DAY TWO of the sugar-free ONE LINE RULE diet, and I’m doing okay. Just to recap, if you’re not up to speed with this challenge – the idea is to only eat food that contains less than 5 % sugar. So it means checking the nutrition labels on all food packaging and only eating that which meets the criteria. Once you start checking the labels on processed foods, you’ll be amazed at how much sugar is out there!
Here’s how today panned out, including one very surprising revelation!
Breakfast: The Muesli (97% sugar free) with half a cup of skim milk, two dollops of Gippsland Organic Natural Yoghurt and a dozen fresh raspberries. I’m allowed one serving of fresh fruit per day, so my raspberry intake was equivalent to half a piece of fruit.
Sadly, I can no longer enjoy my favoured Uncle Toby’s Anti-Oxidant cereal as it’s packed with TWENTY-TWO per cent sugar!!!
Morning Snack – Handful of raw pistachio nuts
Drive down to Lorne – I did well, drinking only water and keeping the mouth busy with sugar-free gum. We stopped along the way for Tom to buy a home-made bakery meat pie. I resisted, but the mouth-watering aroma in the car as we continued along our way had me breaking out in a cold sweat. Now I might have been able to eat that meat pie, but the bakery staff couldn’t assure me of the sugar content, so sorry, that means the pie gets a big fat cross. Who knows what sugar content was in the pastry or the sauce? Unlikely to be more than five per cent, but you never know…
I waited till we unpacked and then had a can of tuna – and you must buy SIrena – so much nicer than other brands (I usually opt for the basil infused flavour) – and a couple of Cruskits.(3.4% sugar) In the past, I’ve also added a dollop of my favourite Sweet Chilli sauce, but after discovering it’s full of more than FORTY PER CENT sugar, I’ve had to find an alternative. And here it is! Sambel Olek is fantastic for those of us who love a bit of spice in our food – a great chilli flavour and ZERO sugar content – YIPPEE!!!
Afternoon tea – half a cup of blueberries
Dinner – Now we’re on holidays in Lorne, it’s going to be tricky to stick to the three alcohol-free days a week rule, but I’m going to give it a shot. Tom and I had dinner at Kosta’s Greek restaurant in Lorne tonight and the food was sensational. My grilled barramundi was top class and Tom’s lamb souvlaki was superb. Guess what I drank? WATER!!! Yes, water – can you believe that? Damn, a chardonnay would have been great with the fish, but I did it…
My surprise revelation today came from two readers who commented on yesterday’s blog (thank you ladies!) who reminded me to check the sugar content of the milk I use.
MILK? Are you kidding?
Seriously, I must be dumb but I’d never even considered milk having ANY sugar content – but yep, you check out your brand. Some low-fat varieties are actually MORE THAN five per cent sugar!! Thankfully our brand is spot on five per cent, so I could breathe a sigh of relief, but it’s definitely a fact worth taking on board for those of you who are also keen to stick to the ONE LINE RULE.
Milk – who’d have thought ???
Jennifer sorry about last night reply. I checked my dried golden berries this morning they are 28%. Omg they are out.
Sandra
Ps had some champers with a BFF tonight it was nice.
Don’t worry – we headed off on a holiday today so I haven’t even had a chance to try and track them down, but thanks – now I won’t even bother! Bummer, huh? But glad the champers was enjoyable!
Sugar is absolute poison, but one has to have enough carbs for proper brain function and for the body to assimilate proteins and maintain muscle and to burn (not store) fat which starving of carbs can also create. I have also seen massive proof that all the ‘sugar substitutes’ might be devoid of sugar, and carbs, but just like they ‘fool’ us with taste they ‘fool’ the pancreas into ‘thinking’ it’s sugar and thus create mass quantities of insulin which turns into fat storage metabolism. But definitely, massively reducing sugar is a huge huge step… Just weighing in (sic) on it … 🙂
Hi Bobby,
I get what you’re saying – and yes, anything TOO extreme would be a problem, but don’t forget I’m still eating lots of carbs and products with sugar – just making sure they have LESS than FIVE PER CENT sugar content – which makes a big impact. And that’s also why I’m permitting myself two glasses of wine four days a week – I’ll def get my sugar in there! Ha ha!!!
Well done Jen, sounds like you’ve taken the challenge on with gusto! You have to admit it really is pretty simple though! (As least the identifying of the the worst offenders – resisting them is all about you!)
Good move on the pie – tomato sauce (in fact many of our favourite sauces) is a serious sugar trap, often getting up over the 40% mark!
Stick at it – I’m proud that you’ve taken on the One Line Rule and I’m really confident you’ll see amazing results.
Em
Thanks Em – it will be interesting to see how long I can last, as it’s only early days, but you are my inspiration – proving it can be done! Don’t know if, like you, I’ll be able to last SEVEN years without a lolly, but we will see. IS sugar-free chocolate okay occasionally?? Jen. 🙂
Oh yes – the dairy thing! You will find that a lot of the low fat varieties will have more sugar content. With dairy though there is another sugar involved – lactose – and unless you’re intolerant – it’s not the problem. (Think fructose!)
With dairy, milk, yoghurt etc the best rule is keep it natural and always unflavoured. Sugars up to 7 or 8% if it meets those criterior are OK.
Ah, that’s good to know, as I am breaking the ONE LINE RULE slightly with my Gippsland Dairy yoghurt for breakfast as it’s 6.1% sugar, but as you said, that’s due to the lactose, so it’s not such a big deal. Thanks!