the gym. Sorry if you thought I was going super healthy from the start, but I like to pace myself. I will likely do a quick weigh in and remeasure to get some numbers before hitting the gym so I can give you some results when the month is done. You’re still out of luck if you are hoping for the topless picture, I just don’t think our relationship is to that point yet. In future blogs I will include an exercise section. What I ate today
Here’s a recipe for you. Cottage Cheese PancakesVery simple and delicious. Serve with sugar-free syrup. (larger batch) 2 eggs (6 eggs) 1/2 cup cottage cheese (1 ½ cups) 1 Tbsp oil (3 Tbsp) 3/8 cup rolled oats (regular uncooked oatmeal) (1 ¼ cups) 1/8 tsp salt (1/2 tsp) 1/2 tsp vanilla (1 ½ tsp) 1 tsp Sweet & Low Brown Sugar Substitute (3 Tbsp) Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until well mixed, less than 10 seconds. Grease and preheat a griddle. Drop batter by 1/8 cupfuls onto hot surface. Turn pancakes when bubbles appear on surface and cook an additional minute, until lightly golden. Yield: 8 small pancakes. Well onward to day 15! When I decided on March for my no sugar / no flour experiment, I really just worried about one day in the month being an issue. While you might be thinking Easter, with its delicious chocolate bunnies and piles of jelly beans, you would be incorrect. The day was March 12th, the day we are celebrating my youngest son’s 8th birthday.
I remember sitting at the dinner table in the middle of February and informing the family of my plan, which didn’t really faze them. The only question came from my youngest, who asked if he could still have pizza on his birthday, along with cake and ice cream. I quickly answered that he would definitely still get those things on his special day, so he shouldn’t worry. The worrying it would seem would be mostly on my part as the experiment started. During the first few days in March, my mind was always focused on the 12th and how I would handle it. That first week in March my body and mind craved pizza terribly, and knowing that I would have it in my house on the 12th was overwhelming me. I will admit as I type this, that it sounds incredibly silly, but I obsessed about the food we would buy on my son’s special day. Each day I would argue with myself about whether I would be strong and not have a slice, or if I would call it a special cheat occaision and partake in some deliciousness. I began to justify a quick cheat in my mind, saying that nobody would think any less of me for having some cake and ice cream on my son’s birthday. Besides, I figured no one would be paying attention to my blogs anyway, so why not. My mind was pretty much made up by the 5th of March, I would have a couple of pizza slices, some cake, and some ice cream with my son and didn’t care what people thought. Then I hit the 7th of March. No, I didn’t have any emotional epiphanies or psychic breakthroughs to change my mind; I just found myself thinking about and wanting pizza less than the day before. As the days moved by, my resolve got a little stronger and my cravings got a little weaker until I had second thoughts about “cheating” during my experiment. By the 9th, my brain had switched from justifying the cheat, to how I can make it easier to survive the birthday and still have my son love me when it was finished. I thought about my likes and dislikes to create a plan for a party with 4 eight year old boys.
I know my plan isn’t foolproof, but as of this moment I feel like there will be no need to cheat on my experiment. It may take a little time, but the message here is that there is always a way to minimize the threat to your goals, you just need to figure it out. Make sure you read tomorrow’s blog to find out what happens. What I ate today:
Onward to the most challenging day of the month. Happy Sunday everyone! Sadly I don’t have much to report about today. Nothing super exciting happened to tempt me, tease me, or torment me.
My mother asked me today what my plans were after this month was over and I didn’t have an exact answer for her. I can honestly say that I’m not sure where my mind will be at on April 1st, so I’ll have to wait a little longer to figure that out. After thirteen days of going without sugar, flour, and caffeine, it feels like a fog has been lifted from my brain and I realize that there is a life without those things. Now, I think we all know that our society is built on a foundation of sugar, so it would be nearly impossible to say I want to continue this indefinitely, but the benefits of the experiment are compounding each day. The biggest challenge to overcome will truly be that of convenience. It’s simply just easier to grab something to go or out on the road that contains all the things I’ve given up. Like I’ve said previously, I have worked hard to plan things out and isolate myself from the sugary world of temptation. I am already thinking about April 1st, 2nd, and 3rd when I’ll be at a convention here in town and away from my refrigerator for a prolonged period of time. If I want to continue this effort, I know some additional planning will have to be involved. It’s funny because when I started the month, all I could think about was how I would go out for a nice deep dish pizza once the experiment ended. As the days passed, I realized that this “reward” mentality is part of the trap I was caught in over the years. Now I’m not so sure I need a food based reward for finishing an objective, reaching a holiday, or having a birthday. As Stephanie and I talk about Easter and the activities surrounding it, I feel a mental clarity that I never had before. Does the holiday have to be tied to candy like it has been in the years past? Does our youngest need to attend a “candy hunt” where they don’t even use the plastic eggs anymore, and just throw fun sized candy bars around a park and let the kids go crazy? Yes, he’ll still attend, but I can now see how silly it all is. I’ve started seeing how many holidays have been hijacked by the candy companies. No, I haven’t had some magical transformation into a sugar and holiday hating guy who is punishing his children because of how society acts. I’m still myself, but without the stranglehold of sugar on my senses. It’s helped me ask the questions, even though I may never get to the answers. To some degree, I feel like Homer Simpson in the episode where they remove a crayon lodged in his brain that kept him stupid all these years. He suddenly becomes smarter about things and more aware of the world around him, only to decide it was easier just to be oblivious to the world so he puts the crayon back in. My fear is that I too will quickly go back to the sugary braincloud in April, losing everything I have gained. Either way, I’ll be taking you along with me, so stay tuned. What I ate today
Day ten is finishing up now and I can comfortably say that I’m in the double digits for my experiment. It’s been a pretty great day too because I realized that I had not aches or pains through the day as I did a variety of tasks. It’s great when you can actually begin to feel the difference after changing your lifestyle in some way.
I mentioned previously that my Stephanie, my wife was also going without sugar or flour for the duration of the month to keep me company. Now, I didn’t ask her to do the experiment with me because I didn’t want her to suffer like I had planned to, but she decided to take on the challenge also and I will admit that she is much more impressive than I am. You see, when I started planning out my experiment of no sugar and no flour, I put steps in place that help me stay on track. I can honestly tell you that I live in a guarded compound against the armies of sugar and flour. If you opened our cupboards right now, you won’t see any chips, cookies, or other tempting things hanging around. Sure we have food, but I made sure a majority of the food is the right food more my experiment. I also don’t go out much into the real world where it’s dangerously filled with sweet treats bent on tempting me. Basically, I have strict control over what comes into my world. Stephanie though, spends her days in the battlefield, facing the sugary sweet enemy multiple times and overcoming amazing obstacles that would likely cripple me. From a workplace with donuts or cookies in the breakroom just waiting for a moment of weakness, to catered work lunches that don’t provide many choices for someone undertaking this experiment. Add to that the multitude of tempting places to stop by as she drives around for her job and it’s a recipe for disaster. Even with all that thrown at her, she’s kept solid footing. I may get a bit of fame because I like to write and include the world in my crazy ideas like this one, but I’m not sure what the results would be if I was out there every day like she is. It’s like I’m the General who isn’t seeing combat, but comes up with a great plan and she’s the infantry fighting on the front lines. I actually believe she could write a more motivational blog than I could at this point and you would likely be calling her up in a year and thanking her for changing your life for the better. So if you’d like help creating a plan for tackling something similar to my experiment, then hit me up and I’ll share what I can. If you’d like strategy to surviving the day to day battles in the real world, you might want to talk to my wife. I’m very fortunate to have her traveling this road with me. What I ate today: Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs and Kielbasa. I’ve run out of cool ways to say it. Lunch was a nice salad with ham instead of taco meat. It’s been a long time since I had cottage cheese, so I had some as a side with my salad. Dinner was a deliciously strange pulled chicken crockpot concoction that was served over rice. Mixed vegetables rounded it out as a side. Rather tasty. What will I eat this week? If you’ve made it this far in the blog and you’ve been a consistent reader, then I’m really happy you’re with me on this trip. I’ve got a special deal for you since I know you have my best interest at heart. You see, I’m not a fan of fruits, which may sound strange to you, but I’ve always been an apples and banana kind of guy. So, as my experiment moves into the next phase, I plan on integrating some new foods into my life and I’d like you to pick one. Simply post a fruit that you think I should eat now that my tastebuds have been freed a bit from the sugary prison they’ve been kept in. In the comments section in the Facebook post type just the name of the fruit I should try next week. If you see the fruit you wanted already listed, then either like that person’s post or type it again. Don’t type an explanation to give it away to others. I look forward to what you come up with. Onward to day 11! I’m not going to lie to you, it was a challenging day. Lunchtime arrived and I was responsible for picking up the pizza for the boys at the birthday party. My strategy was set since it was just four 8 year-olds and I planned just to get the meal deal from Little Caesars, more than enough, but with hopefully no leftovers.
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AuthorJohn Graham operates FIGID Press and works closely with new creators to help them realize their goals. Archives
November 2023
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