Well the sugar free challenge had been going great guns - until yesterday that is when I ate some chocolate! Today I feel hungover, tired and generally worn out. Can it just be a coincidence? I think not.
Part of the reason for going sugar free was to improve my general well being - removing stimulants so that my body would regulate itself and hopefully become slimmer in the process. It has been a good exercise and while the cravings for sugar saw me eating more bread which then caused pain (a normal occurrence for me when I eat too much wheat) I did feel and look fresher and healthier. The running was easier and the moods were calmer. Going sugar free was duly inflicted on my family (why suffer alone I say) with the same positive results in my daughter as her itching and scratching reduced and her skin has healed up.
The trouble with being this 'healthy' is that I have had to cook everything we eat, often modifying recipes, and generally avoiding any processed food. This flows into avoiding eating other people's food as it is hardly the most polite thing to ask to read their labels or interrogate them on what is in their food! Today we went to a regular group and the treats were galore - too much for a 4 year old to resist. I relaxed and let it go. Then watched in sorrow as a few hours later she began itching madly!
I find it so hard to combine the two well (healthy eating and going out with others) without sounding like the food police. I guess for now I've be doing a little bit of grin and bear it while out and a lot of policing why at home.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
New Year's Resolutions?
Stolen straight out of the paper! Thought this was an article too good to summarize or forget.
Life's too short to chase perfection
By Mary Ann Sieghart
Most men are astounded by the amount of time some women put into their appearance and many prefer a more natural look anyway. NewYear, new you? Don't you just hate those articles that breed and fester in the newspapers at the beginning of January? They're usually illustrated with a tape measure held loosely round an impossibly small waist and diagrams of sit-ups and squats. All they succeed in doing is making you feel bad about your flaws.
Insidiously, over the past decade or so, a new cult of physical perfectibility has crossed the Atlantic, and it has been greedily sucking us in. We're now told we have to have perfect nails and perfect hair, at all times, and perfect teeth. Our bodies have to be the perfect shape. And we are supposed to invest time, money and physical discomfort into trying, Canute-like, to resist the natural effects that age and gravity have on the human body.
The more we sign up to this cult, the more depressed and discontented we feel. We are indoctrinated to believe we'll be happier if our faces are smoother, our teeth whiter or our handbags blingier, when in fact we'll end up more miserable and impoverished. Who wins? Only the companies selling us the products.
So let's all make a New Year's resolution that will leave us richer, happier and more comfortable in our skins. Let's resist the pressure to follow expensive beauty-maintenance regimes, to inject our skin with poisons or to buy anything with the toxic prefix "must-have". Repeat after me: "No one's going to tell me what I must have, least of all the fashion department of a newspaper or magazine."
It's not just money we're expected to spend these days. It's also time, effort and pain. I can't think who, apart from a banker's wife, has the time or energy for a weekly manicure and a daily blow-dry. If we women were to follow the dictates of the beauty editors, we could fill most hours of the day buffing, cleansing, toning, conditioning, exfoliating and, for all I know, defibrillating, to get our bodies, faces and hair to the perfect pitch of shininess and polished beauty. But would anyone but ourselves notice?
That's the thing. Men don't notice, for sure. As long as we don't smell, have a beard or ooze grossly out of our clothes, men are much more tolerant of what we look like than we are. They have no idea whether our clothes and bags are designer or M&S. They might prefer us in high heels, but to them, Jimmy Choos are no more seductive than Office.
Of course, it's important to do basic grooming. No one likes dirty fingernails, BO, bad breath or sprouting nose hair. You should always buy clothes that fit well and flatter you, but they don't have to be expensive. And it's good to be able to brush up now and then to look stunning for a party. But it's the regular day-in-day-out pressure to be immaculate that's worth resisting. Life's too short.
A beauty journalist wrote over the weekend about the agony of going for a week without wearing make-up. Yet both her friends and her boyfriend said afterwards they preferred her au naturel. Still, she fell upon her make-up bag at the end of the week like a box of chocolates at the end of Lent.
Women are famously insecure about their bodies. Even those of a perfect size tend to think of themselves as "fat". Now, with the advent of Botox and fillers, we're also supposed to hate the natural process of ageing. Wrinkles are to be dreaded and driven away, not celebrated as characterful. Some middle-aged men have succumbed to this insecurity, too: you can recognise them by their polyester-white teeth and frozen foreheads.
But it doesn't work. It just doesn't. The more you fixate on your appearance, the more you notice your flaws. If you Botox your forehead, you'll start to care about your crow's feet or your smile lines. Once your face is as smooth as an Ikea table-top, you'll start to notice that your neck is going crepey. And so on.
It's the same with clothes and shoes and bags. You can be spending thousands of dollars a year and still you'll be craving the next fashion fix and lamenting that your bag is so "last season". Meanwhile, you'll be run ragged by the "need" to squeeze a manicure or a blow-dry into your frantic timetable. You won't be any happier. And you certainly won't be content.
Contentment is what we should be striving for - and then we can stop striving. To be content with our looks, to accept our flaws, to realise that we can be attractive enough without having to resemble an airbrushed Angelina Jolie or George Clooney. To understand that a ravishing smile or the set of our shoulders can improve our looks far more effectively than a $200 face cream.
With contentment comes confidence. And with confidence comes beauty. If you feel good about yourself, you start to look good - even if you are 80 years old, wrinkly and wise. Get a decent haircut by all means: unlike clothes, you wear the same hair every day. But otherwise, let's celebrate the New Year by sticking two fingers up at the beauty police.
You'll feel better inside. You'll look better outside. You'll save loads of money and you'll be happier than your friends who are still on the treadmill. So rise up and drink a toast with me to 2011 and the end of tyranny! New Year, new you.
- INDEPENDENT
Life's too short to chase perfection
By Mary Ann Sieghart
Most men are astounded by the amount of time some women put into their appearance and many prefer a more natural look anyway. NewYear, new you? Don't you just hate those articles that breed and fester in the newspapers at the beginning of January? They're usually illustrated with a tape measure held loosely round an impossibly small waist and diagrams of sit-ups and squats. All they succeed in doing is making you feel bad about your flaws.
Insidiously, over the past decade or so, a new cult of physical perfectibility has crossed the Atlantic, and it has been greedily sucking us in. We're now told we have to have perfect nails and perfect hair, at all times, and perfect teeth. Our bodies have to be the perfect shape. And we are supposed to invest time, money and physical discomfort into trying, Canute-like, to resist the natural effects that age and gravity have on the human body.
The more we sign up to this cult, the more depressed and discontented we feel. We are indoctrinated to believe we'll be happier if our faces are smoother, our teeth whiter or our handbags blingier, when in fact we'll end up more miserable and impoverished. Who wins? Only the companies selling us the products.
So let's all make a New Year's resolution that will leave us richer, happier and more comfortable in our skins. Let's resist the pressure to follow expensive beauty-maintenance regimes, to inject our skin with poisons or to buy anything with the toxic prefix "must-have". Repeat after me: "No one's going to tell me what I must have, least of all the fashion department of a newspaper or magazine."
It's not just money we're expected to spend these days. It's also time, effort and pain. I can't think who, apart from a banker's wife, has the time or energy for a weekly manicure and a daily blow-dry. If we women were to follow the dictates of the beauty editors, we could fill most hours of the day buffing, cleansing, toning, conditioning, exfoliating and, for all I know, defibrillating, to get our bodies, faces and hair to the perfect pitch of shininess and polished beauty. But would anyone but ourselves notice?
That's the thing. Men don't notice, for sure. As long as we don't smell, have a beard or ooze grossly out of our clothes, men are much more tolerant of what we look like than we are. They have no idea whether our clothes and bags are designer or M&S. They might prefer us in high heels, but to them, Jimmy Choos are no more seductive than Office.
Of course, it's important to do basic grooming. No one likes dirty fingernails, BO, bad breath or sprouting nose hair. You should always buy clothes that fit well and flatter you, but they don't have to be expensive. And it's good to be able to brush up now and then to look stunning for a party. But it's the regular day-in-day-out pressure to be immaculate that's worth resisting. Life's too short.
A beauty journalist wrote over the weekend about the agony of going for a week without wearing make-up. Yet both her friends and her boyfriend said afterwards they preferred her au naturel. Still, she fell upon her make-up bag at the end of the week like a box of chocolates at the end of Lent.
Women are famously insecure about their bodies. Even those of a perfect size tend to think of themselves as "fat". Now, with the advent of Botox and fillers, we're also supposed to hate the natural process of ageing. Wrinkles are to be dreaded and driven away, not celebrated as characterful. Some middle-aged men have succumbed to this insecurity, too: you can recognise them by their polyester-white teeth and frozen foreheads.
But it doesn't work. It just doesn't. The more you fixate on your appearance, the more you notice your flaws. If you Botox your forehead, you'll start to care about your crow's feet or your smile lines. Once your face is as smooth as an Ikea table-top, you'll start to notice that your neck is going crepey. And so on.
It's the same with clothes and shoes and bags. You can be spending thousands of dollars a year and still you'll be craving the next fashion fix and lamenting that your bag is so "last season". Meanwhile, you'll be run ragged by the "need" to squeeze a manicure or a blow-dry into your frantic timetable. You won't be any happier. And you certainly won't be content.
Contentment is what we should be striving for - and then we can stop striving. To be content with our looks, to accept our flaws, to realise that we can be attractive enough without having to resemble an airbrushed Angelina Jolie or George Clooney. To understand that a ravishing smile or the set of our shoulders can improve our looks far more effectively than a $200 face cream.
With contentment comes confidence. And with confidence comes beauty. If you feel good about yourself, you start to look good - even if you are 80 years old, wrinkly and wise. Get a decent haircut by all means: unlike clothes, you wear the same hair every day. But otherwise, let's celebrate the New Year by sticking two fingers up at the beauty police.
You'll feel better inside. You'll look better outside. You'll save loads of money and you'll be happier than your friends who are still on the treadmill. So rise up and drink a toast with me to 2011 and the end of tyranny! New Year, new you.
- INDEPENDENT
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Into the third
Well almost at the end of day three without sugar. Less honey consumed today and no dates scoffed. I did however have a bit of fruit juice (no sugar or additives), due to a BBQ, which I won't normally do and 3 bread rolls (healthy homemade ones that is). Yes the bread craving has increased a bit. :(
One great thing that I have noticed is my complexion appears a bit 'fresher', if that is even a way of describing it! Really it is just that my face, on passing the mirror, just seems a bit less drawn and aged than before I cut out the sugar. Ultimately though when you decide to eliminate sugar from your diet you are opting for much healthier food options while water (aside from today) is the mainstay liquid. That has to impact on the body in a good way. I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow to see if it has any impact.
My initial challenge was to go for 3 days without sugar and since I have managed to do this I am going to keep going a bit longer. I'm the kind of person that the starting is the hardest bit and if I stop now it will be a feeding frenzy! Better to wait till the sugar craving stop completely I think before I indulge again.
One great thing that I have noticed is my complexion appears a bit 'fresher', if that is even a way of describing it! Really it is just that my face, on passing the mirror, just seems a bit less drawn and aged than before I cut out the sugar. Ultimately though when you decide to eliminate sugar from your diet you are opting for much healthier food options while water (aside from today) is the mainstay liquid. That has to impact on the body in a good way. I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow to see if it has any impact.
My initial challenge was to go for 3 days without sugar and since I have managed to do this I am going to keep going a bit longer. I'm the kind of person that the starting is the hardest bit and if I stop now it will be a feeding frenzy! Better to wait till the sugar craving stop completely I think before I indulge again.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Sugar free - take two
Well the day started out with my mind racing about sugar!!! Hmmmm one thinks that this is not the most productive start to a morning. I have got to say that while I haven't actually had any sugar I have had quite a few dates (oh sweet delight that they are) and a wee bit of honey again.
I seem to be in the routine of having something sweet after a meal and then once I start I don't stop until I feel ever so slightly on the queasy side of life. This desire for a sweet after taste has had an effect on my tum that is for sure as it is sticking out more than usual!! Maybe it's just the lesser of two evils that I have to contend with - have a wee bit of sugar and not over indulge or overeat to compensate not getting what I actually want. It will be interesting to see how the challenge shapes up and if eventually those cravings for sweet things will settle down. For now it is all very academic as I have to read, compare, think and consider every item of food or drink that I encounter in the day.
I seem to be in the routine of having something sweet after a meal and then once I start I don't stop until I feel ever so slightly on the queasy side of life. This desire for a sweet after taste has had an effect on my tum that is for sure as it is sticking out more than usual!! Maybe it's just the lesser of two evils that I have to contend with - have a wee bit of sugar and not over indulge or overeat to compensate not getting what I actually want. It will be interesting to see how the challenge shapes up and if eventually those cravings for sweet things will settle down. For now it is all very academic as I have to read, compare, think and consider every item of food or drink that I encounter in the day.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Sugar free challenge
Well it has been a long time since I have been on here and I figured with the new year starting so should I! Yesterday I challenged myself, and a few health conscience friends, to give up sugar for the next 3 days - hey small steps are good! I have written about sugar before and how bad it is yet I never seemed to quite get around to avoiding the stuff all together. Lately though 'wee messages' have been bombarding me and reminding me that I shouldn't be so relaxed about the amount of sugar I consume.
There are numerous products with sugar hidden within their ingredients (some very unnecessarily), either listed as sugar or in other guises such as sucrose, glucose, maltose and the list goes on further than my spelling can extend. I have been reading labels for a while now to see if it contained real sugar rather than artificial sweetener. Now the emphasis has changed as I have a child who's skin flares up with sugar, artificial colours, dairy or any additive really. I am adapting recipes for her and at the same time still eating the banned substance myself. My conscience yells 'HYPOCRITE' while my 'naughty wee voice' (the one that I tend to favour in times of eating decisions) 'Ah but you're an adult it's different'.
So now the challenge has begun. I have successfully said no to a final sugar binge last night and have made it half way through the first day without any sugar - even in my coffee believe it or not! I have a feeling though that I'm still in the sugar honeymoon period. We'll see how the afternoon goes and I'll fill you in tomorrow.
There are numerous products with sugar hidden within their ingredients (some very unnecessarily), either listed as sugar or in other guises such as sucrose, glucose, maltose and the list goes on further than my spelling can extend. I have been reading labels for a while now to see if it contained real sugar rather than artificial sweetener. Now the emphasis has changed as I have a child who's skin flares up with sugar, artificial colours, dairy or any additive really. I am adapting recipes for her and at the same time still eating the banned substance myself. My conscience yells 'HYPOCRITE' while my 'naughty wee voice' (the one that I tend to favour in times of eating decisions) 'Ah but you're an adult it's different'.
So now the challenge has begun. I have successfully said no to a final sugar binge last night and have made it half way through the first day without any sugar - even in my coffee believe it or not! I have a feeling though that I'm still in the sugar honeymoon period. We'll see how the afternoon goes and I'll fill you in tomorrow.
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