20 Days No Sugar Stronger

I like simple experiments.  If it can improve my body, healing capabilities, energy, or mood, I am all about giving it a try.  While working through the Orton, Cool Impossible training schedule I decided to take on his entire mindset for training.  Eric Orton is a firm believer that we eat too many processed sugars.  They are addictive, unhealthy, and hard for our bodies to process.  Instead of filling up on quality fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins, our guts are distracted trying to break down these over processed carbohydrates, which in turn blocks quality nutrients from reaching our muscle fibers. Perhaps eating a fresher, less sugary diet will help heal my injured groin muscles and make me a leaner runner.  If nothing else, eating 3 weeks of fresh food can't hurt.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like labeled diets.  I like to eat what sounds appealing and I could never subscribe to a diet that told me exactly what to eat on a daily basis.  Also, I already eat clean, choosing organic fruits and vegetables when available/affordable, and I only offer my family a balanced diet throughout the day with lots of fresh food and lean proteins.  We don't eat a lot of processed fats or snacks so I thought this would be an easy experiment.  Orton asks readers to try cutting out all processed sugars for 20 days.  That's it.  If I don't like or notice the changes in my body after 20 days I can return to my normal diet.  Twenty days is nothing.

Today is Day 1.  I blew it with breakfast as I ate a yogurt parfait with berries and granola.  Yogurt has a ton of sugar, even the vanilla stuff, and granola is saturated with sugar.  Oops.  So lesson learned.  I need to plan ahead, looking at labels closer.  The experiment officially started after breakfast.  (Tomorrow I'll stick with an egg on a corn tortilla and fresh salsa with a side of cantaloupe or orange slices.) 

Later I took my boys to the grocery store wanting more fruit and veggies for the week, along with some other snacks that would satiate.  We love granola bars around here - those are out of the question until July 28.  I was floored to find how much sugar is in beef jerkey!  It's dried meat for God's sake!  Basic bread is a refined sugar pit.  Crackers are a no go.  Cereal, even the "healthy stuff" on high shelves, taunted me.  Juices would serve a hummingbird appropriately.  Pastas and sauces won't work either.  Pretty much everything fun contained in the main isles are out of the option.  But corn tortillas, guacamole, and hummus are great, and nuts work too.  That might get old, so I will have to get creative.

Because I couldn't grab for my granola bar at snack time, I ate a ton of fruit and some carrots with hummus instead.  For lunch I had a whole grain flax and chia seed bread with smoked salmon and a large spinach salad with almonds and vinegar.  Not a bad start.


~Roadburner

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