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My Delicious Sugar Free Muesli Recipe

I've been eating this muesli for years, but I'd usually add a cup of dried cranberries and some honey on top.

Ingredients

-1 bag of plain rolled oats (I buy Lowan brand)

-1 cup of pecans, chopped roughly

-1 cup of raw almonds, chopped roughly

-1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

-1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds

- 1 cup of coconut flakes*

- 2 tbsp cinnamon

Combine all dry ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

Serve with full fat Greek style yoghurt (check that the ingredients do not contain sugar or fruit). Sprinkle some extra cinnamon on top, or sweeten with Stevia** if required.

* Do not use dessicated coconut, which contains sugar.  Check the ingredients, they should only include coconut and maybe a preservative.

**Stevia is a naturally occuring plant that is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar, but which has no effect on blood glucose. You can buy it at the health food store.

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I love this bedroom - no clutter!

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January 2 2012: My First Failure

Today I had a takeaway coffee and some vegemite toast on soy and linseed bread for breakfast, which kept me going until lunch time.  My husband suggested we have Chinese for lunch.  We had quite a lot of food, as usual.  We ordered duck pancakes, chilli quail, steamed vegetables, fried rice and san choy bow.

I was able to order the duck pancakes without hoisin sauce, but when the san choy bow came, it had obviously been cooked in a rich sauce – probably a mixture of soy and oyster sauce.  I ate it anyway, not entirely sure whether or not those types of sauces contained sugar or not.

When I got home and looked at our own bottles of soy sauce and oyster sauce in the pantry, sure enough, there staring back at me from the ingredients list was my old friend, sugar*.  While I was there, I checked out the bottle of Worcestershire sauce.  Again, sugar was the second listed ingredient.  This is going to be harder than I thought.

At this point, I might just add that tomato and BBQ sauces are two of the worst culprits.  They contain approximately 25% and 50% sugar respectively.  And don’t think that the fancier cousin tomato ‘relish’ is any better – I checked my Neil Perry cookbook, and there are 2 CUPS OF SUGAR in the recipe! So I’ll be having my steak by itself tonight.

The hardest thing I’ve found about being on a diet**, is not managing my own self control, but justifying my meal choices to others.  This is not only hard when going out with a group of friends, but also when you are living with/married to/going out with someone who is not following the same ‘diet’ as you are.  Of course, I could have just said no to the san choy bow, but I didn’t, because:

- I didn’t want to waste it (my husband did not want or need to eat any more);

- I didn’t want the waitress to think I was one of those annoying girls who just sit there and pick at a salad; and

- It looked really good.

But I have learnt my lesson, and that’s what the whole point of going sugar free is all about for me.  I’ve learnt that there is sugar is pretty much EVERYTHING that is processed.  I’m doing this diet to rid my system of its sugar addiction, and once I am ‘sugar-free’, I will have the self control and the knowledge to be more relaxed about what I eat – and of course that means allowing some sugar in my diet every now and then. But for now, I think Chinese and most other Asian foods are off my menu.

* The soy sauce in my pantry is salt-reduced, which could be the reason it contains a small amount of sugar. I'll have to check at the supermarket next time I'm there to see if the 'normal' version also contains sugar.

**A few years ago, I went on a dairy-free diet, after being told I had an allergy to casein (the protein in cows milk). After cutting it out of my diet for a few months, my body can handle it in small amounts. That’s why I drink soy milk in my coffee.

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January 1 2012: I Quit Sugar

Today I’m going to do something drastic (for me anyway).  I’m going to stop eating SUGAR.  Yes, that’s right. I’m actually going to completely eliminate sugar (fructose, more specifically) from my diet for the next 8 weeks as an experiment to see the difference it makes in my body.  Its not going to be easy and it hasn’t been a spur of the moment decision. You see, I’m totally and utterly addicted to the sweet things in life.  Its all I think about all day – cakes, biscuits, pastries, honey on toast, pancakes with maple syrup, croissants, but most of all, chocolate.  After reading  a couple of books that described the effects that sugar has on your body, I’m sort of disgusted with some of the things I’ve been eating.  So I found this 8-week Quit Sugar program (www.sarahwilson.com.au) and decided that I’d give it a go.

Just to clarify a point here.  Quitting sugar is not about losing weight (although that can be a welcome side effect for some).  Its about breaking the sugar addiction that so many of us have, and then being able to make calm, rational decisions about the food we put in our mouth, without having that screaming little voice inside our head telling us that ‘just one piece of Lindt chocolate never hurt anyone’.  I see it as an experiment.  If after the 8 weeks I don’t feel any different, then at least I can say I gave it a go and there was no harm done.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted along the way.

Eliminating sugar (fructose) is much harder than you think.  Of course, most sugar that we eat is found in obvious foods and drinks such as soft drink, lollies, chocolates etc.  But this diet requires elimination of all added suger, in all foods. For example, some of the foods I will be cutting are:

-          ALL fruit and fruit juice

-          tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, seafood sauce etc

-          yoghurts with any added sugar or fruit

-          honey

Day 1 Menu:

Breakfast: a boiled egg and a piece of Rye Sourdough toast with butter and Vegemite. 

Lunch: BBQ pork, grilled haloumi cheese and salad. 

Afternoon tea: chai tea, some more nuts, full fat greek yoghurt with cinnamon.

Dinner: pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce.

As you can probably tell, the aim of the diet is not to eat less.

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365 days to a cleaner, healthier, happier life.

Hello 2012!  As of today, I’m going to improve my life by getting rid of a little bit of ‘stuff’ every day – to de-clutter my life a little so I can fully appreciate and enjoy the things that mean the most to me.

The media has a big effect on us - making us want to consume so much – food, drinks, clothes, books, cosmetics etc.  I’m always wanting more, but even after buying something new, its never enough. We are conditioned to feel this way by the media, to continually want more in an attempt to be someone or something we’re not: thinner, healthier, more fit, taller, smaller, prettier etc.  This is okay as long as we are conscious of it. The trouble is, many of us (including myself for a long time) aren’t.  We all need to take a step back and just be happy for who we are inside, not for the way we look, or what we have.

So I have decided to undergo an experiment to consciously say no to all the things that claim will make me happier.  I want to live a cleaner, healthier and happier life, starting now.