Hi! I'm on day 15, feeling full of energy and excited that I've only got 6 more days left! I'm still not looking forward to this weekend - I truly think the weekends are the hardest times to not give in, but still, I'll make it. All the headaches are gone, and I'm feeling really good.
Today, I want to talk about the drinks we are consuming. Think through what you drink in a typical day. I tend to drink between one and three coffees without sugar, water throughout the day, and then perhaps a herbal, fruit tea, glass of white wine, or G+T in the evening. Water is zero sugar, as is the herbal tea, the coffee with normal milk is about 1/2 teaspoon - but the G+T is about 6tsps!
I got into the habit a few years ago of not buying squash at all (American friends, this is what we call cordial), the majority of squash contains high amounts of both fake and real sugar. I also only tend to buy a cartoon of fresh juice, not from concentrate, once or twice month at weekends. This was partly to avoid the sugar, but mostly because Isaac, our youngest, went through a delightful stage of refusing to drink water and throwing the most almighty fits whenever I tried to dilute his juice with water, which was EVERY TIME. So, quite quickly, I banned all juice from the house. The kids happily drink water with every meal and between meals, and I'm really happy knowing it's both healthy and free! Also, when there is only water in the house to drink, Jake and I tend to drink more water too, so we all benefit.
If your kids don't like drinking water that much, you can add a few berries and some ice - my kids always love that! In the winter, I often offer them hot water (cooled down) with a slice of lemon. I think they love feeling grown up, and it does help them to enjoy drinking water. For more ideas, check this post out:
Today, I want to talk about the drinks we are consuming. Think through what you drink in a typical day. I tend to drink between one and three coffees without sugar, water throughout the day, and then perhaps a herbal, fruit tea, glass of white wine, or G+T in the evening. Water is zero sugar, as is the herbal tea, the coffee with normal milk is about 1/2 teaspoon - but the G+T is about 6tsps!
I got into the habit a few years ago of not buying squash at all (American friends, this is what we call cordial), the majority of squash contains high amounts of both fake and real sugar. I also only tend to buy a cartoon of fresh juice, not from concentrate, once or twice month at weekends. This was partly to avoid the sugar, but mostly because Isaac, our youngest, went through a delightful stage of refusing to drink water and throwing the most almighty fits whenever I tried to dilute his juice with water, which was EVERY TIME. So, quite quickly, I banned all juice from the house. The kids happily drink water with every meal and between meals, and I'm really happy knowing it's both healthy and free! Also, when there is only water in the house to drink, Jake and I tend to drink more water too, so we all benefit.
If your kids don't like drinking water that much, you can add a few berries and some ice - my kids always love that! In the winter, I often offer them hot water (cooled down) with a slice of lemon. I think they love feeling grown up, and it does help them to enjoy drinking water. For more ideas, check this post out:
Looking around online, there are some fantastic graphics showing how much sugar is in the drinks we normally have, take a look at them and find out where you could be drinking the most sugar, and see if there are any swaps to be made. I for one, learnt that Prosecco is a good, low-sugar option - hooray!
Take time to think through the drinks that you and your children are drinking. Do you think you are mostly on the right track (remember the 80/20 rule here, we aren't aiming for perfection!) or is there lots of room for improvement? When I'm back on a normal diet, I think I'm going to commit to drink more water, keep going with the bulletproof coffee and limit alcohol to the weekends and of course quiz night!
See you tomorrow!
See you tomorrow!