A new normal

This week I tried two new recipes:  Pumpkin Spice pancakes and vegan Alfredo sauce. 

Both were great. 

The pancakes were for a different take on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday. The pancakes were incredibly filling and quite nice, but a little heavier than we are used to these days for dinner, and that is with out using maple syrup on them. I doubled the recipe for the pancakes so my son could have some for the weekend. 

When we had a plethora of Hokkiado pumpkins in the shops, I bought three to bake, puree, separate and freeze for later use – such a good idea! Living in Germany, a lot of the produce is seasonal, pumpkins being one of those items. Also, living in Germany, even as an American, I do not have free access to the air force bases here, so no regular access to canned pumpkin for me. 

I have always cooked, from learning the basics, through today. It is one way I really like to learn and it is an easy way to show people you care about them – feed them! 

Something I have noticed over this past month is that our food seems to be going farther and our meals are becoming smaller. Both my husband and I are not eating as much as we have previously. It doesn’t take as much to fill us up, which is great and unexpected.

He even said why not just keep it going after this month is over?

I cannot remember the last time I felt stuffed as if I would burst. Take the vegan Alfredo sauce I made. Alfredo is normally so delicious and decadent that I have always had a love-hate relationship with it. I love it, but rarely eat it because it makes me feel like a gluttonous stuffed pig whenever I have eaten it. This vegan option, especially with the spiral cut zucchini as noodles that I made was the exact opposite. I felt satiated and content, not guilty because I had to go lay down.  

This seriously is a new standard for me. 

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If you are interested in trying some of the recipes in the 21 Day Sugar Detox, Sanfilippo has a ton on the book’s website along with other great resources to help with your sugar detox.

A little something every day

I am still doing yoga daily, which I find amazing. When I previously met people who said they did yoga daily, I always thought they were a combination of crazy and amazing. However, that is how I feel – a little crazy if I don’t get time on the mat earlier in the day, but amazing at the end of every session on the mat. 

I am starting to prefer yoga practices that are at least thirty to forty-five minutes, but the longer or shorter times have also been amazing. 

On Wednesday this week, I had a two-hour meeting at nine in the morning and a two-hour training 

At seven in the evening. In between, I sat and worked at my computer the entire day. I was so tired by the end of my training at nine, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep properly if I didn’t spend some time on the mat. I found a twenty-minute ‘Yoga for bedtime’ routine on Yoga with Adriene that was exactly what I needed. 

I had always thought that yoga workouts needed to be an hour to an hour and a half every time, however, Yoga with Adriene has helped me see that is not the case at all. I appreciate that. Something every day is better than something every once in a while. 

Moving forward

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Perhaps, as I continue with these monthly challenges, I should only post twice monthly instead of checking in weekly. 

 I am afraid my content might be boring or become boring if it isn’t already. My goal here is, to be honest about my process, but also engaging. Honest doesn’t have to be boring, right? Additionally, I am not writing to be popular, but I am writing to be heard, at least by some. 

I check my blog stats twice a week, and while more people are being exposed to and like my blog, not too many people seem to be interested in my #nosugar experience. It is embarrassingly funny how many people are not into it. I wonder if it is possible to add a ‘dislike’ button to my blog. 

I will experiment with my formatting of posts, and their frequency. 

What’s going on? 

Why is this month not receiving the feedback or response like last months’ Thirty days of Yoga challenge? Perhaps it is because people across the world are living through a pandemic and need any comfort they can find in these stressful times. 

Maybe it is my lack of pizzazz writing on the subject.  

I think this is also why completing this challenge this month may come across as a little ‘boring’. The main temptation for me has only been me. I am fighting my own free will. Believe me, if I had the forethought to restart this blog in 2020, this blog would probably be way more interesting documenting my attempt to stay on track as a darn pandemic unfolded right before our eyes, halting the world moving forward for the rest of that year. Then again, I would probably have thrown in the towel as soon as tension hit. I was a walking zombie from March through until May last year, at least. I ate too much; drank too much, didn’t love enough, cried a lot, and worried about uncertainty while also attempting to work, raise my son, and be married. Yikes. 

Aren’t we glad 2020 has come to a close!  

Speaking of pizzazz though, I walked through town the other day to meet a friend for a take-away coffee and saw two men eating takeaway Italian pizza. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. 

I want it, even three days later; just because of the pizza boxes I saw. 

Yet, you see dear Reader, everything is shut. The only shopping we can do is either online or for groceries at the supermarket. My whole family has been working from home, so we’ve had to force ourselves to go out. Plus, it has been freakishly cold in the last three weeks. We had snow and freezing temperatures last week. However, as I type this, it is 16C/60F degrees outside. Germany has been hibernating, or at least we have. 

I guess this is also a round about way for me to say that I still have cravings. The strangest thing about it all is that they generally pass. This is something I couldn’t even imagine four weeks ago. If someone would have said that to me, I would have responded with “Lies!”

We make pizza every Saturday night, our pizza and movie night. It is not the same, however. Italian pizza is a field all by itself.

All this is to say, if you want to quit something like sugar, maybe move to a foreign country, live through a pandemic, work from home, and cook all your meals. I am sure it would work for you too, even if you couldn’t move to a foreign country…cook all your meals, live through a pandemic, take care of your family, teach them, keep them healthy, maintain your own physical and mental well-being, be a good partner, be a good worker-from-home or worker-on-site. Bobs your uncle. Yeah, not unrealistic at all, right?!

Sorted, perfect. 

See you next week to put this month’s challenge to an official end. 

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