Furniture is Coming
Tomorrow our new living room furniture is scheduled to be delivered! I'm so excited. I can't wait to see it in the space. The wow factor will be stunted a bit since we know this furniture won't work (as it's intended) until the TV is moved, but I'm still excited!
Added Sugar Reduction
I did not sugar-binge this weekend. This has not eliminated the headaches or nausea completely, but there is a marked improvement. It's like everyday is the tightrope walk for me where I think, "Will this make me feel OK?" whenever I start to eat. Nonetheless, I'll take improvements because the headaches and nausea are not mild when I do get them. They're enough to make me change my behavior. Which I guess is a good thing?
The other result of not sugar-binging was no "down" day on Monday, which meant I was more productive and then didn't have to slowly make up ground on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's hard to explain how everything just kind of comes to a halt when I hit these little mini-downs, but, again, it's hard enough for me to change my behavior.
After typing those two paragraphs, apparently I need to be hit over the head with a brick before I'll change my behavior. Simply knowing something is the healthful thing isn't enough. It's got to have some serious consequences for me. Thankfully, these serious consequences thus far are treatable and minor on a scale of health problems.
My goal at this point is to consume no more than the maximum recommended amount of added sugar per day: 40g. Ah crap. Just did more research. 40g is the recommended amount of the average daily diet of 2,000 kcal per day. It seems I should be eating no more than 20g of added sugar per day. OK, so I haven't been hitting that since one of my remaining guilty pleasures is the Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster drink for breakfast. I never pretended this was healthy for me, but I was hoping it at least wouldn't put me over my added sugar per day goal. With 37g of sugar (yes, I typed that right) per serving, I could enjoy one for breakfast and still be under for the day if that was my only added sugar. Often, following my diet restrictions over the past two weeks, it is my only added sugar. Sigh. Another vice I shall have to let go. Except on travel days. I always have this for breakfast on travel days because 1. I never get sick drinking it (I will do almost anything to avoid a headache on travel days) and 2. because it's easy and quick.
Sidenote: I asked Avery's doctor how much added sugar was OK for her. Rather than answering me, she gave the pat answer of "none on most days." Which is the Right answer, of course, but it doesn't help me gauge how I'm scoring when I let Avery have one piece of chocolate. Anyway, this site says 12g of added sugar per day. So if I let Avery eat one yogurt, she's already WAY over how much she should be eating per day. Crap, crap, crap.
Napping or lack thereof
For a lot of January, I couldn't get enough sleep. I was napping whenever I could and going to bed as early as 7 or 8 some nights. I'm happy to report that things have leveled out. I've been charting my sleep for just over a month now. Since Thursday, Jan. 26th, I've only taken two naps, both of which were on the weekends. Yes, I conveniently chose that date since this is when the excessive napping started to curb itself.
For the curious, my average sleep per day for the last 30 days is 9h 32m. I should note that the actual number is lower since I press the "going to sleep" button on the app when I turn off the light. Most nights I fall asleep within 5 minutes, but sometimes it's up to an hour. Likewise, I often don't push the "I'm awake" button until I'm getting out of bed, but I've actually been awake (ish) for 15-30 min. My average sleep for the past 7 days is 8h38m. We're trending in a good direction, people!
Walking
I'm still doing a daily walk. I've lengthened my route. It seems to be helping a bit with weight loss. Even if it's not, I feel better, so I'll do my best to keep it up. I plan to walk in Mexico, too, but I know I won't burn nearly as many calories since there are no hills in our community. Yes, I could SEEK out hills, but I won't do that and I'm not going to pretend there's even a chance I will.
I'm curious about the "added sugar" thing. Do you mean the "Sugars" line under the "Total Carbs" on a food label? So sugar in fresh fruit, or other unprocessed foods doesn't count?
ReplyDeleteAvery's doc's answer seems rather stringent. I mean, all things in moderation, people! Yeesh.
No, sugar in fresh fruit or juices doesn't count (as long as those juices are all natural). Sugar in milk wouldn't count, either. Basically, if a food has sugar (or honey, or maple syrup, or fructose) is added to it, that falls into the "added sugar" category.
ReplyDeleteA brief - and better - explanation: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/glossary/g/addedsugars.htm
(And I should note I'm not on a low carb diet, nor am I attempting to be. I just know my weakness is added sugar, so that is why I'm targeting it).
Oh, and in Avery's doc's defense: she was saying that your goal should be no desserts on most days because (most) kids always hit that "added sugar" maximum through the foods they're fed throughout the day (yogurt, bread often has HFCS, juices that may not be pure juice, etc). So when I asked the question, it was more like how much is OK and her answer was try to eliminate desserts on MOST days because kids eat so much sugar. I also feel I should note there was no judgment from her on this, nor do I think she doesn't give her kids sugar.
ReplyDeleteAh, no dessert on most days sounds much more reasonable. Guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge someone who wasn't judging :).
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the added sugar. Thanks for the explanation. Sugar is not a danger for me, but it's Riley's nemesis. Myself, I'm all about the salt, thanks.