In the words of Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park – Together we made it!
Corny and very early in the 8WP game but there’s something so satisfying about making it through week one. There’s no looking back now – we’re hooked.
As it currently stands we are three friend, in three cities and had three very different sugar journeys for the second half of week 1!
How our week stacked up:
Sophie:
I am going to write this on behalf of Miss Sophie while quoting her fantastic emails. Here’s her second half week 1 (or her first half, details shme-details).
Wednesday: “Love my shout out! I must confess I haven’t at all joined in this week (yet) but today I’m going for it!” Well Soph here’s your shout out number two! (Practically famous). Your honesty is refreshing and sf hump days are the best way to get over (or create) a mid week slump, amiright?
FriYAY: “Okay so I’m officially day three without sugar. Only minimal fruit too so I’m happy with that! My flat mate is attempting to do it too so I have her support which will be nice… Officially count me in for the full 8 weeks and we’ll forget about how much I cheated the first couple days haha” – Turning a blind eye right this very minute!
Lauren:
Naturally, for the second half of this week work was entirely against me and this photo well and truly summarises it:
The guy next to bought Caramel slice, the well known best caramel slice around. I was throwing him some serious shade. I’m fairly certain Michaela was also throwing him shade from Christchurch as we twinned once again and munched on our carrots and cups of tea.
The week continued on this tune as they’re far too generous to us workers which included changing up their normal plain Jane apple, banana and mandarin fruit order with the addition my favourite nectarines, peaches and plums. Let it be just for this week and then when we have to fully cut out fruit they disappear again. Maybe I should talk to the receptionist… If I suffer so should everyone else. Kidding. I chose this life. At least on Thursday ‘timesheet treat day’ included bags of mixed nuts among the chocolate bars.
I’ve always loved cooking and baking but usually as I cook alone my go to meals have been any variation of poached eggs (still my favourite) if I’m feeling lazy or cooking a massive meal for a family of 6 and eating that for dinner all week… lacking variety would summarise it. This program has forced me to go out and make interesting dinners and find new recipes but as a pleasant surprise I’ve spent the same amount of $$ on food (which is great for the coin purse). As far as cravings go… well coco-nutty granola and carrot sticks and pb to the rescue!!
A short summary of my meals from the week:
Sarah Wilson’s Chicken Cauliflower Rice Sushi:
Abun – dance! Bowl. Emphasis on the dance as they make my insides dance:
Kale, turmeric buckwheat, homemade sprouts, nori, tomato, capsicum AND avocado.
Anchovies, home sprouted sprouts and fridge junk.
Classic return of poached eggs with home made sprouts:
Free range poached eggs, avocado, tomato sprouts on kumara loaf.
Last but not least, Zucchini Thickie:
Zucchini smoothie obviously plus co-yo and coco-nutty granola.
I ate more protein than just eggs this week.
Michaela:
Learnings of the week:
- People will be concerned when you say you are eating no sugar and try and sabotage your efforts with offers of party mix.
- Sarah Wilson’s tip to eat fat instead should be taken very seriously. Hence my copious consumption of Pic’s peanut butter and nuts the past week.
- Fish and chips still taste good without tomato sauce. But I took precaution and made my own capsicum and tomato sauce anyway (sweat red onion, add chopped capsicum, fresh tomatoes and a can of tomatoes, mustard seeds, red wine vinegar and/or red wine, sea salt and pepper. Simmer for half an hour then puree and store in leftover peanut butter jars from copious consumption of peanut butter).
- Coco-nutty granola with natural yogurt and an apricot is the most delicious breakfast ever. – will be saying goodbye to the apricot in week 3 😦
- Soaking a lemon lime tea bag and fresh ginger in soda water all day makes for a most delicious mixer with gin. Be warned: the night did not end well. Oh and refined white bread with dried fruit is ahem definitely sugar free when trying to undo the effects of too much soda water and gin!
On that note bring on week 2! To prepare I made a chocolate muesli log slice as a dessert/afternoon tea treat. To make, blend a cup of sugar free muesli with approx 50g melted butter, ½ cup peanut butter and a heaped dessertspoon cocoa (ingredient quantities may need tweaking). Add vanilla essence and cinnamon and blend til compacted. Roll into a log in some greaseproof paper and cover with desiccated coconut. Chill for a few hours then slice into rounds, individually wrap and store in the freezer. Delish!
Favourite meal at the end of week 1:
Safe to say granola, yogurt and any type of fruit on hand is our all time favourite meal/snack/snack snack/ life necessity at the moment!
Lauren: Mine has to be closely followed by sushi!
Michaela: The pea/almond smash in the detox section of IQS. V good on toast or by the spoonful.
Bring on week two!
L & M xx
(and Sophie)
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