The end is in sight only five more days to go!
Now I have a confession to make, in my last bog post I said that I wasn’t having any honey or sweeteners. However that Friday my post went up I lost my voice and developed a cough. My day job involves me answering the phone all day so I did buy some throat lozengers which had sweetener in them and drank honey and lemon to soothe my throat and get my voice back. To the people who have sponsored me I am sure that you will understand that my health comes first and I had to get better to do my job. Now that I have got that out-of-the-way I will let you know how I got on in week three with my new cook book.
Cooking
I picked this up from Lidil (Supermarket) for £2.99 and it has a lovely range of recipes including breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts. Now I am going to be honest although I have looked through it and read the first few pages which tell you about sugar, I am actually yet to make a recipe from it. However it has inspired me to make different dishes this week. One of my favourite dishes I made this week was this yummy salad that I had on Tuesday after my Zumba class and again on Thursday after my Clubbersise class. It had mixed salad leaves and then hot bacon, cherry tomatoes, spring onion, chicken and a sprinkle of cheese. The warm cherry tomatoes really made this dish for me and it felt like a nice healthy treat after my Zumba class.
Meal Prepping
If you have followed me for a while you will know that I am a big fan of meal prepping and would normally make mine and my boyfriends lunches on a Sunday. However meal prepping has been even more important whilst doing this challenge as I have been unable to just grab something from the shop for my breakfast or lunch if I have forgotten to make something. This week I made omelettes and egg muffins for breakfast, beef curry for lunch and dinner, fish for dinner and cottage pie with sweet potato mash for lunch and dinner. I also have to remember each night to take out a handful of berries from the freezer so they defrost over night if I want them for my breakfast with plain yogurt.
Weight
As I have said from the beginning this challenge isn’t about me loosing weight but resetting my taste buds and getting rid of my sugar addiction. However any weight loss is much appreciated. This week I lost another two pounds making my total weight loss since I began 7 pounds which is amazing. I didn’t realise how much of a change my diet could make to my weight along with at least one exercise class a week and walking to work each day which takes 15 mins each way. Doing this challenge has made me realise how much sugar I was consuming and why my weight was continually rising. I forgot to take my measurements at the start of this challenge however I did take before pictures, which I will post along with my after pictures next week.
Tiredness/ Energy levels
Something that I haven’t discussed in the other weeks is how not having sugar has effected my energy levels. Previous to this challenge I would start to feel sleepy around 4pm at work and reach for a chocolate bar to boost my energy levels. However this month this has not been an issue, most days I still feel fine all afternoon and don’t need to have a snack in the afternoon.
Snacking
The first two weeks, I snacked quiet a bit of nuts and seeds (which you can see above) as I felt like I was missing out on calories and felt hungry. However as the weeks has gone on and I have been having protein for my breakfast, I have noticed I no longer reach for a mid morning snack to keep me going till lunch. As for in the afternoons like I said above I rarely have one in the afternoon as my energy levels no longer dip.
Please come back next week to find out how my last few days went. I am also going to do a round-up post of the things I have learnt and things I will continue to eat once the challenge is over. If you have any questions please leave me a comment.
bigmouthjo.wordpress.com 