So, I’m curious, how did everyone do with the Sugar Free challenge?
I must admit, by Tuesday night I was very nervous about it. I felt like you do before you have a party: I was scared no-one would come. And what a surprise I had, so once again thanks very much for all your support!
Overall I think we did ok except for the pancakes on Wednesday night and some syrup over the glazed carrots last night and we could definitely see a difference.
Our (Margot and mine) aim wasn’t to suddenly change you into sugar-Nazis, but to create an awareness.
Did it make you wonder about what is in the food we buy and the food we think is healthy that we give our kids?
Did it make you turn an item around when you were at the shops this week and look at the food label to see what the sugar content is?
If you did stay sugar free for 48 hours, how did you feel when you woke up this morning?
Did you take a look at how your kids’ behavior changes when they had sugar when you were aware that they had sugar?
Please feel free to comment and leave any posts you might have done about your experience, I would love to hear about it!
ps: I recently saw a post on Betty Bake Blog about Forks over Knives so last night Etienne and I watched it. I’m not a big fan of meat to start off with, so it was quite an eye-opener to see my gut feel be supported by so much research and facts about how bad animal-based protein is for us. I could tell it hit home for Etienne as well as this morning he was worried about making supper after seeing the documentary. Love it!
Does it mean we will instantly stop eating meat? No. But it will make us think about making better meal choices, not fighting with kids over having to eat their meat and slowly incorporating more plant-based proteins in our diet.
Hi Tania, as you know I tried the sugarfree challenge, except for the fact that the kids were put on antibiotics. So I can’t comment on the change in their behaviour (and they’re sick anyway) but it did make me feel quite good – I only had to make minor modifications to their diet. I realised I feed them quite healthily on the whole, and then they are allowed jelly babies or chocolate pretty much whenever they want (and it’s not every day either). Felix can actually eat a few jelly babies and stop. Hmph. I love that, it’s not something I could do! So I am hoping that by not restricting sweets or making too much of a big deal they might keep that ability to self-regulate their appetites for longer. Let’s see…
Yay! I’m glad we did the exercise, it’s good to just check how you are doing diet-wise with your kids every now and again.
What’s next? MSG?
I love the way that you approached this, very well thought out and balanced.
As you well know, Jess is already on a nil sugar or very limited sugar diet and has been for some time.
What I do notice is when she has had something at school that she shouldn’t have had and doesn’t think I will find out, I can see something is different. “What did you eat at school Jess?” “How do you know?” is her answer.
It doesn’t happen often and she is still a child so can’t shout.
I went shopping today and picked up the ingredients for those yummy biscuits. I think they will be a very welcome addition to her lunch box.
Bought the Advocado Oil for the first time ever!!
Thanks for the inspiration. Hugs xx
Ai Sharon, thank you for you beautiful comment and all your support 🙂
I failed miserably – just me – my toddler passed with flying colours. I had chocolate after she went to sleep.
When she was born I became very aware of the hidden sugars and what I was giving her. I nearly freaked out when I saw the sugars in the baby cereal. Anyway – she was not given sweets, chocolates or processed breakfast cereal until she was nearly 2. The one time I gave her 1/2 a chomp she bounced of the walls for a solid 24 hours – NO KIDDING!.
After she turned 2 I became a bit more lenient. She has biscuits, cheerios and smarties every now and then but that is it. Thankfully she now actually does not like sweets or sweet foods and will pick the fruit or savoury over it every time. Not sure if that is just because she does not know what they are or if it is a taste thing. At least I dont’ have the fights going to the check out as she does not realise that those are edible.
Here is a post I wrote in November about her and sugar.
http://pamiejane.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/sugar-high/
Thanks Pamela! Our kids are also pretty good in the “aisle of death” as they aren’t interested in the sweets and chocolates. Mostly.
it is amazing how many products have hidden sugars in them! even the savoury ones that we think are not 🙂
So true, if I only manage to get one person to take the time to read a food label then my work is done.