Baby Steps..the Friday Weekend Challenge

I have had a few people say that they can't go "all in" like I did.  For me, I am all or nothing if you know me.  I do it all the way, clean out the cabinets all at once and say "GO!"..
But, some of my friend's are saying that is hard for them. So I decided to do a Baby Steps Friday each week to challenge you to change a habitat over the weekend.  So.....drum roll......

BABY STEP CHALLENGE #1

Stop Eating All That Sugar....
Check your labels for sugar..If it has more than 15 grams for serving, don't bite it or drink it. Sugar is like an addicting drug, when you eat it you crave more of it..no joking.


For this baby step challenge, you have to know how to read a label and what to look for...

Many foods, such as milk, fruits, and cheeses have naturally occurring sugar.  That's ok, just make sure it's not over about 15 grams per serving. Warning grape juice has 42 whopping grams per serving.  Oh my...sugar is sugar no matter who you shake it out natural or not.  We need it for body functions, but not that much.
I don't count calories, I just watch sugar grams on nutrition labels.  When I cook, I use healthy sweeteners like the ones on my approved sweeteners tab.  Some of them are calorie free and don't count , yah! Just watch the grams per day.  No more than 25% of your daily calories should come from added sugar. For most women that should be less than 30 grams a day!! Go to www.livestrong.com and plug in your foods on My plate and it will calculate it all for you and turn a bad color when you have over eaten sugar grams.  It's great for tracking, it has restaurant foods and grocery items, you name it, it's in there already.
I am a creature of habitat, as most people are.  So I don't have to look too much unless I eat something new.  I eat a lot of the same things, so I know what to eat and don't have to count. 

How to Read a Label for Sugar

1. Look at the sugar on this part first, my personal rule of thumb is to keep it below 15 gms per serving on the products I eat or drink.

2.  Check the ingredient list below the nutrition label..this is where the sugar is added to products and is not naturally occurring.  Try to find products with honey, molasses, pure cane sugar, stevia also known in an ingredient list as rebiana..these are ok if the sugar grams aren't high in the numbers portion of the nutrition label.  If it has sugar, high fructose corn syrup,  corn syrup, natural sugar, brown sugar, aspartame, splenda (sucralose is splenda), or if the grams are high in the numbers area..don't eat this and throw it out and don't buy it again. The ingredients are listed in order from the item that has the largest volume in the product to smallest. So if the first ingredient is sugar, you are going to have a problem.  That means it has more sugar than anything else listed after it.

this is a bad ingredient label

this is a good ingredient label

If I had one piece of advice in all the trials I have done with food it is this .....SUGAR MAKES US FAT.  Watch your sugar grams and know what you are eating.  They have hidden added sugar everywhere, so read your labels.  It's in spices like lemon pepper and everything.  I search out products without them and it's hard. But...once you know the brands that are good, you can purchasing them without searching each time.