Join the NO SUGAR challenge!
At the end of yesterday's Nutrition chat, we agreed to start a 50 day no sugar challenge starting Monday Jan. 11, ending Monday March 1st. Since our bodies are not made for yucky sugars and starches, it's time to clean up our diets and start treating our bodies with respect. The hard work, sweat and tears put in day after day at the gym can be optimized by what food we eat and don't eat. Strength in numbers is the way to go with this one.
Your body breaks down complex carbohydrates aka starches into simple sugars so we have to consider more than just banning sugar, jelly, candy, syrup or anything with corn syrup or sugar in it. We also have to look at startches such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Pretty much all processed foods are out...that's your cereals, chips, crackers, pretzels and popcorn.
Here are the rules. For those of you starting the Zone who are already feeling a little overwhelmed with your food intake and limitations, I don' t want to limit so much of your diet that you give up on the Zone. Quantity is important and I want you to see and learn the value of eating the amount of food your body needs. That being said, to me, QUALITY of food is most important for EVERYONE to consider. Choose your "no sugar membership level" according to what your goals are.
Gold Level- no sugar (refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup), no starch (potato, pasta, bread, rice, chips, pretzels), alcohol (beer,wine) for all 50 days.
Silver Level- no sugar, but you get 1-3 cheats from the other categories over the 50 days. (save these for special occasions and report the cheats to comments.)
Bronze Level- no sugar (getting rid of this nasty little guy alone is a great step!) but you choose to keep the other categories in your diet to use in moderation. (might be a good first step for some of you who are just starting to make major changes in your diet....not going cold turkey off of everything...just remember to look at the quantities you're consuming )
Commit to the challenge by posting to comments below.
Commit to the challenge by posting to comments below.
Be sure to post your "No Sugar Membership Level" here. Support eachother by commenting on a regular basis on our Apex daily wod page under the date so we can track progess and results together. Good luck to all and remember JUST SAY NO to sugar!
(If you read this after Jan. 10th but still want to join the challenge just let us know what day you're starting and count 50 days forward for your end date.)
31 comments:
Bronze level! our reward for sticking through the entire 50 days should be those chocolate medals or coins made into a necklace hahaha
I'm going for the Gold...now I know I have a few functions the next few months that may bump me to silver, but to start I'm going to how many I can get through being good as gold.
Don't forget to start your fish oil today! Josh and I took ours this morning.
Kristin and I will do Silver level only because we have some events coming up! We started the Zone yesterday...man it's a lot of work! Good luck everyone!
Going for Gold....but
Define the cheat for me...1-3 what?
I am a crossfitter in Lubbock, Texas and have been doing CF for about 9 months now. I have been following some of the programming on this site since doing some reading on Tanya in the CF Journal. It looks like you guys have a great Box and are doing great things. I hope that it is ok for me to tag along on this challenge. I wish that I could have been a part of the nutrition talk held this weekend.
Sign me up for the Silver level! I am needing a spark nutritionally.
Thanks for the site and for the challenge.
I'm going for the silver! I try to keep in the bronze level as it is but I think the biggest challenge for me is going to be bread. Love my morning eggs and toast!
Thanks for the challenge, should be a good one!
Kim,
1-3 cheats is up to you. My thought was 1-3 events (ie:a wedding or you just need a pizza night to stay sane) After that gathering or cheat meal you will report what you ate/drank that was cheating...try to not fall off the wagon too much on these cheats, but it's up to you on what you will eat/drink. I still don't want SUGAR on these cheats but was thinking of the other categories (starch/alcohol). Does this make sense?
Yep got it. So as of 10:10 am, Monday...I am still Golden
Been "Golden" since Jan 2.
Doing unweighed/unmeasured Paleo.
5 gram of fish oil a day!
Good Luck to everyone up to the challenge!! I went through a "Gold Challenge" (if that's what we're calling it :-))in Nov & Dec myself. It's not easy, but it's worth it. After enough time, you really don't "need" or want the junk like you used to, and it's amazing how some things you used to love really don't even taste good when you try them again! Honest! Your body gets used to eating real food and seems to recognize the junk for what it really is-- junk!
I’m giving it a try and would like to be Golden, but at any level I’m far better off.
As for Day 1, I missed my snack between breakfast and lunch – Paleo Man never had back to back meetings. I had to sly a T-Rex for lunch...not bad on Romaine!
All kidding aside, if I miss a snack again it could be trouble.
Fisher,
Welcome aboard the challenge...we're happy you are joining us!!!
I can't wait to get home to dinner...we're trying something new...eat first before CF! I'm starving, but not for carbs. Got a potroast and tons of veggies in the crock :)
Hey Paleo Man... your already a Golden Bear!!! and while your hunting I would like a teradactyl (sp)egg white omelet with mushrooms and cheese.
Alright, sign me up for Gold. This is going to be tough but I love a good challenge. I found out that lentils are a good carb source that only require 1/4 cup for a block as opposed to 3 or 4 for broccoli.
Ok i'm in sign me up also Gold.
I am but I only doing the Bronze level. I need my complex carbs, to keep up with my training for the tri- sprints this summer but will only be whole wheat and mainly organic.
So this morning as I'm planning out dinner for tonight I reach into my fridge to take a look at my "honey roasted chicken short cuts" (planning chicken and salad) I look and as I figured...sugar! Brown sugar, but I wasn't too surprised since it was "honey" flavor. No big deal it was BOGO so I got the Southwest chicken as well. I take a look and what the! SUGAR! Jeez! Good thing shrimp was on sale as well. Looks like my sweet husband will be eating the chicken. As for me, shrimp on a big old spinich salad. I'll have to take a peek at my dressings to make sure nobody did any sneaky sugar adding to them!
Hopefully everyone is settling into day 2 (or for some of you, day 1).
Day 2...still glowing gold. Last nite I went to bed at 830 so I would stay out of the kitchen. I need to go to the grocery store and shop the perimeter..My pantry is not prepped. Yesterday after school I stormed into the cumberland farms and demanded all their cheese sticks...again not prepared.
So I had my second crossfit dream last night. No joke. In the dream I kept accidentally eating breads and nullifying my gold status. It was very stressful.
Shop til you drop Minnuch, fill that cart with veggies and meat :)
Mike, just imagine if the dream was you doing pullups with bread hanging out of your mouth :) I love it!
I am going Silver as of Wednesday the 13th considering I had carbs this AM. Tanya, is steel cut oatmeal still a no-no for this? Its a staple in my diet and really helps with mid day energy, its 25g carb per serving but only 1g sugar?
Hi all. Sign me up for Gold! I didnt participate at the Nutritional chat but I've been on this plan since Jan 4th so this is day 9 for me. I am committed to ending my sugar addiction... it's the only reason I not at my target weight. And I will be at target before spring. I will...
Miss you guys :)
Day 2 – Not much different than Day 1 except for the body tremors…I need to be at Crossfit – When I’m there I know why the room is spinning…
been Gold since Dec 27th!!! :-) lost quite a few pounds and significant change in clothing! yeeehaawww!
Is it me or does everything have sugar in it?????
Fisher everything has sugar. Check your salad dressings everyone. My Cinnamon Toast Crunch taste Great. Stop over for a bowl with me any time. Goodluck ya'll.
Shanna,
I know you are an endurance athlete and if you are still spending long periods of time out in the aerobic energy system, to you I will give the same advice as Karen. Stick to some complex carbs like your steel cut oats, such a better choice, in my opinion, than others. If you really aren't looking to do without it and have no problems with it...keep it (just don't add sugar to it.)
Hope this helps.
The challenge is meant to clean up or help motivate people to make changes they need to make. Many of you that I talk to already have a good handle on your diet, this just might be a good excuse to dial it in and see how long you can go without that diet coke or handful of m&m's at work. you are still IN the challenge as long as you don't eat sugar/high fructose corn syrup.
one more thing...yeah Fisher it does seem that everything in a bottle has sugar in it...every salad dressing I grabbed except for Newman's own olive oil vinegar has sugar.
I just read this and I'm using it to help in this challenge. If you pick something up and it has more than 3 ingredients in it good chances it's no good. Great rule of thumb in the grocery store. Kim that perimeter shouldn't have too many ingredients, you'll be good. Hope food shopping was fun :)
Keep up the great work!
I am going for gold! Adam is a paleo man now. We started on Monday. Gave away all the carb/sugar items from our pantry to coworkers. Stocked up on meats, veggies, and fruit. They think I'm nuts. You are what you eat!
Brooke wait until they see that six pack and buldging biceps in the near future. They will be getting food tips from you. Just wait. Love to hear that Adam is trying Paleo. Livin like the Caveman! Keep up the good work everyone. I just had an afternoon snack.
2 eggs, 2pieces of pork roll, 1.5 slices of american cheese a glass of milk and a handful of nuts.
Umm I see that the last post was about a month ago, and I was just browsing the site and found this challenge and decided that I was going to go for silver level. I'm starting tomorrow February 6 and ending on March 27.
Better late than never right!!
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