Keepin on Truckin

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Sugar sugar sugar. Last week was Week 8. I'm finding this middle part of my 3 months mission to be very up and down. I will not think about sugar for hours and then bam. Need. Chocolate (Just say no, just say no).

We found out about this plant called Stevia that we want to try out. We're going to buy seeds from King Seeds and see what happens. Basically, Stevia is a plant that is naturally super super sweet - as in, 300 times sweeter than sugar. You can use the leaves if you either steep them like a tea to make a liquid or rip them up and put them straight into cooking. You can also get it in powdered form if thats easier for you. You make a cake, you need 1 teaspoon of it. Want a coffee? Sprinkle just a few grains.

It's completely natural and unrefined. It's a plant! You need far far less of it and some research shows it actually has medicinal properties - its GOOD FOR YOU! Yusssss.

Meanwhile, I kept a food diary. Skip to the bottom if you don't care, I'm mostly just publishing it so I am accountable. This week I ate - 

• 13 pieces of wholegrain toast (2.5%)
• 1 piece turkish bread (unknown)
  
• 1c roast potato
• 100g Kumara
• 2 poached eggs
• 50g Bacon
• 2 small breakfast sausages (unknown)
• 50g Edam Cheese 
• 100g Ham
• 100ml Vanilla Ice Cream (at Movies by Moonlight, 19.6%)
• 1 nut bar (22.9%)
• 27 raw nuts
• 1/4 cup Hollondaise sauce
• 2.5 avocados
• 1c guacamole
• 1 large mushroom
• 2 tomatos
• 1 Passionfruit
• 3 Olives
• 1 apple
• 1c lettuce
• 4 Plums
• 3/4 cup green grapes
• 25 prunes
• 3 Peach Muffins (made with honey)
• 2 Banana muffins (made with Honey)
• 2 tbsp Sunflower seeds
• 6 tbsp Honey
• 1 scoop hot chips with vinegar
• 1 Taco Salad - lettuce, tomato, chicken, beans, sour cream, guacamole, mayonaisse in a taco bowl. The only sugar would have been the mayonaisse. (unknown)
• 2 meals of Vermicelli with brocolli, yellow pepper, eggplant, bok choy, soy sauce (3%), honey, ginger. One day I had it with egg, the next with chicken. The egg one had beef stock (0.4%) and the chicken one had 1 Chicken OXO Cube (0.1%) between 3 servings (of which I had one)
• An egg, rice and vege bake that Natalie made
• 2 meals of a concoction Courtney made with Mince, rice, coconut cream, tomatos, capsicum and onion
• 5 Wholegrain buns (over 3 meals, 1.8% from memory) with spinach, tomato, turkey, camembert, salami, capsicum and cashew pesto, butter.
• 2250ml water
• 1 Sugar-Free V
• 50ml Peach Iced Tea (It was my Mums and I just wanted a sip to tide me over, 7.5%)
• 100ml Phoenix Cola - at work they got a free coffee for everyone. I don't like coffee, can't do Hot Chocolate, so I asked for a Coke Zero. This was the closest they could find, made with organic cane sugar. I tried to drink it, I really did. But for a combination of reasons - too sweet, too jittery, didn't want to let myself down - I gave to Courts after 2 or 3 sips (11%).
• 600ml Milk (4.9%, I haven't bolded it because its not added sugar, just natural lactose)
• 1 can Coke Zero 

http://iis.berkeley.edu/research

It's still not what I would call healthy eating. I think it's just closer to 'normal' than I used to be. The things that had sugar in them had an average of 7.64%. It's good, but considering I'm supposed to be keeping below 3% it wasn't great. The culprits were the nut bar, which I haven't bought any more of, sips of sugary drinks, which i just need to say no to, and the ice cream. It was only 1 scoop and it was once this week, so I'm ok with that.

I don't really like seeing my water intake up there. I know I need to drink more water, but I struggle. Rather than get my percentage down further, this week I'm going to focus on water. It will probably be easier to avoid sugar if I can get on top of that.

Any tips for making me want water? I've tried it cold, warm, hot, with lime, with lemon, with ice, in a bottle, in a cup... help!