Sugar Sugar Sugar

Question for you.  Do you know how much the daily recommend sugar per grams is?  I actually had no clue till a few weeks ago.  My husband is an avid listener to Joe Rogan's podcast.  And he frequently has guest on that are involved in health and fitness.  So Dane mentioned it to me a while back but it just didn't stick in my head.  Then the other day I started thinking..hmmm... What did Dane say the sugar allowed per day?  So I asked again and then decided that I would try to follow that guideline.

So for woman it is about 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day.  That may sound like a lot at first.  Six whole teaspoons of extra sugar.  I'm not talking about sugar in the fruits that you eat.  I'm talking about sugar in the processed foods.  Here is a good example of hidden sugar. A can of soda may contain up to 10 teaspoons or 40 grams of sugar. A tablespoon of ketchup has 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Say what?  I mean you probably aren't drinking soda if you are trying to have a healthy lifestyle but still 40 whole grams of sugar in one can.  That is just craziness.

Well, I decided I would try to follow the guidelines without going crazy. It was a little harder then I thought.  Here's what I found out this past week as I tried to watch my sugar intake.  The creamer I use if I drink coffee has 5 grams per serving and this creamer is suppose to be "natural".  My whole fat greek vanilla yogurt had 27 grams per cup.  Ummm WTF?  I will now be switching to the plain whole fat greek yogurt which has 6 grams per cup.  Salad dressings have added sugar, peanut butter has added sugar..... it seems life has added sugar. AHHHH!  Needless to say I haven't had a day where I stayed below 25 grams. (I was using up my yogurt that I had bought.)  But I definitely was having less sugar then normal because I was paying attention and the great thing is I felt better and started to see a little difference in my body.  Little less bloat.. hmm interesting. 

Everything was still going great this week.  Monday was good, Tuesday even better but then today. Uh oh.  A very sweet friend who is also gluten free (she has celiac disease) brought me some goodies.  And I mean a bag full of goodies.  And if you know me then you know my downfall is having things in the house.  Well, in this case in the car.  I proceeded to munch my way through a few bags of cookies on my drive home from the gym. Yes I said gym and the drive from the gym is under 5 minutes.  Oops!  So when I got home I added up the extra sugar I had just consumed and we were will over 35 grams.  Uhhhh no good.  But there is no going back so from this point forward no more sugar today and tomorrow we shoot for 25 grams again.  There is no point in beating myself up over a binge.  It happened and now I move forward with the intent to not let it happen again.

But I challenge you, reader, to try this.  Try to see where you hidden sugar lies. If your trying to eat clean there shouldn't be that much of it.  But it will be amazing how it stills creeps into our diets.  Americans are obese because of this.  Don't be a statistic. Fight the trend of obesity with me.

Inactivity leads to MORE INACTIVITY

I can't blame this on myself.  I didn't choose to be inactive for this week.  I was forced to heal and recover from an infection in my hand.  And I do know that while healing a need extra time to rest.  But having said that boy does inactivity lead to much more inactivity.

While recovery I have pretty much been at home these last few days.  I'm not allowed to workout, I'm not allowed to ride my horse, I'm not allowed to go to work.  To some of you this sounds amazing... it gets boring pretty fast.

And here is something I started to notice.  I started sleeping in a little more each day.  I wake up still tired after getting over 9 hours of sleep.  Then I do some playtime on my phone or computer and go watch some tv and take another nap. (again I do understand I needed extra rest to heal).  But this pattern started to emerge.  This pattern of laziness that leads to tiredness.  How does that even happen?  How can doing nothing make you want to do more of nothing?  I'm not quite sure how the chemistry in the brain works or if maybe I'm just the odd man out here but for me it totally did.  And ding that's when it dawned on me that activity leads to more activity.

Just like I'd been forming habits to get up and workout every morning and it got easier the more I did it or at least it was habit enough that I would get up and start moving which would wake me up enough to enjoy my workout.  I have now been forming habits of inactivity, of sleeping in, of watching tv for hours.  AHHH this has got to stop.

The good news is I am healed enough to slowly start doing things again.  Today I am going down to the barn to groom Bella.  Still can't ride her because my hand won't fully make a fist yet but maybe a light ride tomorrow!  I can now take a walk.  The infection is, from what I can tell nearly gone and I think some light exercise may be in order.  Now I will still listen to my body if my hand starts to hurt or I do need to actually lay down for a nap because my body needs it, I will listen.  But enough inactivity.  It is time to be active and to start building up and getting my body back into the groove.

For those of you who have never done a fitness routine and feel like there is noway you can add it into your life.  Let me tell you start small.  Start building.  Get the momentum rolling.  I promise you activity leads to more activity.  You will start to crave doing more.  If you need someone to be there for you.  If you need someone who is going through it too and is trying to get back on track then please reach out to me.  Email at Kellyrose.kcr@gmail.com  I have groups starting every month.  I have a group of women who committed to staying the course and amaze me with their results. Be one of them!

No idea I'd been down and out this long!

This week has just been absolutely weird, crazy, calm, restful, annoying all at the same time.

Weird:  Woke up on Sunday morning with my middle finger of my left hand hurting.  But mild enough for me to workout and ride Bella!

Crazy:  The pain increases greatly by Monday concerning me enough to go to Urgent Care and make sure my finger is okay.

Restful:  Finger is not okay and now I'm forced to take some down time.  Downtime from everything- work, riding Bella, working out.

Annoying:  I hate being forced to take off and not even get to be doing something I enjoy.  I hate cancelling my clients appointments.  I enjoy my job as an esthetician and I enjoy seeing my clients, many of whom have been seeing me for years.

Needless to say forced rest can be a good thing.  It can make you reflect.  I didn't even realize how much a like to do.  How much I like to be on the go.  It wasn't until my friends started making comments about how hard this was going to be for me that I realized that I like being super active.  This is why I fall asleep on the couch by 10 every night.  I really just can't keep my eyes open.

The other thing about this week is the hefty antibiotics I've been put on to combat the infection.  As everyone knows when you take antibiotics there is a good chance you will affect the good bacteria in your digestive system.  This makes me so nervous.  I have tried really hard these last few weeks since vacation to get my system back on track and I think we were there but now...

Oh well, I'm taking a bunch of pro-biotics and trying to eat healthy.  Trying to eat the correct portions since for me this week is totally about what I put into my body since I can't exercise.

A recipe that I saw from a fellow Beachbody Coach and one that is absolutely easy and delicious can be found here!  Enjoy the yumminess!

Here's a little video of my making said yumminess!

https://www.facebook.com/kelly.rose.5203/videos/10207056225675500/

Made up Cookie Dough

1 cup- Vanilla organic yogurt
2 teaspoons- Organic Peanut butter
Handful of cocoa bits or chocolate chips

Mix these 3 things together BOOM you've got this fake but delicious kinda cookie dough.  Throw it in the freezer for a while and it will be a little like cookie dough ice cream.  YAY!!!