How does too much work, or stress effect your self-care, health and happiness?  Think about it: you spend eight to 10 hours a day, five days a week at work. Chances are you spend more time with your coworkers than anyone else in your life. Some of us are still working from home, but are glued to our computers for that time. Many of us wear stress as a badge of honor, convinced that productivity requires endless turmoil. How does stress inform your food choices?  We know that sugar turns on our brains' reward system and that dopamine makes us feel better (for the moment). Do you ever turn to sweets when feeling stressed?  Keeping stress in check with selfcare is one of the ways to reduce sugar cravings.  Here are some things I rely on for selfcare that help keep my stress in check based on how much time I have: Read More

November 16, 2021 Day 123   I’ve started hunting for new healthy sugar free holiday recipes to serve for Thanksgiving and to bring to holiday parties and found three so far that I’d like to test out. One is a spinach and artichoke dip (not the one with mayo), another is coconut cranberry snowballs (can’t wait to try those) and yesterday I cooked up the third new dish, a warmly spiced quinoa chickpea stew.  It had lots of ingredients, but came together pretty easily and will be a good vegan, sugar-free option for our neighborhood holiday party.  It’s not typical holiday party fare, but there are quite a few of us who enjoy eating this way, so hopefully it will go over well.  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy some of the batch I made for lunch this week and freeze the other half for another time. Read More

November 13, 2021 Day 121 Yesterday for lunch I ordered the grilled chicken salad over arugula that I love. Of course, I now know to ask for no dressing (sugar) and no dried cranberries (sugar added). I opened up the bag and the dressing was there, on the side. I ate the salad with no dressing, savoring the taste of the tomatoes, arugula, and chicken unadulterated. Then I lifted the top to the dressing, dipped my fork in and tasted! Ugh it tasted like pure sugar! Sorry, but into the trash it went. I was proud of my palate for tasting the tastes. Read More

November 12, 2021 Day 120   Cranberries just scream Thanksgiving to me - well besides gratitude, family gatherings, the fancy dishes, and turkey.  Cranberries are indigenous to North America, with 1,200 cranberry growers in five states including New Jersey, where I live. Just yesterday my organic Coop box gifted me with cranberries from Canada. How ironic!   Of course, whole fresh cranberries with no sugar added are a great ingredient, rich in purple-red anthocyanin pigments to support heart and brain health, vitamins B, C, E, K, and fiber too. But most cranberry sauce we love on Thanksgiving is made with sugar. Cranberries are naturally tart, so for most uses, cranberry recipes involve added sugar.  I have a few recipes with no sugar added for a raw cranberry and orange relish and cooked cranberry onion chutney. I’ll dig them out and share them with you.   Read More

November 10, 2021 Day 117   It’s getting close to Thanksgiving and this is the time of year that food drives are in full swing.  We always give to the Boy Scout food drive, and this year we’re adding the NourishNJ food drive.  I checked the list of needed items knowing I’d like to stick to healthy foods, and decided to buy canned fruit in their own juices with no sugar added.  I also picked up oatmeal packets with no sugar added. But when I got home and unpacked the groceries, I realized I’d bought canned pineapple WITH 13 g added sugar giving the pineapple 25 g of sugar per serving.  There is no way I can in good conscience give this as a donation!  So, back to the store I go for a return and this time I paid a lot closer attention! Read More

November 5, 2021 Day 113   Ahh, it was good to give myself a break from blogging for a few days.  I’ve been putting my January 7-Day Sugar Cleanse.  What is it all about you ask? It will be one week of no sugar recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, all real food, plus live cooking with me in my kitchen on Zoom on Sunday, January 23. For those who want to join, they’ll get all of the recipes, meal plan, shopping list, and a prep guide for Sunday. I’ve run programs like these in the past such as the Reset Diet, Mediterranean Diet, and Lighten up for Summer, which are all here on my website.     Read More

November 1, 2021 Day 109   Yesterday was Halloween, and not a piece of candy was had.  I really felt bad for those kids!  I couldn’t in good conscience feed them candy, so I asked my husband and son to please be responsible for answering the door for the sugar hungry ghosts and goblins. It’s not only the sugar in the stuff, but the red dye #3 which was just banned in the UK, but still okay here. Read More

October 27, 2021 Day 104 Due to the weather, yesterday I spent most of the day texting, calling, and emailing people to reschedule a paddle tennis match which was supposed to take place yesterday.  As a new team captain, I’m learning and making mistakes.  I had to find out everyone’s availability and coordinate our team availability with the other team.  I found this to be very stressful, time consuming and disruptive to my day.  I felt tense, was unable to concentrate.    Read More

October 26, 2021 Day 103   Yesterday I had lunch with friends at Chopt.  It was a first for me and many of us.  They have lots of great ingredients including chopped kale, all kinds of veggies, and warm bowls with grains or cauliflower rice.  I got the warm Harvest bowl with mixed grains, chicken, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, kale, and pumpkin seeds.  I asked for no dressing as it was hard to get an answer on the dressing ingredients, even when asking the manager.  I would hope they didn’t add sugar to their dressings since they seem to be so health conscious about other ingredients, but you just can’t be sure. Read More

October 25, 2021 Day 102   It’s been a busy (but fun) few days of meetings, cooking, entertaining, travel planning, phone calls with family, and lots of activity including hiking with my health & wellness friends, paddle tennis practice with the team, yoga, and weight lifting with my son.    I finally sat down yesterday afternoon, cleaned out my emails, and did some work on my sugar course.  I wanted to cook and do some meal prep, but I’d fallen behind on my sugar course goals and just needed to catch up. I worked on the first two weeks of the course.  One assignment will include assessing our energy.  We think sugar can give us energy, but sugar can also play havoc on our adrenals and deplete our energy, and affect sleep and mood, as you may already be aware.  I’m going to try my energy assessment out over the next few days and see what I discover.  Read More