Trying to quit sugar as a mum of young children is like trying to convince an alcoholic to give up the grog while standing in a pub. Or a gambler at a race track. A kleptomaniac in an unmanned department store.
As a mum of two young children at home, I feel more exposed to temptation than ever before.
I know I should be trying to quit the sugar from my kids' diet too, but in all honesty I don't know how wholeheartedly I support that idea (don't give kids fruit...?!?) and to be honest, it would be just way too hard. I'm opting for leading by example.
With a pat myself on the back kind of attitude, I've reflected over some of the sticky (excuse the pun) situations I have been in over the past 3 weeks:- Breakfast time - although I am slowly and subtly progressing the kids onto Weetbix (continuously considered by experts as one of the best breakfast cereals going around), I still put a tad (about 1/8 tsp) on their Weetbix for them. More often than not, they don't finish their whole serving. I have to consciously tell myself not to lick their spoon, or finish their leftovers.
- The kids eat a lot of fruit - fresh and dried. When making their morning tea or lunch, it's a challenge to not just pop a sultana or two in my mouth. (Sultana's hey? - I know I live on the edge - but fair dinkum, you give up on all sweetness and all of a sudden a container of sultanas will smell as sweet as a lolly shop).
- I often whip whip the kids up a smoothie for afternoon tea - I make them up with any sort of fruit, berries, milk and flavoured yoghurt. I haven't even licked the drips from the yoghurt container. (I just tried them on my new version - milk, coconut oil and cacao. They were not impressed. I was in heaven.)
- Then the social side of mothering is an occupational hazard when trying to quit sugar: as mentioned in my last post at my mum's group last week my fellow mum served up a plate of brownies and biscuits. I did not yield. Go me.
- I've got a loose play date scheduled with my sister in law and my delightful little niece. She wants me to meet me the chic little Cake Bakeshop. That'll be fab. Talk about putting my willpower to the test! (Lucky our girls playing together is all the sweetness I need!)
- Today I took the kids to a music class. It's run by volunteers at a little church and after all the singing and dancing they provide us with morning tea. On offer for the parents today was chocolate biscuits and little cakes with jam and whipped cream. (I'm actually not even sure if they were little cakes - I didn't make eye contact with those little suckers long enough to decipher exactly what they were, but I could tell they certainly were not sugar free!)
- Ditto at the music class - they provide tea, coffee and milo. I just can't grasp the idea of a black tea no without sugar so I unashamedly took my peppermint tea bag and asked them to make it up for me.
- Sauce! Kids being kids have sauce on a lot of meals. Often whatever they have left over I pick at. A big dollop of sauce puts the kibosh on that plan! (If I don't lose weight cutting out the sugar, I'm bound to lose weight as a result of less picking at their meals).
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger after all!
My husband, a chef, is taking the journey of being sugar free. I have been for a year now so he decided he should try it too. His biggest thing to give up was the mindless eating. A lick of a spoon, the last of the crumbs, the lonely chip on the plate. I have been given permission to say "mindless eating" whenever I see him about to slide that last morsel into his mouth while he is clearing up, setting out, or poking around. It’s hard (and a little bit of a power trip for me) but he is now eating consciously instead of just cos it’s there.
ReplyDeleteSalisshe - that's really admirable that your husband is taking the step (I imagine chef's would grapple with the idea of quitting sugar when they can see it's culinary benefits?). And equally admirable that you have been sugar free for a year - Inspiration!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about that "mindless eating". It's so easy to do! But once you stop and think to think if you "can" eat it, you're in your tracks to consider "why" am I eating? "Mindless eating" has been a huge part of my life too! Since starting this journey I now I generally eat because I am hungry. Go figure!