[Sugar doesn't] really fix anything, except for everything.”*

So the hardest part of letting go of sugar in your diet is the initial cravings you feel. It takes approximately a month to clean your body of the toxins that keep you addicted to sugar. It takes a high level of commitment to your body and healthy living to decide you want to clean up your eating, However, I will PROMISE you, it's worth it! There are diets out there that you can follow or you can set out on your own. If you do it on your own, you might want to see if you can find a buddy to do it with as it's not an easy life change and support is critical. 

Shopping is a whole new adventure as it means reading a lot of labels if you want to eat anything that comes in a bottle or is pre-packaged. Even many (or most) organic foods have added sugars in them and if you want to clean up your eating, that's the first thing you want to tackle. I was surprised when I found out that even meats like bacon and ham are usually cured with sugar. The important thing to make sure and do is to eat things you enjoy AND to eat plenty of fruits. I am a fairly picky eater and I don't like a lot of the vegetables that many enjoy but keeping to the foods that I do enjoy has made this journey so much easier. 

   One thing I thoroughly enjoy every day is a hot cup of chai, especially in the winter. In the summer I am more likely to have iced tea but the creamy sweetness of chai is something I wasn't willing to eliminate from my diet. Fortunately, chai is delicious and even made more tasty by adding honey. I also use 100% real Maple syrup for sweetening some of the foods that I make in order to keep from slipping back into my addiction. As a migraineur honey is a great substitute as it is also an ant-inflammatory. I make a delicious granola once in a while with maple syrup as the sweetener. 

I hope it's a challenge your ready to take! And as a bonus, here's a recipe that I love for a bean soup:

1 lb dry black beans (or 1/2 black beans, 1/2 red beans). 

8 c. of water

1 yellow onion

1/2 green pepper

1/2 red pepper

3 lg cloves of garlic

1 jalepeno pepper finely chopped

1/2 -1 tsp of cumin 

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 bay leaves

1 T. basil 

dash of cayenne pepper

dash of red pepper flakes

1 lb. of raw chicken (breast or chicken legs)

Cook the "fast" way according to directions on package (takes beans about 3 hours to cook fully) or in a crockpot for up to 8 hours)

Add water as necessary. 

Serve with sour cream and/or grated cheddar cheese. I also serve it on top of brown rice. (white rice has too many starches and has been connected to an increase in diabetes). 

The Pampered Chef Rockcrok is a great way to make this recipe and it comes with a slow cooker set which is available March 1st!  

*quote from Ashly Lorenzana

Moments beyond words

There are moments when words fail, when anything you try to say or express will only marginalize the feelings that you have. Or you are simply unable to express any kind of feeling because the feelings are too strong. It may be a glorious sunset which chokes the emotion and stifles your voice. Sorrow too can bury words so deeply that they are unable to find their way to the surface.

It is one such moment that we witness in this week's episode of Key West. In 'The Greening', three separate story lines tell of the character's moments of reckoning. Though it is not the show's most sterling of quarter hours it still manages to show an intention for maturity that surpasses the average "this-is-how-we-have-a-perfect-life-in-forty-five-minutes" television formula. For Seamus, his high school buddies come to town and attempt to lure him back to the life of "streaking and mooning... passing out together" and as the Sheriff wisely points out, for your friends "much sowing is left to be done". For Savannah... (the moon goddess I introduced in a prior post) she meets her knight in shining armor only to recall that the life he offers is not synchronous with the life she lives. For both, there is a moment where who they are stands out in stark contract against what is being offered. And in spite of the seduction of this other life, they have to be true to themselves and honest with the people they love (or are falling in love with, in Savannah's case) and say farewell.

But in a third narrative, the city's mayor is having a reckoning of her own. As an audience in the know, we learned in first episode of the season that the soon-to-be Mayor Chaucy Caldwell is an alcoholic. Although her opponent's homosexuality is used as fodder for political gain, her secret is kept safe from public scrutiny. And for this once television reflects real life, the mayor's alcoholism doesn't disappear (hear that Charlie Sheen???) from view. She wants so badly to just live life- have a beer while watching  a football game or celebrate with a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve- that she has a drink. Not a big deal right? Unfortunately a drink is not a drink for an alcoholic and Chaucy is headed for a crisis. After her Aid confronts her and she leaps into denial (not the river!), she finds herself alone with a bottle of Cromart whiskey and a glass. She knows who she is and what alcohol can do to her life but she also knows how badly she wants a drink. So here is her moment...

Not a word is spoken as she curls up on the couch, bottle snuggled closely to her chest, tears and the inner conflict between what lies behind and what is ahead...