Hard Labour

Well I have manage to get past the first week of this challenge without killing anyone due to my lack of sugar, not sure if the staff at work would agree after yesterday. So the last 2 days have been especially hard as have been back doing crazy long days. On Wednesday worked for 17hrs and then on Thursday 14hrs such is the life of a operations manager in the catering business, the hard part was that we had to shift nearly 200 chairs to the ground floor so they could be taken away, by hand!!  After doing that I was in need of a big pick me up as normally I would of have had something sugary, I am sure after this challenge is complete and I do something like that again I will be having sugar. Glad to say I didn't despite having a evening buffet going on which had apple pie for dessert, which I know is so good, also has a lot of sugar in it having watched the chef make it earlier in the day.

Bread and butter pudding

The following day was again busy with a lot of small conferences on and another small dinner in the evening, this had another great dessert (see below). The main hard part has been ensuring I can have a good meal in the evening while working while avoiding sugar, not to hard but I have found I have come to enjoy cooking at home in the evening using fresh food each day. By the time we get to eat, after the customers have been served the food is not always the best, it is at least kept hot and we do get feed, I have work in other places where the chef would not feed the staff in the evening. For me this would normally lead to snacking on anything around normally biscuits.

Left over bread and butter pudding

Thankfully got today off work so could relax, find it strange that I am now actually enjoying my breakfast now, muesli was not something I thought I would enjoy. To give it a bit of variation I managed to get some strawberries the other day so stuck all the yoghurt in the blender with them, which has ended up with the yoghurt a bit more runny which is nice and some flavor. I sadly did not get around to making pancakes today so will have to wait until I next go shopping to buy some measuring cups. I will also look for some recipes to see if I can make something to eat as well while at work.

Day 6 and Pancake Day

So have managed to get to day 6 of having no sugar which as those people who know me is amazing, specially when you consider how much sweets and snacks I would eat on a day to day basis. Yesterday was a massive challenge for me as I spent the day at our head office on a course and with other managers who I do not know and do not know about this crazy challenge. What do I find when I arrive a tray full of muffins and other nice things which are all packed with so much sugar and to top it all off the group head baraista was there as well making coffees and hot chocolates for everyone as it was very cold in the bar which we were doing our course and I love hot chocolate in the morning.

I some how managed to survive the day and get home with out having anything I shouldn't, yeh for me. For dinner I had a piece of pan fried chicken with a whole lot of boiled vegetables in a tomato based sauce. Then chill out for the evening watching movies as have the following day off.

After a nice long line in, had a good brunch seems strange I am now actually getting to enjoy having muesli with yoghurt and banana in the morning and it keeps me filled up. Of course also have a couple of slices of toast with cheese, or some bacon as cooked up some for the day. Then I either make a smoothie or have some pineapple juice (which qualifies as no added sugars).

Spent sometime in the morning researching if I could make pancakes using whole meal flour and with out sugar, in the end managed to find a recipe(2nd one down). So please as I have missed this day out so often while traveling, so headed off to the shops for some more food also running out of fruit.

One thing which I had decided to get was some Spirulina which Alex had raved about while I was in Sweden, I had done some research into it and it seems to be one of these super foods (or super algae) a lot like others I had tried in Australia and South America. So found my local health shop and was able to get a bag of Spirulina and I also got hold of some soya meat as well. This was something we used to use while I was living in the jungle of Bolivia and enjoyed. I have bought back a couple of recipes so have been trying to get hold some of this for a while.

This evening my big thing was going to be pancakes, so had my main meal then came too make the batter for the pancakes. This was where things didn't go so well after mixing it all it did not look anything like pancake batter I know, this most likely due to the lack of measuring equipment on my part and me not quite using the right ingredients for it all, so that was chucked in the bin, leaving me wanting some chocolate as I was annoyed and had been looking forward to pancakes. Instead some dried fruit was found and loud music played to calm the mind down. Never mind will give it another go on Friday when I am next off work and go shopping to get measuring stuff.

Sunday blues

So have managed to survive without sugar since Thursday, very good going for someone who has a very sweet tooth. Today rated as one of the hardest so far, as work started early so unable to have a big breakfast. Did get to have a cooked breakfast at work though which was good. While meal toast some egg, tomato, sausage, beans and bacon.

For me one of their hardest things has been staff at work offering me snacks only to remember that they have sugar in. So get the one of "would you like to try this new flavor of crisps" me looking annoyed them "oh sorry forgot you can't have sugar" not the nicest thing you can do to your boss. Doesn't help have a lot of nice snacks around and the only thing at work we have which I can drink is water, looks like I will have to try tea or coffee and enjoy it. :(

The other thing I hadn't thought about was the fact we said no white flour, came to have a roast lunch from our head chef only for him to day no gravy as that had flour, and he hadn't made any gluten free gravy. Going to have to hope for some clients having gluten free meals other the next couple of weeks.

Sugar Free: Day 1

Well I manage to get through the first day pretty well. Despite coming into work and see the normal cake display in the cafe.

 As well during the day had all the normal things lying around in the kitchens, chocolate cakes, hot desserts, and all other sorts of what now have to be called bad things.

So how did my day go,

Breakfast;
        Museil with a natural yoghurt and half a banana, a slice of whole wheat toast, and a glass of pineapple juice.

Mid Morning Snack;
        Banana

Lunch;
        Couple of sausages, some new potatos with peas and sweetcorn.

Dinner;
       Homemade tomato soup, followed by braised beef stew, with mash and vegetables (cooked for me at work as had a evening function on, so was left over from that).

Throughout the course of the day 3 bottles of water.

Not to bad, not as healthy as Alex has been, but I don't always have the best choices for a lot of things at work. Well for tomorrow hopefully start doing some extra things at home have just sorted out a new blender and have got a water filter as well to improve the taste of water here.

If you have any ideas or suggestions of meals or other things to try without sugar let me know.

Chaos in the supermarket

So after spending a full day at work I had to head for the local Tesco Extra in order to stock up on food for the challenge, plus having just spent the past week away I had no healthy food anyway.

Now I have to say I never thought some items had so much bloody sugar in them. The easy part was the fruit and veg, as all of that is allowed so just grabbed lots of everything I like, lots of fruit to eat for breakfast and have in smoothies.

Then it was on to the rest of the shop, the most important thing for me is to eat a big breakfast in the morning as working around food all day is not easy and I won't be able to eat again until around 2pm at the earliest. Finding a cereal without any sugar was a major headache, I knew to ignore all the normal things like Coco Pops, and Chocolate Wheatos my previous choices. I was looking at the grain/oat based cereals which I could have with yoghurt and fruit, now reading the ingreatients on these I was suprised at how many I found which had sugar as the 3rd or 4th ingredient in them, not good. In the end I got Jordans Natural Muesli, which has no added sugar other than the natural occurring sugars in the fruit so not to bad.

After that it was not to hard managed to get whole wheat pasta, rice and bread which are all things I eat a lot of. The biggest challenge is going to be at work with all the nice things around me.

30 Day Challenge: No Sugar Diet

So after being inspired by the TED talk about trying something new for 30 days, Alexandra (Swedish traveling friend) and me have both decided to cut out sugar from our diets for the next 30 days. Might also have had something to do with the amount of chocolate and sweets we had while I was visiting Sweden recently.

We are going to start on the 16th Feb, yes I'm sure your thinking that is when this blog got posted, and finish on the 16th March. Have just spent the last couple of days in the build up to this, while writing this I'm trying to finish the last bottle of cider in my flat (2351), this has meant while at work today I have enjoy all the things I won't get over the next 4 weeks. Such as chocolate tarts, a couple of slices of birthday cakes, and the odd sweet. Does not help me working in a catering company at all.

We spent the past couple of days sorting out the rules for this, had a look around online at various sugar free diets and came up with the following.

Not Allowed
       Chocolate, sweets, alcohol (just finished the cider 2359), ice cream, pastries, cookies, cakes, desserts, pies, squash (as in concentrate juice), flour meaning white bread, rice, pasta, all kinds of jams and marmalade's, all kinds of foods with refined sugars (cooking sauces, soy sauce), sports drinks.

Allowed 
       Fruit, Fresh juice (long as no added sugar), raisins, nuts, veggies, cereals without added sugar, whole wheat bread, rice, pasta, milk and unsweetened yoghurt, eggs.

Well wish us luck, some of the staff at work I think are taking bets to see how long I last.

The start of it all

The main theme of this is going to be about various 30 day challenges I will undertake, inspired by a TED talk given by Matt Cutts. I will most likely also go off on random about anything else which comes to mind, as well as highlights of my past 3 years of traveling around the world and the craziness of working in the catering industry in the UK.