I Quit Sugar

For real. It’s been about four months now and we just aren’t going back. We started out with an intention to experiment, and I have to say, it’s been a raging success.

I honestly do not miss sugar at all, and on the handful of occasions when I’ve allowed myself to eat it I haven’t enjoyed it. Anything with sugar tastes so sickly sweet, and quite literally makes me feel ill. That I think has been the biggest surprise: how much my tastes have changed. For instance, at a church dinner the other night, I had one of those shortbread cream biscuits (you know the ones in the Arnotts multi-pack?). I could only stomach half of it. It tasted gross. And I LOVED those things. Seriously, Pete and I have been known to wolf down a packet between us on the drive home to Noosa. Oh gosh how shameful! Even Peter, my sweet-toothed husband, is finding that his taste buds and preferences have significantly changed. The man who used to be able to comfortably eat a family sized block of chocolate can now barely get down more than two squares. Neither of us enjoy sweets in the same way that we used to.

The biggest benefit to us I think is that being aware of the sugar content in our foods has made us more aware of what we are actually eating. We actually look at labels (not in an obsessed calorie-counting way, we definitely don’t count those!!) but just out of interest to see what is actually in our food, and are making more informed choices about what we do and don’t want in our (and our kid’s) bodies. Our rule of thumb these days is that we don’t touch anything that has more than 6g of sugar per 100g. It’s incredibly surprising to find which foods have higher numbers than that. For instance, tomato sauce is nearly 50% sugar, and barbeque is even higher! There are even a lot of savoury foods that have significant amounts of sugar added to them, and I’m coming across more and more that have specifically added fructose. As a result of all this, we very rarely buy anything processed or that comes in a package. I’m making so much food from scratch, including sauces and condiments. And I’m still baking. We didn’t bake or eat much sweet food at all during the 8 week quit plan, but now that we are no longer addicted to sugar and more in control of the quantities we consume, I have begun to experiment more with sugar-free baking. I mainly use rice malt syrup as a sweetener, and have also been converting some of our old favourite recipes using dextrose to replace sugar. You can read a really great explanation about dextrose here if you are interested. I find it best to taste the uncooked batter of recipes I’m converting, as often if I use the suggested amounts of sweetener we find it far too sweet.

Mayana has picked up on the fact that we aren’t using sugar anymore, and asks questions about foods that she is unsure of. I am honest with her that we are trying not to eat too much sugar anymore because it’s not very good for us. I tell her that it’s okay for a treat and don’t push it any more than that. I don’t want to be militant about it and I don’t want her to feel like she’s ‘naughty’ if she does happen to have something containing sugar. She is aware of foods that are sweet and will ask if things are sugar free, and even refuses juice if it’s offered to her when we’re out.

I feel good. Great actually. I am still losing weight.. I’m up to about 9kg now and about 6kg off my goal weight. It’s so exciting, and incredibly motivating. I am doing Zumba once a week, but other than that no significant exercise – though this is something I’m looking to change. I love feeling good about how I look, putting on clothes that used to be tight and that are now too big, buying clothes a size smaller than what I’m used to buying. It is such a boost to my self-confidence, and I’m enjoying feeling healthy. I feel like I am in control of my appetite. I can listen to my body better, and tell the difference between wanting and needing to eat. My taste-buds don’t control me anymore. I don’t feel deprived, and I still eat because I enjoy food. Pete and I consider ourselves to be foodies, and love to cook and eat and try new recipes, and we can still do all that.

I love seeing myself in photos and thinking, I actually look okay! Good even!  Like this dress, on the left a photo of me wearing it at my brother’s formal in 2010, very intentionally hiding myself behind my gorgeous daughter, and wearing it again a couple of weeks ago. I can’t tell you how proud I feel looking at this. And a little horrified of the first picture to be honest. My whole face has changed! I just want to keep going!  Anyway. Quitting sugar seems to have kick-started my previously non-existent metabolism, and I am so, so happy about that.

If you are wanting to do something good for your body, maybe lose some weight and just improve your health and general well-being, I can highly recommend giving up sugar. Just give it a go. And tell me what you think.

A Sugar-Free First Birthday Party

Reuben’s first birthday party was a hastily-organised do held at a local park. We were very blessed to have plenty of friends and family come to celebrate our beautiful boy’s first year of life. It was a fairly casual affair with a playground and duck-pond to entertain the kids, and plenty of time for catching up and chatting for the grown-ups. Okay so maybe some of the grown-ups made use of the playground too.

The guest of honour spent most of his time enjoying cuddles from favourite people and showing off his newest party trick: walking!

He also shared a clandestine cup of grapes under the table with his betrothed friend, Grace.

I decorated simply, but meaningfully too, with a string of photos and string of handmade bunting.

You remember those weekly photo collages I’ve shared on the blog of Reuben’s life? I had each one printed (all 52 weeks of his life) and laminated, then strung them together. On the back I wrote some highlights of each week. It was like a timeline of Reuben so far. Everyone enjoyed looking at our gorgeous baby’s photos and reading his little stories, and they were a great talking point. I’m really glad I took the time to put it together!

In planning Reuben’s party I made the decision to cater completely sugar-free. I knew I would have to a be a little creative to achieve this for a kid’s party, but (with the exception of one treat of fairy bread) I’m proud to say that I succeeded!

We had ham sandwhiches, nuts, crackers, vegetables and homemade dips, little cups of grapes (in cupcake papers – this was a great idea, very novel for the kids and a good little amount of grapes), almond & coconut fish cakes (fish by shape only, not flavour!), potato chips and fairy bread.

The cake was a sugar-free carrot cake, and there was not a crumb left of it!

Reuben was thoroughly spoilt with loving and gifts and we all felt completely blessed to have the presence of so many people who love him (and us!).

Thanks to everyone who came, we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Dear Reuben {one}

[Can you believe it is actually nearly a month since Reuben turned one! I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts for a month waiting for me to get time to add some photos to it, and here it is. A month late, but here is my letter to Reuben, aged one]

My beautiful boy! I can’t believe that it has been a whole year since that unexpected day when you joined our family. And yet at the same time, I can’t remember a time when you weren’t part of us.

Oh my beautiful boy. One minute you’re our tiny baby, with the sweet smile and the sneezes too big for your body, and now all of a sudden you’re practically a toddler! On the eve of your first birthday your sister came to me sadly and said, “Reuben won’t be our baby anymore tomorrow… when they turn one they become toddlers.”

You’re growing up Reubs. Over the last few weeks you’ve been practising your walking. I wouldn’t call you a walker just yet but it’s definitely not far off. It’s just the cutest thing, watching you take those halting steps with your arms outstretched… completely adorable. When you fall over you often lay with your head on the ground for a few moments, as if to imply that you meant to do that, you just wanted a rest.

You’re very communicative too. ‘Amen’ is your code word for ‘give me food now’, and you can say a fairly respectable ‘hello’, too. You call your sister ‘May-nah-nah’ (yes, you can say that but not our names), and love to yell out to her if you can’t see her in the room. You refer to me as Mama occasionally, but only when you’re upset. I think your most used word is ‘WOW!’ either exclaimed loudly or softly in an awe-filled whisper. If we have something you want you motion at it with your hands with that come here/give it to me action. You play peek-a-boo, and hide things behind your back, and have the cutest giggle of all time.

You love music, and bounce to anything with a decent bass line. You clap your hands and head bang to your favourite tunes. You love little nursery rhymes with actions, especially ones that involve clapping hands or putting your hands on your head.

Reubs you are just too beautiful, and I’m loving getting to know you and watching your personality unfold and develop. I feel genuinely blessed to be your Mama, the one charged with the responsibility of guiding you, teaching you, loving you and holding your hand as you walk the path of life. I love you forever beautiful Sunshine boy.

Happy birthday.

Love Mama

Super Delicious Sugar Free Breakfast {A Recipe}

This recipe is sugar free, gluten free and dairy free and completely delicious. It’s my take on one that Talia shared on her blog aaaages ago… This quantity was enough to feed my family of four (2 big people + 2 little people)

Apple & Cinnamon Coconut Breakfast Risotto

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup arborio rice
• water
• 1 can coconut milk
• cinnamon
• 1 apple
• 1tspn rice malt syrup

Method

Cook your arborio rice over a medium heat, adding a little water at a time and stirring until it absorbed each time. You’ve made risotto before right? You know the drill. I think I used about 3/4 cup of water just to get things going.

Then, I switched over to adding the coconut milk. I found because it’s significantly thicker than water, it takes a little longer to absorb – in fact it doesn’t really absorb completely -  and goes a little gluggy. Don’t worry though, it ends up a beautiful creamy custardy consistency.. just completely delicious.
Keep on going with the coconut milk until you’ve used it all. If you think it’s too gluggy, add some more water.

Sprinkle in some cinnamon. I probably used about a teaspoon, just do it to your taste. Grate your apple, and add that to the dish. When it’s grated it cooks quickly in the hot risotto, and just adds some sweetness and beautiful flavour.

Swirl through your teaspoon of rice malt syrup. If you eat honey, then you could use that instead.

Ta-daaa!!That’s it! Easy isn’t it? It is seriously so delicious. A perfect porridge alternative for gluten free people. The coconut milk helps to make it incredibly filling – I wasn’t hungry till lunch time after the bowl I had. It was a big hit in our house. Well, Reuben didn’t love it but he’s a creature of habit and he wanted his wheetbix dammit! Mayana on the hand thought that ‘coconut rice’ (her favourite thai food ever) for breakfast was the best thing she’d ever heard of and practically inhaled it, which is saying something when I consider the number of eat-your-flipping-breakfast fights we’ve had lately!

This was so yummy, I look forward to it becoming a regular as the year creeps into winter, and honestly I would quite happily eat it for dessert too.

Give it a go!!

Anzac Day

Tomorrow is Anzac Day. We will be going to the dawn service. I can’t remember a year in my life that I did not attend an Anzac service, and it is so important to me that my children should learn to commemorate this special day also.

It’s interesting with Mayana, she is starting to become more aware and ask more questions. It’s a fine balance to talk to my four year old about why we have Anzac day and what it means, that it’s more than just a day off for Papa, and why we are getting up so early and what we are going to watch. I want her to understand that it’s important, that people have sacrificed a lot (including people in our own family history) to allow us to live in the place and the way that we do now. But she is far too young to need to be fully aware of the horrors of war, and all that is associated with it.  I have an uncle who is serving in the military, and we talk about how he and other soldiers now and before them help to keep our country safe. I asked her just now why we are doing Anzac Day and she said, “It’s to remember about all the people who look after our country, hey.”

I heard a piece on the radio today, a lady (a very educated professional) who is dead against ‘celebrating’ Anzac Day. [Just for the record, I certainly don’t think that ‘celebrating’ is the right term at all. To me it’s commemorating. To me there is nothing very celebratory about what or why we remember Anzac Day, but anyway…] She talked about how farcical it is that people go to Gallipoli, or walk the Kokoda Track or lay wreaths for soldiers at cenotaphs. I just couldn’t gel to what she was saying at all. I really, truly believe that Anzac Day is important. I think in our generation, which hasn’t really seen war.. at least not in the way that our grandparents did.. needs a reminder every now and again of what our young country has been through. We get too comfortable, and entitled, and can easily forget that it all came at a cost. Anzac Day to me not only is about remembering the men and women who served our country in the battlefields, but women who waved off husbands and were left alone at home with their children and an unknown future, people who were ravaged by the wars, whose homes and towns were annihilated, children left orphans, women left widows, women and children raped and abused, families destroyed… The whole thing is just so abhorrent, but it happened. And I can’t help but think it is just so right for us to take just one day… (and really such a small part of a day) to remember this. To pay our respects, and spare a few thoughts for them all… the ones that lost their lives and the ones that made it home.

Every Anzac Day I watch the returned soldiers march by, every year their group is a little smaller, they’re all a little frailer. Every year they bring tears to my eyes. I imagine them as young men, younger than my husband, some of them drafted and with little choice but to go and fight in a big, terrifying war. They make me proud, and I want them to know that I am proud, and thankful, and so very grateful. And I want to teach my kids to feel that way too. Lest we forget.

Do you make a point of commemorating Anzac Day? Do you think it’s important to teach the next generation to do the same?