Oh poo! I went and had another one of those ideas, the ones requiring the voluntary renouncement of pleasures, large amounts of self discipline and a dead line.
This one has been floating around for a while, but this weekend after long bouts of chocolate eating I finally got around to making it a little more tangible. Like setting out guidelines and a date. I've been generous enough not to include Trev and Cal, thought Trev has opted in. I doubt Caleb will follow suit.
We're going to do something that didn't happen during our six months, we're going to go without salt, sugar and flour. This is a serious resolution for a sugar addicted, salt encrusted, bread binging bit that I am. Trev will have a hard time with salt and flour, but he'll forego the sugar without too much struggle. Sugar should be that white little snowcapped pinnacle on the food pyramid, but in my case the snow is right down to the foothills. I drink alcohol on the very rare occasion, and I don't smoke, but my virtuousness ends there. I think this month will be harder than the whole six in Queensland, but I think a good step in the right direction.
My reasons:
Trev has always been 25 kilos heavier than I am - at the moment I'm closing that gap, and the one between my thighs at a rate not destined to make me a happy or a healthy girl.
I have a strong propensity towards diabetes in my family - and I was gestationally diabetic, so it's almost assured that I will one day top the blood sugar charts.
I don't like being a slave to anything, and I am a slave to sugar and I'm a bit too keen on salt (my blood pressure is up again), and all those carbohydrates make me a dull and bloated girl. (I keep referring to myself as girl as my recent departure from the 30's and arrival in the 40's is also a stirring a case of denial).
So, as of tomorrow, no salt, no sugar, no flour. Wonder what the hell we will eat and what kind of a mood I'm in by Friday?
11 comments:
I empathise, but it won't be as bad as you think.
We've had to make huge changes to our family diet due to putting my 3 year old son on the gluten-free, dairy-free diet for medical reasons. Because we didn't want him to feel like a leper in his own home, we've all done it, with the exception of a sneaky supply of cheese we keep hidden in the back of the fridge.
You soon get very good with rice, very adept with veggies (we keep a vegetarian home), and very creative using a wok. The main difficulties are eating out and 'kid food', which still seems to revolve around wheat and dairy.
What we will eat as rice becomes more expensive and eventually unaffordable is beyond me - we'll figure it out as we go along. But you might want to check out some gluten-free websites and blogs for inspiration.
Other sources I actually find better are the wholefoods blogs and recipe books, which tend to focus on veggies and fruit (all good), and sources like Fuhrman (Eat To Live), who has heaps of great non-white food recipes and tips.
I really admire you for doing this. Please keep us all up to date with how you get on! Good luck!
Good luck with the challenge. I'll be keen to check back in with you to find out how you are going.
Bron
www.crankycockatoo.blogspot.com
Well, for starters, there's Essene bread. Yes, it is technically grain, but this is made from sprouted grain, and therefore practically grass.
Anyway - its incredibly easy to make - recipes all over google - you can buy it in shops for a vast amount of money, but with a bucked full of seed you can bake your own. And - it is completely delicious
Hi Linda
Wow, I am intrigued. Salt and sugar are "no brainers" but flour!
I'll have to do some research and keep reading.
Hope you're enjoying a break from the dark cold Tassie winter ;>)
Regards, Terry
Sorry Terry, just spotted your response.
Basically we want to try and eliminate processed food from our diets at the moment. If you take the three out of a normal diet you end up eating fruit, veggies, nuts and pulses to the exclusion of all else. It's been very interesting to see how we've gone. Much to my amazement, so far salt has been far more difficult than flour and sugar, and to be honest I've probably flunked salt - I've reduced it, but still can't eat roast veggies without it, and eating salted nuts and saying, 'hey, I didn't add the salt!' isn't quite the original intention. Still have a fortnight to go, but already habits are changing.
don't forgo the salt! Your body needs it.
Not really sure you need ADDED salt in your diet.
The salts the body needs make up the composition of the plants you consume. If you eat the correct proportion of raw, fresh, unprocessed foods, you have all the salt you need.
I haven't salted my food since I started growing my own.
Hughesy - added salt tastes GREAT, that's why :-)
I love salt, and all salty things, so maybe Linda is with me on this one. It's a taste thing. I especially love olives and anything on an antipasto platter - yum.
Some people are really susceptible to salt induced hypertension. Others aren't. I've been ladling the salt on ever since I can remember, and since have a ridiculously low blood pressure (as in, half the time it is too low to donate blood, and I am turned away).
Although we should probably use discretion when it comes to the salt shaker, I can totally understand why people add salt.
Yum. It is, after all, the 'salt of the earth'.
Kudos to Linda for trying to give it up.
Apparently we eat around 5-12 grams of salt a day and it should be under 3 grams for an adult. There's a good site that shows the sodium levels of a wide range of food - food does have varying degrees of sodium without adding salt. http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data5a.html
So not necessary to add it to obtain enough. Unfortunately, as Daharja says, it tastes good - and it's addictive too. Though apparently it's the kind of addiction you can recover from. We, as a culture, tend to indoctrinate our kids into our salt habit young. I wish I could undo the damage done to my wee salt shaking dude.
Hughesy, I congratulate you and hope to better in emulating you!
Make some veggie salt from dried leaves. I put hubby on it years ago and so far no complaints. Sugar stevia is better and natural.
who needs processed rubbish in our diets all it does is makes us fatter.
After the Chinese scare with milkproducts chocolate has gone the same way
I know it's been a year since you wrote this post about going off sugar, salt and flour, but thought I'd comment. On my blog, www.survival-cooking.com, there are a lot of recipes, many that are gluten-free (no wheat, rye, oat, barley) because of my kid. Hope you used quinoa, amaranth and more. How did your experiment go? Vikki
Post a Comment