#have you never tasted a blueberry pie from the farmers market? homemade cinnamon rolls that take hours but are always worth it?

[depresseddepot]

u know. i don't think i can be happy if i've altered my diet so much to the point where i can't make and eat baked goods.

[hellojessicabrown]

Vertigo, Sucralose + a Recap

I promise this post is not all bad. I'm sure with the title it wasn't the first thing you were thinking of being an exciting read. I'm just being honest though. Ps - this one may be all over the map. Before all that, please enjoy a picture of Ke$ha playing at daycare Sunday. She loves it there! She is going to enjoy this upcoming nice weather this weekend to the fullest! It finally decided to rain in St. Louis and give us a little bit of a reprieve from the 100 degree weather. Unfortunately, the same helpful weather has decided not to help me in the vertigo department. This round should be manageable but I need to cut down on the caffeine and do my exercises given to me last year when I was diagnosed. Fortunately for me, I can get ahead of it most times, and this time seems to correlate with the weather. Another thing I've been trying to flush out of my life is sucralose. I had never really had a problem with it, or noticed any way, until the last few weeks. I'm sure it had something to do with the amount of it my body was having to deal with, but I didn't know it was in some of the things I was eating/drinking on the regular. In an attempt to drink more water before I quit my last job I bought a water enhancer. It tasted like pink lemonade and had no calories. Jeremy and I got on a kick where we started trying new flavors and new brands. A fun little added ingredient though was sucralose. Then with this new job I added more protein to my day to ensure I was eating to the best of my ability and not getting hungry between meals. A scoop of PE Science protein powder in my daily smoothie helped accomplish this but what sneaky little sugar substitute was on the jar? Sucralose. I was almost through my protein powder and looking for more. Quest has always been a favorite hunger killer of mine so I went with the Cinnamon Crunch flavor on Amazon. When I checked the shipping a few days later it was going to be late so I canceled the order and decided I could pick one up at the store. Shortly after I decided to start looking for and avoiding sucralose curiosity got the best of me. Yep, there it was on the ingredients list on the jar I had canceled. Sucralose. There are however a handful of Quest bars without this sugar substitute. The following are safe: Cinnamon Roll, Strawberry Cheesecake, Double Chocolate Chunk, Lemon Cream Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Banana Nut Muffin and Coconut Cashew. They just rolled out a new flavor and my mom got it at her work: Mocha Chocolate Chip. I was almost devastated by how much I wanted to try this flavor. After some research though, this one is made with stevia so it is appropriate for the before mentioned list. Amazon also had a variety pack of Oh Yeah! One Protein bars that I wanted to try before I waged this war. I'd had the birthday cake flavor before and loved it. After getting halfway through the box over the span of a week and a half I noticed my body acting odd. Notice: I really enjoyed these. I ended up making it through 8 of the 12 flavors and wish I didn't feel sick after eating them. If you don't have a sensitivity to them, I highly recommend them! The Almond Bliss tastes like a Mounds bar, just saying. I was feeling bloated, my stomach physically hurt, I felt sick and the list goes on with the GI issues. Not only that, but Jeremy was having issues so I started looking into our symptoms. Guess what made that list? You guessed it! That same day I cut it all. I went for a week checking packaging and making sure it didn't even sneak into my body. For that whole week, I felt better. This past Tuesday I couldn't make myself make breakfast or even make myself bring oatmeal to work. I brought a banana and was starving before lunch. Jeremy suggested eating one of my Oh Yeah! One bars he knew I kept in my desk. I figured a little once in a while couldn't hurt especially when I was without other options. Boy was I wrong! At the same time though, now I know for sure, sucralose is my enemy. In my search for something to sweeten foods without making me sick I found this: The only ingredient is Organic Stevia Powder. If you don't know, stevia is a plant. All natural, no crazy chemicals. I paid $16 for this bag on Amazon but let me tell you a tiny bit goes a long way. I won't need to reorder for a very long time. I plan to put it in greek yogurt (still not a fan of the super sour ones) and to my coffee in the afternoons so I don't go overboard with sugar. So now on to the recap part of this post. I know I missed almost two weeks here. Let's just call it even okay? If you saw our calendar you would understand why I let it get away from me. I promise to be better. Promise. One thing I cannot possibly forget to add is the new Indian restaurant we went to with our friend Zina. I decided to be bold and stray from my regular Chicken Korma. I am so glad I did. I tried the Aloo Gobi. It's vegetarian with cauliflower and other vegetables. I honestly just want to share the picture of my dinner. It was delicious and the company is always good. Last Friday after work I decided I couldn't stand how hot the house was getting anymore. Almost all of our windows face the afternoon sun and boy when it is over 100 degrees you can feel it. I ran to Target and grabbed energy efficient curtains and they have been working wonders. Plus, I am in love with the pattern I picked for the bedroom! This past Monday was my mom's birthday so Jeremy and I took her to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate. I made her a coffee mug, window decal for her car and added to her Precious Moments Collection. I made sure the coffee mug reflected the importance of coffee. We enjoyed dinner and each other's company and then made plans for dessert on Monday which was her actual birthday. For dessert I made from scratch brownies, with homemade strawberry & blueberry cheesecake filling. On another note, the sweet potatoes and pumpkins have taken over the side of the house. I love the little curly vines that come from the squash, it makes me think of fall. If you have a garden you will understand my excitement with the next picture. Especially with squash you sometimes miss what's right in front of you. With our zucchini lost to disease this year we don't get too many surprises anymore. The other day when I went outside I found this... That my friends is a freakin' pumpkin!!!! I am so excited! This week has flown by for me and I'm looking forward to a weekend with my husband in the gorgeous weather that's on it's way, grocery shopping and farmers market trip, attending a mouse race for charity and drinking all the coffee I can handle. SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave