finickeats

In my quest to cut out sugar, I’ve found that I have to be very vigilant of ingredient lists. There is sugar in so many of the foods we do not necessarily consider “sweets”, (tomato sauce, dressings, etc).

I came across this infographic about sugar at http://blog.shareitfitness.com/2011/09/06/not-so-sweet-sugar-facts/

It’s a great eye-opener.

As a teacher, often times I find myself faced with the challenge of trying  to resolve behavioral issues in my classroom. One such behavior that has popped up in just about every group of children I have ever worked with is fidgeting. Maybe I should take a quick second to clarify what I mean when I classify fidgeting as a behavior issue. I myself am a  fidgeter when I am required to stand or sit still for anything longer than oh, say ten minutes. However, as a healthy, functioning (maybe that’s up for debate), adult I am aware of appropriate vs. inappropriate fidgeting. Bobbing my foot while my legs are crossed under the table is a socially acceptable form of fidgeting. Playing with the hair of the person sitting next to me, on the other hand, is not so acceptable. And this latter example is where many of my students run into trouble. You see, it’s not the fidgeting that is most often the issue, it is the way the fidgeting manifests itself into inappropriate touching of people and objects.

So whats a teacher to do? Do I play the part of a broken record?

Stop moving!

Stop moving!

STOP MOVING!

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD STOP MOVING!

Any teacher or parents can probably recall a situation in which they tried this broken record method and while maybe it worked for a few minutes, I’d bet you a roll of quarters that it didn’t take long for the child to start the (insert disruptive/inappropriate behavior here) all over again.

So what do we do?

Well, my training and experience tells me that telling a child NOT to do something does not teach them what they SHOULD  be doing it just creates a sort of vacuum. Rather, if you find a child to be having issues with a particular behavior, help them REPLACE the behavior with a more socially acceptable one. Enter the fidget ball. The fidget ball (see picture above) is a small ball, my personal favorite is created using balloons and lentils, (find instructions on how to make your own here), that a child can hold in his or her lap during times when it is expected of him or her to be (relatively) still. The fidget ball provides an appropriate outlet for fidgeting to those children who might otherwise start playing with the hair of the child next to them or tapping the wall or floor or whatever else might be in tapping-distance.

So what does all of this have to do with my eating habits?

Well, in the past, I found that telling myself, “Elizabeth, stop eating garbage food,” worked for all of two weeks before I was back to eating garbage food. Why? Well, the way I figure it, in much the same way that “stop moving” is not helping a child sit without fidgeting in an inappropriate manner, “stop eating garbage food” was not helping me eat healthy, it was just creating a vacuum of not eating.

And so, nearly eight weeks ago when I decided to stop my intake of refined sugar, I took some of my own teacher-ly advice and began to implement a plan of replacing all that sugary junk with food that might satisfy my need for sweet with something more appropriate for healthy living.

As it turns out, when you are not eating a half of a pound of sugar a day, you may find that things like red peppers and clementines are capable of satisfying your sweet tooth.

Who knew?

So, as you start to think about cutting out this or cutting back on that, take the time to brainstorm replacements. Ask not only, what foods can I eliminate? but also, what foods or activities will help me work towards my goal?

Now it’s your turn…

How have you or how do you plan on replacing not-so-good-for-you-foods?

These days, it seems that just about everyone and their technologically savvy mother keep some sort of food blog. Hours upon hours of my life have been devoted to perusing these blogs, salivating at the pictures of culinary creations I wholeheartedly wanted to make but knew I probably never would. Never, that is, until this past December.

While I have always been something of a finicky eater, my picky-ness took a new and exciting turn just before the start of 2012 when I decided to cut out refined sugar and most carbohydrates. After what turned out to be an over-indulgent, shove-as-many-Christmas-tree-shaped-sugar-cookies-down-my-throat-as-is-physically-possible-and-holy-crap-who-brought-the-cake-balls-I’ll-just-have one-or-two-or-seven-thanks kind of holiday season, I felt, with every sugar-saturated fiber of my body that I needed a break. I needed a break from the highs and lows I experienced daily in my mood, energy and hunger level. I needed a break from headaches I got after not eating anything for a few hours. I needed a break from what I (and my ever-so-patient boyfriend who takes care of me when I come down with it) refer to as “sugar belly”.

And so, on the 28th of December, I vowed to not touch refined sugar or carbs until the 28th day of the following month, which coincidentally, was going to be my 28th birthday. The tricky part of my decision to, what I like to call detox, was that, well I was already a finicky-as-all-get-out eater (read: No meat, few veggies, nothing that sounds exotic, and many other restrictions based on my aversion to many different textures) so adding even more foods to the list of things that won’t cross my lips was seemingly going to make my life way more difficult. (And by “me” I mostly mean my boyfriend who handles, lovingly, most of the preperation of my meals).

Nearly eight weeks later, I’m still refined-sugar free and can’t imagine going back to my old two-kit-kats-and-a-pair-of-ho-hos-a-day habit. (No offense kit-kats and ho hos, I love you and all your chocolate-y melt on my fingertips so I’m forced to lick you off with my tongue goodness).

And so, I’ve replaced all the sugary, little-to-no nutrition foods, (and I use the term “food” loosely) with delicious, clean, whole foods that don’t make me feel like falling into a sugar-crash coma twenty minutes after finishing.

And so, I would like to introduce you to my new blog. Finickeats. It’s a blog about being a finicky eater, learning to love (or at least try) foods I previously had refused to put anywhere near my mouth, and enjoying the sugar free lifestyle that’s led me to many new and adventurous recipes!

Enjoy!