Meal Plan Monday Post

Loving this warm weather - finally seems like spring is letting us know it's on the way! Patrick and I worked a bit in the yard over the weekend. We've got grand plans of a yard make-over complete with dry stream bed, a raised garden bed for vegetables, starting a composting pile, and beautifying the back deck! The goals may be a bit lofty so we'll see where we end up.

Plans for the past week were always a bit in the air so the meal plan would get planned a few days at a time and some nights were changed around. Our food challenge was a bit more challenging this week. It didn't alter the meal planning so much but more inconvenienced our snacking and breakfast options.

Week 9: No refined or artificial sweeteners including (but not limited to): white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, sucanat, splenda, stevia, agave, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, and cane juice. Foods and beverages can only be sweetened with a moderate amount of honey or maple syrup.

We're well into our challenge now and they're breaking out the big guns - sugar. Sugar is a big media buzzword these days. And rightly so since sugar has become such a big industry. It's almost everywhere you look and, in my opinion, that's what makes it so timely in any sort of food challenge you see. I mentioned that this was challenging for us. To be successful I would have needed to go through our pantry and refrigerator before the challenge started and flagged everything with a post-it that said "sugar" and avoided those things throughout the week.

Patrick started out his Monday with an English muffin topped with peanut butter and jelly. Then we both had an afternoon snack of leftover birthday party cupcakes. I'm not even sure what strike three was that day but I'm sure there was one. Some days were better than others and there were times we didn't eat something because it had sugar.

I did some light researching just now to share with you some sugar insight. In this public news release the World Health Organization "recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits."
"Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. ...
The WHO guideline does not refer to the sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sugars naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of adverse effects of consuming these sugars.
Much of the sugars consumed today are “hidden” in processed foods that are not usually seen as sweets. For example, 1 tablespoon of ketchup contains around 4 grams (around 1 teaspoon) of free sugars. A single can of sugar-sweetened soda contains up to 40 grams (around 10 teaspoons) of free sugars."
Looking back at this past week I see that eliminating sugars isn't a top priority for us. I wholeheartedly believe in everything in moderation. However simply by adding more nutritious options to our diet we will be eliminating the processed foods. So my takeaway from week 1 (eat two fruits and vegetables at every meal) is much stronger than this sugar challenge.

Fruit bowl this past week
Meal Plan for Monday March 9 - Sunday March 15

   Monday - Lilly's Pizza with friends
Breakfast bonus: Overnight oats topped with sliced almonds and fresh strawberries


   Tuesday - Mediterranean tuna salad
   Wednesday Crockpot beef stroganoff
   Thursday - Potato soup
   Friday - Leftover soup | PlayMakers show - An Enemy of the People
   Saturday - Brunch Dos Perros
      Kinky Boots matinee at DPAC
      Dinner Chinese takeout
   Sunday - Breakfast Whole wheat waffles
      Dinner Pancetta and brussels pizza, salad

Challenge Meal Plan Summary: Week 1 Fruits & Veggie | Week 2 Beverages | Week 3 Meat | Week 4 No Fried Foods | Week 5 New Whole Foods | Week 6 Labeling | Week 7 Grains | Week 8 Internal Cues | Week 9 No Refined / Artifical Sweeteners | Week 10 No Refined / Hydrogenated Oils | Week 11 Locally Grown | Week 12 No Added Sweeteners | Week 13 No Artificial Ingredients | Week 14 5 Ingredients or Less

1 comment:

  1. Wow, you will be busy in your yard! Love the meal planning.

    ReplyDelete