Going low carb & sugar free

Well for 2 weeks that is. These past few weeks, because life just got super busy, I wasn’t all that much into healthy eating. Add on numerous outings, birthdays and other occasions that warrant yummy food of the not so healthy variety and I got to a point where I felt bloated and tired again. Which means it’s time for a change! To kickstart that I decided to take my 2 week summer tenure as a good way to get back into the swing of things.

Going low carb and sugar free for two weeks

My reason for choosing two weeks is because I know that’s all it takes for me to reset and get my butt back into gear. I regained a few of the pounds I lost over the past year and lack of workouts and not so great food definitely caused that to happen. So now that I’m no longer super busy and my weekends are no longer filled to the brim with social activities I thought it would be best to start straight away. I had already wanted to start in June, but life just got in the way.

The best way for me to reset my eating patterns quite drastically, is to go low carb and mostly sugar free. Wheat is something my stomach doesn’t like to begin with and eating it too much makes me feel lethargic and bloated. So that’s the first thing that’s got to go. I can usually have a sandwich every now and again, but there has just been too much of it in the past 2 months or so and I can definitely tell the difference in how I feel.

But in order to truly kickstart myself, I decided to go a step further. I am still looking to lose around 10 pounds or so (after already losing a good 15 over the past year) and I know that what works best for me to do so is eat as little carbs as possible. It is not something I will be able to keep up: I work out too much for that. But I know I can deal with it for a little while.

Once the two weeks are up, I will start adding back in some carbs, but in the form of non-wheat items. Think oats, kamut pasta and brown rice. In the mean time I’m sticking to wheat and grain free everything. Don’t worry, I’ll still get my fibers, because I generally eat flax seeds every day and they will help with that just nicely.

Now carb doesn’t just come in grain form, but also sugar. Since I work out, I cannot go completely carb free, my body would just go very weird (which has happened to me before), but I just want to stray away from anything with added sugar. So no chocolate, no candy, no sweet condiments, none of that. I’m even avoiding all additional sweeteners for these two weeks. I’ve decided it would be good to pass up on honey, maple syrup and coconut sugar for the time being as well.

But like I said, I’m not going completely sugar free. My source for sugar? Fruit! I couldn’t go without fruit and since so many great fruits are in season I know I won’t have a hard time finding my sweet kick. I love all the berries, peaches etc. that are around this time of year, so I’m looking forward to load up on those.

So what will I be eating? This week is already planned out, so I will give you an idea:

• Breakfast: full fat yoghurt (it’s lower on carbs!) with flax seeds and berries with a glass of water.
• Mid morning snack: pear.
• Lunch: salad with sundried tomatoes, olives, bell pepper en goats cheese.
• Mid afternoon snack: cucumber & tomatoes
• Late afternoon snack: apple & banana
• Dinner: fish/ meat with green veggies, but I also have some left over soup in the freezer.

That’s just to give you an idea. I will probably switch up the salad for a smoothie some time this week and I have plenty of options for dinner, so I know I will be fine. If I’m still peckish after dinner or after a work out, I still have some mature cheese in the fridge for a bit of a naughty late night snack.

Wish me luck and I hope this is the kickstart my body and mind need!