A tiny, tiny cheat!

Hello my friends! How are you all doing?  So, what have I been up to? Have I fallen of the wagon?  Have I caved in to the gripping claws of sugar....?

Hahahhaha, o.k, I'm being cocky and I thought the pic was hilarious!   Right, back to business!  I have been very good!  It's amazing how I used to drink 3 or 4 mugs of tea with a sachet of sugar in each one..I believe each sachet has 7g of sugar, plus my daily 'treat' ( I confess, sometimes it was 2 or 3 'treats' a day)  In fact,  a few weeks ago I thought to myself: "would it be ok to be extra good all week and have one day where i eat a cake for breakfast, another for lunch and another for dinner?"  or..."Can I eat a packet of chocolate digestives and only that in a day? One day a week?" I'm not making it up, these thoughts actually ran through my head! But I have turned a corner and this feeling of "Being good" is disappearing, I am missing the white crystal, less and less!

Today I went for a coffee, as usual I looked around eyeing up the 'treats' imagining what I would order.  My usual cranberry muffin looked at me with pain in it's eyes wondering why I wasn't buying her anymore.  But as tempted as I was, I didn't buy it, because I stopped and said "Mandy, if you eat it, you'll feel; bloated, sick and guilty, plus, the pleasure is over in about 3 minutes, STEP AWAY FROM THE MUFFIN NOW MISS MILLER" so, I stepped away and I confess, I bought a small madalena....oops!  But I didn't feel guilty and I actually enjoyed it!  Whereas, I was getting to the point with my cranberry muffin addiction where I hoovered it down and felt sick/guilty straight after....

It scares me a bit to think how ignorant I use to be!  Thinking back 10 years ago when I first moved to Spain!  It was hot and it was June so...I was thirsty....I used to drink litres of Fanta!  I remember very clearly reading the nutritional info and seeing "FAT....zero" so I honestly thought it had no calories and it used to quench my thirst so well! 

The same with alcohol...years ago I was so fixed on the fat content of everything I thought "what are the chances? booze is my best buddy AND it's fat free? no fu*king way, this is too good to be true"  I can also vividly see an 80 kilo Mandy Miller buying fruit by the bagful and eating it like there was no tomorrow thinking I was being good (for those of you who read my last post, I am against cutting OUT fruit, but eating 5 or 6 pieces a day was mad!)  Now when I see people drinking Coke and Fanta and hear them say they drink cans of it every day (and for breakfast!) , I shudder (I VERY rarely comment!)  I wonder if , if they knew that 39g of sugar (of the top of my head) is in a single can of  coke = (7 tsp) which is like about 6 sachets of sugar, how many would stop drinking it tomorrow? ( I fear very few...)   And don't get me started on Fanta!  Coke gets a bad rap....Fanta has more sugar, a whopping 42g!   I was out with a friend once was was slagging of Coke , saying her (very young) kids don't drink it....yet, they were drinking Fanta....(I very subtly pointed out that Fanta is no better) I'm glad to say, Amelia doesn't even know what Coke tastes like.

This week, I have been eating well...(when you're trying to eat the minimum amount of sugar, it's hard NOT to eat well)  A LOT of porridge! With a quarter of a banana and some nuts (wow Mandy, watch your nut intake, I keep going for a handful here and a handful there!)   and a dab of honey (yes, I know it's a sugar, but honey at least has SOME health properites to it, sugar has none!)

And, A LOT of protein, because I have been lifting a lot of weights and protein is needed for muscle recovery/repair, plus, it takes longer to digest so leaves you feeling fuller for longer.

I woke up on Tuesday at 05.50 to exercise (which freed up some time in my day)
 


I also ran on the treadmill for 40 minutes before the school run!  Hello?! (said in American accent) I felt so proud of myself! The aim is to do it again tomorrow! Today I walked for an hour with Sienna around Gelida which is so beautiful this time of year! How can you not feel fab walking surrounded by flowers and blossom trees everywhere!?