21 Day Sugar Detox Summer 2013

21 Day Sugar Detox Report

June 12, 2013 at 10:53am

21 Day Sugar Detox (21DSD) Report

I must say that was probably the longest 21 days of my life, or rather probably the only 21 days that I counted down since I was a kid and was waiting for Christmas. Alas, it is finally over and I have indulged in a pineapple strawberry smoothie, bierock and small cinnamon roll!

Twenty two days ago I embarked on an adventure called the 21 Day Sugar Detox. It is a plan that eliminates all the sugar and artificial sweetener out of your diet including cutting out foods that have naturally occurring sugars in them. Imagine a life without grains of any kind, any form of dairy, all fruits except 1 green tipped banana OR 1 green apple per day, beans, legumes, potatoes and any food which lists any form of sugar or artificial sweetner in the ingredient list. I will tell you this, it is doable because I did it with just one misstep (more about that later). I'm not really sure how I did this, my mind was just in the right place. Two things worked in my favor. The week before I started this I had cut out drinking pop. I'm so glad I did that the week prior to starting because I had horrible caffeine withdrawal headaches, but that was all over by the time I started this. The other thing that worked in my favor is I'm used to eating a grain free diet because I've been eating a Paleo/Primal diet for a little over a year now. So what did I eat, my diet consisted of meat, lots of veggies, eggs, lots of nuts and sunflower seeds, coconut milk and my beloved 1 green tipped banana per day. The plan does allow athletes to eat one sweet potato after a workout so that was a great treat to look forward to on the days when I worked out.

I didn't go into this plan with the purpose of losing any weight. As a matter of fact upon reading up on it I was seeing that many people didn't lose any weight doing this sugar detox so I really had no expectations about weight loss upon starting this. My main reason for embarking on this detox was to get my eating back under control. For about 6 weeks prior to starting this I had really let my healthy eating habits slide on a slippery slope and I was getting frightened that if I didn't do something I would keep on with what I was doing and gain back the pounds I had fought so hard to lose.

So what was the outcome of the 21DSD:
Pounds lost: 4
Inches lost: 7.25
Incredible knowledge and insight about food
Two exciting things happened during the detox, I lost 3 inches in my waist and 2 inches from my hips, and I gained some definite ideas about food that should help me over the rest of my life. I I will say though that I'm a bit surprised I didn't lose more weight because of what I was eating. I was eating a ton of vegetables which are low in calories and when you add in the other stuff I was eating it didn't seem like I was consuming that many calories. The one thing I wish I would have done different is that I wish I'd have kept track of my calories consumed just for curiosity's sake. However, if there is one thing I dislike doing it is tracking my food intake, it's such a pain! Even though I was surprised I didn't lose more based on my food intake I've always said I'd prefer to lose inches over pounds any day.

I didn't have as much energy as normal so my exercise suffered some. I didn't log nearly as many miles as normal and I backed way off on my bodyweight workouts. I was still exercising but I just didn't have the umph to do what I normally do. I am looking forward to some good workouts again.

What insights did I gain about food:
1) I CAN live without sugar!
2) I CAN go into situations where there are little or no healthy food choices (movie theater, family dinners, fast food joints, restaurants, etc.) and I can survive!
3) Choices are available in most situations and if there isn't an acceptable choice it won't kill me to go without
4) 21 days isn't forever, lol!
5) The Cheesecake Factory trumps the 21DSD!
6) Almost every canned or bottled product has sugar in it. The one exception I found to this is tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste (most varieties) do not have added sugars.
7) Almond butter is the bomb! (Maybe eating spoonfuls of almond butter almost daily is why I didn't lose more weight)!
8) Club soda isn't so bad.
9) There is no perfect time to do something like this, there will always be something special within the 21 day time frame so you just have to "bite the bullet" and do it.
10) No one is perfect, when (not IF, but WHEN) you fall down, pick yourself up, dust off and keep going!
11) Food is fuel BUT, food should also be enjoyed. Savor each bite of your meals especially if you are eating one of those meals you don't normally eat. Slow down, take your time, don't rush through your food. Enjoy the journey of eating!
12) On a daily basis we are confronted with junk foods. Seriously, until you do something like this you don't realize how many times you encounter junk food.

I was quite proud of myself for navigating through the challenge the way I did. I was in many situations where I had to take my own food so I would have something I could eat. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but it was doable. The one time I knew I was going to be tempted was when we went to visit our son in the Kansas City area (3 hours from our home). My all time favorite restaurant is The Cheesecake Factory and the 2 or 3 times I make it to Kansas City in a year I always go eat there. Our trip there fell on days 17 and 18...so close to the end of this detox and up to that point I had not fallen off the wagon. I contemplated what to do, posted about it on here, said I was going to be tough and not indulge and you all were so good and cheered me on. I will humbly admit when I ate at The Cheesecake Factory I fell off the wagon. I ordered an enchilada dish (green beans on the side instead of rice) and had a piece of banana cheesecake. I will say I enjoyed EVERY bite of that meal. I don't think I've ever eaten a meal and savored it like I did that one. The bottom line on this choice came down to the fact that I only get a chance to eat at The Cheesecake Factory 2 to 3 times a year and a fresh meal is WAY better than leftovers so I decided to go for it. Did I feel guilty about it, NO WAY! It was one meal out of 63. I was 98.4% successful during the 21 days and that is nothing to be ashamed about, especially when I walked away with so much personal knowledge about food.

Will this experience change the way I eat? Yes! Now that does not mean I'm not going to eat the piece of birthday cake EVERY time I have the chance because I am, l love birthday cake, the more frosting the better! The changes I anticipate in my eating are in regards to the junk that surrounds me on a daily basis. I would venture to guess that I encounter at least 2 to 3 situations a day when I have the opportunity to eat something that isn't so healthy. This was a real eye opener for me; all the times I had to make choices. I think the natural tendency is to say to ourselves, "Oh this one time won't hurt." But what we don't realize is that we have so many of those "one times" that they start adding up. So for me I think I will go with an eating plan in which I'm going to stick with eating certain foods (not as strict as the 21DSD though) and then loosen up a bit on the weekends, unless there is cake or The Cheesecake Factory, I will ALWAYS eat the cake with lots of frosting or eat whatever I want at The Cheesecake Factory, no matter what day it is, lol! That brings out a great point, I learned what my "go to" foods are; the ones I really missed. Fruit, popcorn, Chinese food, salad dressing, a little milk, cheese and butter, my protein shakes, and ice cream; these are the things I wished I could have had so these will be the foods that come back into my diet. The popcorn, ice cream and Chinese food will be occasional treats, but the others will be regulars. So I anticipate my weekly diet will include the following foods; meats, eggs, nuts, protein shakes, fruit, vegetables, some dairy, and salad dressing on my salads. Occasionally I'll have popcorn with butter, ice cream and Chinese food. When I go out to eat I'll order meats without the buttery creamy sauces and I'll have veggies or a sweet potato on the side. On the weekends I'll splurge and have the buttery creamy sauces, and go Mexican and have some chips and salsa, and I'll have dessert too! Now at least I have a better idea of what will work best for me by satisfying me as well as being fairly healthy.

Was the 21 Day Sugar Detox worth the 21 days of completely changing my diet, ABSOLUTELY, 100%, DEFINITELY, FOR SURE!!!

LIFE IS NOT ALWAYS FANTASTIC; LESSONS LEARNED FROM A TINY BABY

SOMETIMES LOVE IS

Sometimes love is for a moment.
Sometimes love is for a lifetime.
Sometimes...
     A moment is a lifetime.
                            Pamela S. Adams

July 30, 2013
Never underestimate the power of a precious baby, even one that is born at 20 weeks, weighing 11.5 ounces and measuring 9.5 inches. Twenty-two years ago today Gabriel entered this world. He never really had a chance to survive because I lost all of my amniotic fluid during the few weeks prior to his delivery.

I will never forget that day. My contractions started mid-morning so I went to the doctor's office. They sent me to the hospital and with Gary by my side I delivered Gabriel on July 30, 1991 at 1:03pm. He was alive when he was born, but we requested they not take any extreme measures with him since there was no chance that he would survive. The hospital staff wrapped him in a warm blanket and we got to hold him for a few minutes. One thing that saddens me now is that I barely remember holding him. The doctor had to put me under anesthesia and take me to surgery shortly after his birth. Because of the anesthesia I don't remember much about Gabriel's birth or the few hours right afterwards. I do distinctly remember the doctor telling me they had to take me to surgery and I asked him, "Will I be able to hold him when I come out of surgery." Bless Dr. Cullan's heart, he looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Yes, you will, but you probably won't remember it." I vaguely remember getting to hold him after the surgery because I remember Gary asking me if I was ready to go to my room or did I want to spend some more time with him. The doctor told us that he lived for about an hour. Gary and my wonderful mother-in-law spent time with him while I was in surgery. My parents were a godsend and took care of A.J. through this whole ordeal.

Although I was only pregnant for 20 weeks (full term is 40 weeks) and Gabriel was only with us for an hour his presence taught me so much. First and foremost, I don't know how I would have gotten through that whole ordeal without my faith in God. I prayed and God heard every word. No, He did not heal my body and give me the healthy baby boy I cried out for, but he was a very present comfort during my time of sorrow and weeping. There were a couple of occasions when I was just sobbing and I literally felt God wrap his arms around me and hold me. Some people may say that couldn't be real, but believe me it was real! Did it make the pain go away, no, but it did allow me to get through to the next moment in my life. Everyone, and I mean everyone will experience bad things in their life, God will be there to get you through them if you allow Him to.

The second thing I learned from Gabriel's short presence was that your life changes when something like this happens. We were going along living a normal life and BAM all of a sudden we had to deal with the death of our baby. From that moment on, life was never the same. Many people say that if you give it enough time  your life will get back to normal. Let me tell you that does not happen. What does happen is that you develop a NEW normal for your life, a new normal in which you are parents that have had a baby die, a new normal that stays with you for the rest of your life. One that encompasses all the thoughts, feelings and emotions of two people who have lost a baby. A new normal in which every year on July 30 you are doing something special to remember your precious son.

I also learned some things about death not only regarding a baby's death, but anyone's death. Please if you don't pay attention to anything else, please pay attention to these words. When a person loses someone they love the person does not forget about the lost loved one just because people don't talk about them, especially in the first weeks and months following their loved ones death. We are always thinking of them! So when you see someone you know that has experienced the death of a loved one or close friend, ACKNOWLEDGE IT with a few kind and simple words. A simple, "I'm so sorry for your loss," or "I heard that your son died, I'm so sorry to hear that." There aren't a lot of things that stick out as moments in our lives that we vividly remember, but I remember one such incident about two weeks after Gabriel died. I was back at work as a phlebotomist (I drew blood from patients in a medical clinic). One of the patients who came in for weekly blood tests came into the lab room, sat down, looked at me and said, "I saw your baby's obituary in the paper. I'm sorry about his death." That is a short, but brief moment in my life that I will always remember and treasure. He acknowledged my baby's life and death, he didn't ignore it. Many people might have been wondering if they should say anything because what if they do and it upsets her or makes her remember all of it. I'll tell you this, it didn't make me remember it because it was already right there, the one thing that was consuming my mind for weeks. My thoughts of Gabriel were constant during those first weeks and months after his death.

I remember right after Gabriel died we got a lot of cards in the mail and many people acknowledged his death with flowers, food or visits. Then about two weeks went by and all of a sudden everyone's life was back to normal, everyone's but ours. Sure we were going to work and doing the day to day stuff we usually did, but we were constantly thinking about Gabriel. Then one day three weeks after his death I got a sympathy card. That was priceless, someone else besides us was still thinking about our situation. Through this episode I learned to wait 2 to 3 weeks to send sympathy cards. Most people respond right away and that is good, anyone who has lost a loved one needs support right away, but they also need acknowledgement and support a few weeks later too. Some people might be embarrassed that they got busy and didn't get a card sent right away. Go ahead and send it, the card will be much appreciated. If it is someone you know fairly well, mark on your calender every couple of months to remind yourself to send them a thinking of you card. I don't do this anymore, because I am older and don't hear about young mothers that have lost babies, but years ago when I'd hear about a friend's friend that lost a baby I'd send them a card a few weeks after the baby's death. Then I'd send them another one a few months later and I'd send a third one on the one year anniversary of the baby's death. Most of the time I didn't know these families but that didn't mean they weren't grieving. The cards I got from strangers (and I did get a few of them) meant as much to me as the ones I got from people I knew.

Through this experience I also realized that there are some ways to "talk" to grieving people. Many people often say things they think will make those of us that are grieving feel better. Things like, "Well at least he's not suffering anymore," or "There was probably something wrong with him so it was nature's way of doing the best thing." I'm as guilty as everyone else for making comments like these, until the day Gabriel died and someone made that second comment to me. I have no idea if there was something wrong with Gabriel or not, he looked like a normal baby to me when I held him except that he was too little and his lungs didn't have a chance to develop. Silence is uncomfortable so people think they always need to be saying something. In instances like these try really hard to be comfortable with the silence. One day a few months after Gabriel's death I was having a really bad day and I just could not stop crying. I went to talk to an older lady who was good with these types of situations and you know what our conversation consisted of; for the first 5 minutes she wrapped me in her arms and held me and let me cry. She didn't say anything, she just held me! There was nothing she could say to me that would make me feel better, I was just having a day when I need to grieve the loss of my little baby and she allowed me to do that. This last year one of my closest friend's dad died. At the hospital I held her and let her cry. The only thing I said was "I'm so sorry." At the funeral home I held her and let her cry and again the only thing I said was "I'm so sorry." A loving hug and few words will be remembered in a positive light as opposed to the platitudes you might want to offer.

Just because Gabriel never got to come home with us does not mean he is not part of our family. Both of our sons know about him. Gabriel has his own scrapbook just like A.J. and Daniel do. I don't think about him as much as I used to, but every year when July rolls around I start thinking about him almost daily. I wonder what he would have been like. We had Gabriel cremated and he is buried with his Grandpa Down the Street. I'm not sure what nickname Grandpa Down the Street would have given him, but he would have thought of something. He called A.J., Ajax, and he called Daniel, Dynomite Joe. I'm sure he would have come up with something clever for Gabriel too. Just as my two living sons have taught me much about life so did tiny little Gabriel, even though his lifetime was for but a brief moment.

Swimming Pool Brings Back Memories

Two weekends ago my parents were putting up an above ground swimming pool. This is the third above ground pool they have assembled and I do believe I heard my dad say it would be the last one he put up! The first one was purchased and erected on our farm many years ago. I was probably in middle school or maybe just a bit younger. I don't really remember swimming in it much. I am deathly terrified of wasps so my guess is all the wasps flying around landing on the water freaked me out so I just avoided getting in the pool. I'm still deathly afraid of wasps, but I will get in the pool now, but I tend to scream when they fly close to me! The second pool was assembled just a few years ago on the same family farm and I would venture to guess that my mom got in the pool almost every day from May through some time in October. It was a great way for her to cool off. Whenever we were visiting them we'd swim and cool off too. In December 2012 my parents moved next door to us in Hutchinson. My dad said he WAS NOT tearing down the pool to bring it with them so my mom saved her money and bought another one. Thus, about three weeks ago my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my husband and I erected another above ground swimming pool. It took us all day. I have not used it much yet, but have jumped in a couple of times after my workouts. That is a quick way to cool off after working up a sweat.

You can take the man off the farm, but you can't take his boots away from him!

As we were working on putting up this pool it reminded me of an incident that happened when we were putting up the first one. Since I was so young I'm sure I wasn't much help, but my mom's cousin, Judy, and her family were here visiting from Colorado and they were helping. Judy has a daughter, Alisha, who is just four years younger than me so we always hung out together. I'm sure it was a hot humid day when this pool construction was going on so everyone was probably sweating buckets. For some reason Alisha and I were sitting on the couch in the living room. We were probably told to scram because we were just getting in the way. Anyway, Judy came into the house walked through the kitchen and started into the living room. As she walked through the entryway into the living room she just fell forward and landed, sprawled out, on her stomach. Alisha and I just kind of laughed at her. I genuinely thought she had tripped on the shag carpeting as she entered the living room. We just sat there for a few minutes waiting for her to get up, but she didn't move. I'm not sure what Alisha and I did during the time she wasn't moving but after a few minutes Judy kind of stirred, sat up, looked at us and said, "Why are you just sitting there, why didn't help me?" She had passed out from the heat and humidity! Poor Judy, nobody would help her in her time of need. This story brought a smile to my face as I remember my mom's cousin, Judy.

Judy passed away on Dec. 31, 2012. Her daughter Alisha just came for a visit and it is the first time Alisha came without her mom. My mom spent a lot of time with Judy as she was growing up. Mom has always said she was more like a sister than a cousin. Because my mom and Judy were so close, over the years I've spent a lot of 3 day weekends and weeks during the summer with Judy & Alisha and the rest of the Nolder family.

I have a lot of fond memories from those times. I remember:

• Alisha's bunny birthday cake covered in coconut ~ I hate coconut.
• Chad getting in trouble, Monty dragging him out from under the table spanking him all the way to his room while Alisha and I snickered. We quickly stopped that when Monty looked at us and said, "Do you want to be next?"
• Vacationing in the mountains with the Nolder family.
• During said vacation Judy and Mom set mouse traps in the cabin and caught a chipmunk. Alisha and I called them murderers.
• Uncle Junior always gave us silver dollars or at least half dollars.
• Judy was always so stylish and dressed to the nines.
• Aunt Doris getting a flat tire while on her way back to town from the ranch and no one noticed that she didn't call to say she had arrived home safely. She was a little upset that she had to sit in the car for two hours before someone came and rescued her.
• Going out to the freezer in the garage, opening the door and seeing a coiled rattle snake! Yes, it was a real one, caught alive and put in the freezer. 
• Lamar and the local areas were experiencing a drought one summer. We went to visit and went to the rodeo. They got tons of rain that night, luckily we didn't park the van in a ditch or it would have had water inside of it!
• Judy was a perfectionist, probably more so than me. By golly when you did work for her you better do a good job or she would make you redo it! She had a beautiful house and her yard and flower gardens were outstanding.
• Judy loved God and lived her life for Him. She was not ashamed to let people know it either.

Judy and Janet (Mom)

I have to say my life was truly blessed by knowing Judy and I think of her often. I also think of my cousin, Alisha and how difficult it must be for her as she navigates her life without her mom. I know Judy is rejoicing in Heaven with Jesus and in that respect I have peace, but that doesn't mean I don't miss her.

Teri, Judy, Amy and Alisha (Summer 2012)

A Life Full Of F's

I am an over-achiever and I don't ever remember getting a grade less than a B, and NEVER, absolutely NEVER, have I received an F through all of my elementary, jr. high, high school, undergraduate and graduate level course work. However, I have been pondering my life lately and have realized that F's are not a bad thing. The F's I'm talking about are not grades, but dimensions of my life that are important to me. They include faith, family, fitness, food, friends and fun. Thus my blog F-Tastic is born. This is a forum in which I will share memories, current events in my life, and anything and everything that I think is fantastic. I'm not sure if anyone will enjoy reading it, but I know I'm going to have fun writing these blogs!

Hi Everyone!