Sugar and Yeast Detox - Phase 1, Day 9

In my first post, I promised to blog everyday about this sugar yeast detox that the husband and I have inflicted on ourselves.  We are still doing it and that is why I haven’t had time to post much.  This diet is labor intensive.  I plan elaborate menus that include snacks and then create grocery lists from the menu, go shopping for the ingredients, and then concoct them into something that is hopefully edible.  OK – I admit that it isn’t all that different from my normal life and diet, but because this is such a low calorie low carb diet, I have to make sure that I buy enough so that we aren’t still hungry after eating.  And for me that is the hardest part; making sure that I eat enough calories.

I will not lie.  This diet has been difficult.  Friday was a tough day and all I wanted was comfort food – fried chicken and biscuits or maybe a nice glass of wine to finish off a weird week.  What’s worse is that is exactly what the husband wanted too.  But we persevered and unwound with dry salads from Dion’s that I doctored up with fresh lime juice and olive oil and salted sunflower seeds.  We devoured the evidence so there are no pictures.

While difficult to maintain, this diet has been fun too.  The husband has been boiling eggs for ourbreakfasts – the days when we don’t have a delicious mixture of plain Greek yogurt and unsweetened coconut.  He puts them in a pot of boiling water along with an egg timer that looks like a blue egg, but this egg sings tunes like Oh Susanna, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Hail! Hail! The Gangs All Here so that you can tell the doneness of the egg by song. Thank you to my beautiful mother for finding such a treasurer.  It has added a bit of entertainment to this diet!

Here are some dinner highlights:

Roasted Herb Salmon

We roasted salmon in the oven that was drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a few other spices that seemed good at the time. It was served with zucchini "pasta" and grape tomatoes.  It was very fresh and almost seemed too fancy to be diet food.

Spaghetti Squash "Pasta" and Meatballs

I've made something similar to this before, but I made a tomato sauce that seemed to take forever to make.  This sauce is much more simple - diced fresh tomatoes seasoned with oregano and warmed with a little bit of garlic.  We roasted a spaghetti squash that was carefully seasoned with salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings.  Then we made the meatballs out of ground beef, an egg, onion, and more garlic.  We boiled the meatballs out top of the stop and then put them in the oven to get a bit crispy.  They were a bit bland, but I would try them again and add more spices to the meat.  Overall it was a delicious fresh take on common spaghetti.

We have also altered some of our usual recipes like turkey burgers and chicken fajitas.  We serve the burgers without bread and fajitas are served in a bowl with beans and bell peppers.  Today is the half-way mark.  We are going to make it to phase 2!

Sugar and Yeast Detox - Phase 1, Day 1

A few weeks ago the husband told me that he would like cut back on his sugar intake.  At first I thought he was kidding!  I have done sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free diets before and I honestly couldn’t eat enough.  I was hungry all the time.  So, when he said that I was completely shocked.  Of course, his idea of cutting back on sugar and I my idea of not eating any sugar, didn’t match.  It didn’t help that he had a birthday filled with delicious bar food and beer at a very nice bowling alley.  The cutting back sugar diet failed before it really had a chance to begin.

Enter the sugar and yeast detox diet!  Phase 1, Day 1 begins the day after Easter, so it would not interfere with any celebrations.  We have a menu for the week and the fridge is full of healthy non-sugary, non-yeasty foods.  We just have to eat enough of these foods so that we don’t lose too much weight.  Yes, we don’t want to lose weight.  What we do want is to be healthy and have energy.  And what better way to get there than a 21 day cleanse with no sugar (and that includes most fruit!), no yeast (and that includes all grains!) and no dairy except for yogurt.

To keep us honest, I’m going to chronicle our progress.  I will keep the uninteresting parts brief and elaborate more on the meals that require the most creativity and the encourage the most response for the now sugar (almost free)  husband.

Breakfast

Plain Greek Yogurt with unsweetened coconut – It wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be.  It was a bit of a sour way to start the day and the new diet, but it could have been worse.  Because the husband had to eat his at work, I packed it to go.  I put the coconut and some walnuts for snack.  He forgot that the coconut was supposed to go in the yogurt.  I’m not sure how, but he managed to eat it the dry desiccated coconut with a spoon.

Lunch

Salad with chicken and black olives with a lemon and olive oil dressing – It was not that different than our usual lunches, but the black olives were a treat.  I added more chicken in place of a pita bread and chips though.  The husband was surprised how filling it was!

Dinner

Herbed Salmon with Zucchini Pasta and Grape Tomatoes – The husband said, “The salmon was on point!”  And I agree!  It was seasoned with dried dill and thyme and a little bit of salt and pepper.  It was cooked just right where the edges were crispy and the center firm.  (I like to eat things that I know are cooked, so burnt is better than mushy in my opinion.)  The zucchini was spiralized into thin pasta like curlicues and sautéed in olive oil and water.  I added a clove of garlic for flavor and grape tomatoes for color.  The zucchini had a slight crunch giving a freshness that true pasta will never have.  I would definitely make this again.  Who doesn’t like to be on point?

Day 1 of Phase 1 was a success!  We had good food and we weren’t hungry.  We are on point so far!