Give me some sugar!

I used to be obsessed with avoiding fat in my food consumption. To cure my sweet tooth while sticking to a non-fat diet, I licked lollipops, ate licorice, or chewed gummy anything (e.g., bears, fish). I also sucked on Sour Patch Kids at the movie theater. These candies do not have fat, but they are all loaded with sugar, which I chose to ignore. This bizarre approach to "dieting" continued throughout my adolescence and adulthood. What I failed to realize is that we all need a certain amount of fat in our diets and that sugar—of any kind—can prevent you from losing weight.

The tricky thing about eliminating sugar from your diet is that it has many pseudonyms: sucrose, dextrose, fructose, maltose, and lactose, or common table sugar, corn sugar, fruit sugar, malt sugar, and milk sugar respectively. Pretty much any ingredient with "OSE" as its last syllable is bad news. Don't forget the "TOLs"; maltitol, mannitol, and sorbitol are all sugar alcohols. And of course, corn syrup is sugar, too. Trying to not eat sugar in our society is nearly impossible, but it can be done.

My point of view regarding sugar changed five years ago when I experienced food allergies. I had to limit my diet in order to figure out which foods were causing me serious digestive problems. During the process, I discovered how much sugar I consumed and how it affected my health. I also acknowledged that my favorite non-fat drink—Diet Coke—contained aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar. The combination of the ingredients and the carbonation in the soda was causing constant bloating, occasional pain, and continuous sugar cravings. So I began to change not only what I ate, but how much.

For example, quitting Diet Coke cold turkey was simply not going to happen so I slowly weaned myself off it. Instead of buying two-liter jugs, I purchased cans so I could monitor my intake better. Initially, I limited myself to two cans per day. After about six months, I managed to get down to one can per day. Then one can three times per week. Now I no longer buy Diet Coke for home consumption; it is my treat at the movie theater. I still love that bitter aftertaste, but I no longer need it every day.

I love sugar, but I don't want the problems that come with consuming too much of it. When I examine ingredients now, I look for less than nine grams (preferably five) of sugar per serving. I make exceptions occasionally, but the less sugar I eat the better I look and feel!

AWW – XoXo

P.S. I recently stopped putting any sweetener in my coffee in an effort to further reduce my intake of "fake" sugar. (I sure miss those yellow packets of Splenda!) The next step is eliminating Diet Snapple and to drink only unsweetened tea at all times.

Give me some sugar!

Red Wine: No sugar, no fat, no problem

Although I am not "dieting" during my EMAO experiment, I am slowly changing some of my eating habits. As I explained in my Goodbye Girl Scout Cookies post, I threw away the sugary junk foods in our house. Since I used to refrain from drinking all alcohol four weeks prior to marathons (when I participated in them), I figured that I would have to do the same thing in order to gain the best possible EMAO results. I don't drink heavily, but I enjoy red wine and wine tasting at Vendome Wine and Spirits is one of my favorite activities to do with my husband and our friends. In fact, Costco is having a terrific sale right now on St. Francis RED, a consistent, solid, medium-bodied red blend, but I digress.

Of course I have read the research that states that red wine is good for you in moderation, but I still thought that it was "bad for me." Even though I know red wine contains less sugar than white wine, I assumed that the sugar content was much higher than it actually is. According to the USDA, a 3.5-ounce glass of red table wine contains:

USDA Red Table Wine Ingredients (partial list)

Wine Intro explains that the carbohydrates are probably another form of alcohol since the USDA cites "carbohydrate, by difference" meaning that the total carbs were calculated by subtracting all other ingredients.

Does this enlightening news mean I will drink a glass of wine every day? Of course not. But I am thrilled that red wine has zero fat, minimal sugar, and as for the calories, well an excellent glass of vino is worth 87 grams of energy!

AWW – XoXo

P.S. For more information about wine, Wikipedia Wine is a good place to start; be sure to check out the numerous resources at the bottom of the page.

Red Wine: No sugar, no fat, no problem

Goodbye Girl Scout Cookies

After weighing myself and seeing that I have gained a half pound in the past week, I realize that it is time to acknowledge the aspect of weight loss that I dread most: my diet. Now I am not using the word "dieting" because dieting doesn't work in the long run. I am, however, changing what I eat. The first thing to go is processed sugar. You know what I am talking about: cookies, candy, cake—the yummy stuff. Although we do not keep a lot of junk food in the house, I searched our cabinets and here is a list of the crap that is going in the trash today:

• Girl Scouts' Peanut Butter Patties aka Tagalongs—10 grams of sugar per serving (2 cookies)

Luckily, Tagalongs are not my favorite GS cookies; my husband bought them because he thought they were. LOL.

• Sweethearts candies—27 grams per serving (one small box)

These candies are leftover from Valentine's Day so they needed to be thrown away!

• Red Vines licorice—16 grams per serving (4 vines)

I love Red Vines; I bought this pack last weekend at the Dodgers vs. Angels exhibition game. Hate to see the last few vines go to waste. :(

• Premier Protein bars—10 grams per serving (one bar)

Although they have 30 grams of protein, these bars have been sitting in our pantry for about a year; moreover, I cannot read most of the ingredients, which is bad (more on this topic later).

I also decided to toss the last of my candy stash from when I was teaching college students as a graduate teaching assistant—two years ago. (You would be amazed at how candy motivates young people.) Anyway, the candy consists of Tootsie Rolls, Super Bubble gum, Hershey's Kisses, Sweet Tarts Chews, Charleston Chews, Now and Laters, Blow Pops, bubble gum balls and lollipops. You have to understand that dumping all of this candy is hard for me; I am guilty of sucking on Now and Laters when I work out, and I just popped a piece of hard (i.e., stale) Super Bubble gum into my mouth. My husband thinks I am ridiculous; he only likes fresh candy.

AWW – XoXo

P.S. Confession: I kept the Blow Pops; there are only four of them. Every girl needs an emergency sugar pick-me-up. For full disclosure purposes, I must admit that I bought a cannoli tonight at Pinocchios.

Goodbye Girl Scout Cookies