The I Quit Sugar Program - Week 7 Update

My no sugar adventure is drawing to a close, only 1 more week to go! It is a strange feeling, and to be honest a bit nerve wracking - once this ends there is no more meal plans, no more try this, no more expert tips, no more comfort zone! Scary feeling but I really do feel like I have learnt enough to continue it on myself (not to mention our house contains almost zero sugar so if that is kept up it will be almost impossible to fall off haha).

If you read my week 6 update (here) you would know that I fell off the bandwagon in an epic way last week! I'm happy to report though, this week I stuck to the meal plan perfectly with no straying and I'm really proud of myself! I am actually quite glad I fell off last week, as it gave me a little kick in the rear and really spurred me on this week.

Week 7 was all about encouraging food freedom - so cutting out snacks, basically listening to our body and realise that often we're not even hungry it's more about habit, or that everyone else is eating. I'm gonna say it now, I'm a big snacker so this sounded really hard, but I was intrigued.

The week looked like this:

• Shopping list/meal plan/sunday cook up
• Weekend read - exploring the concept of 'Big Food' and how it influences our most trusted Government bodies. Basically, this went over how big food manufacturers sneak sugar into almost everything because it keeps it cheap and it keeps us addicted. They want us to keep eating sugar. Some big food companies even sponsor national nutrition bodies. For example, the Dieticians Association of Australia National Conference held in May 2014 was sponsored by Nestle, Arnott's, Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co. Alarm bells start ringing. This read was definately one of the most eye opening!
• Movement plan - Upping momentum a little (although again, I'm not following this as I'm doing a different exercise program by Kayla Itsines)
• Try this - we are encouraged to limit our snacking this week. We got some tips on how to stay full for longer and keep us from being hungry in between meals
• Tuesday eats - ways to pump up the flavour in food! Yum!
• Expert tips - Some food swaps for limiting sugary food for children. This was a great addition to this week as I often babysit, and my husband and I are trying for kids, so I'd love to be able to continue this on with our children in the future.

So some very interesting things were learnt this week, and I received some fabulous tips. How did I go without snacking? Pretty good! However, I wasn't working on the farm so I wasn't burning as much energy as I usually would. As I was doing 'home duties' it was easier not to snack, so I think the real test will be next week when I'm working. We'll see!

I do have to say that this week was probably one of my favourites in terms of food. Pulled pork, paella, pork pancakes, thai fish cakes... the mouth watering food list goes on. If anyone thinks that by quitting sugar you are missing out in the food deparment, they are definately wrong! Everything was super tasty and also super filling this week.

As I said at the start of this post, next weeks marks the end of the 8 week program. I am both excited and nervous. The I Quit Sugar website has loads of recipes and information so that will be a constant stop off for me, as will the I Quit Sugar books so it's not as though it's ending cold turkey. We are also given access to the program information for 2 weeks after it ends so we can save receipes, or weekend reads or whatever. I've been a total nerd and have been printing off everything each week and stored it in a folder! No excuses!

So that's my wrap of week 7, a fairly successful week. As always if you have questions please leave them in the comments or email me at pinklipgloss85@gmail.com