I bake bread using a bread machine I received as a gift, but you can find bread machines on sale or even at garage sales or from neighbors who don’t use them.  (A friend of mine offered to give hers to me at no cost simply because she never used it!)

Homemade bread tends to be healthier.  I can control what and how much goes into a loaf.  Plus, I avoid the preservatives, added sugars, and tons of salt.  Usually I make whole grain bread, but my husband loves a good French loaf style.  I’ve even made sourdough with success.

I save money by baking homemade bread.  I bake a few loaves at a time and then freezing them.  Whenever the current loaf is almost devoured, I’ll thaw a frozen one. 

Homemade just tastes better!  I don’t think my husband and I could go back to the store-bought version, and that’s just fine by me and our budget!

My aunt got my hooked on this wonderful wheat bread.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Photo Credits: rexipe

• Noticing Habits - Discoveries From My Food Journal Since I've been keeping a food journal I've noticed a couple of things. First, I seem to crave something sweet after I eat, but it can't be just any sweet. If I try to eat what I'm not craving - say a banana when I really want a big, chewy......
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I'm on a personal quest of sorts. Three months ago I made the realization that I am a sugar addict and decided to commit to breaking my addiction.

Following Dr. Kathleen DesMaison's plan for sugar addiction, I started off including protein and a complex carb at breakfast. After creating my new breakfast habit, I moved on to step two, the food journal. I've been working on journaling what I eat and how I feel for about a month.

I used to think I didn’t need a food journal, that I had it all figured out in my head. I thought I knew what I ate and how I felt and what I needed to do. Not true! The food journal can be very eye-opening. I’ve learned things about myself that I otherwise would have ignored.

Some things I noticed from reviewing my food journal:

• I eat at the same times just about everyday.
• I snack or chew the same berry flavored gum in the afternoons if I'm at work.
• The most common feeling I record for the mornings: tired
• The most common feelings overall: happy, antsy, tired, not hungry
• Yeah, I see that I often eat when I'm not really hungry
• But I write "shaky" if I don't eat for more than 6 hours
• Eating sugar is associated with feelings of nervousness, elation, and then of feeling really really tired and irritable
• I eat way more chocolate than I thought!
• The more sweets I eat, the more I crave them.
• Recently, my diet has gradually shifted to include more protein at lunch and dinner, as well as veggies.
• With this change, I notice snacking in the afternoons has decreased.

This shift towards healthier foods makes me want to move on to the next step in beating my sugar addiction. Step 3 is eating regularly throughout the day, including adequate protein at each meal. I'm naturally drifting in this direction already, so I feel it's time to make it official! I'll explain more about step 3 in my next post...

Photo credit: ppreacher

• Breaking the Sugar Addiction - Step 2 If you've just arrived, or you'd like a review, check out my posts about sugar addiction and the solution to sugar addiction. I'm following the 7 steps outlined in Potatoes, Not Prozac. Step 2 is keeping a food journal. In this journal you write: The times you eat/drink What you eat/drink......
• Battle Against Sugar Cravings Step 2: Keep a Food Journal I've been eating a healthier breakfast for almost a month now. I think it's time I add another weapon in my battle against my enormous sweet tooth: a food journal. I'll be honest, the idea of keeping a food journal never appealed to me. Why do I want to put......
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• Sugar, The Other White Drug I appreciate all your comments on my previous post about sugar addiction. This topic has really got me thinking! I’d like to explore it further. If truth be told, I never considered sugar a drug, but much of my reading suggests that sugar is capable of acting like a potent......
• Noticing Habits - Discoveries From My Food Journal Since I've been keeping a food journal I've noticed a couple of things. First, I seem to crave something sweet after I eat, but it can't be just any sweet. If I try to eat what I'm not craving - say a banana when I really want a big, chewy......

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I usually want something that has a bread-like consistency, i.e. sweet bread, cake, or a homemade cookie. Candies and chocolates just don't satisfy me. Prepackaged sweets don't either. I want the high quality junk!

Well, I guess that's good. At least I'm becoming choosy about the sugar I put in my body!

The down side is fruit also doesn't work. And because my taste in sweets is becoming more high maintenance, I may have to either buy good quality (and probably more expensive) desserts or set aside time to bake them myself! Hopefully fruit will win over my sweet tooth in time.

The second tendency I've noticed is that I get the munchies if I'm bored, antsy, or slightly nervous. (Now if I'm very nervous, such as right before singing in a big performance, I can't eat at all!) The munchies for me are predominate at work... and I'm still figuring out why. It's not that I have a stressful job. Compared to what I was doing before, this is a piece of cake! Um... OK, maybe I shouldn't have said "cake." But anyway, my current job is a lot more laid back than what I used to do.

But maybe that's the issue. This job is very different from what I was used to. I experienced fast-paced action some of the time in my previous job. I guess I got the "high" from adrenaline rushes instead of sugar! There are no huge adrenaline rushes or life-or-death emergencies in my current position. In my last job there were days it was so busy I was lucky to eat lunch! In this job... well, sometimes I get bored.

But I shouldn't complain. I have a good job that pays the bills and has "normal" hours. Also, I've only been working in my current position for 5 months, so perhaps I need to give myself some more time to get used to the change in pace and job duties.

Isn't it interesting how your feelings can affect your eating? This journey towards breaking my sugar addiction has been an interesting one so far, that's for sure!

I'd say my food journal is working rather well. At the very least it's shown me some things about myself that I haven't noticed. And if I don't know those things exist, how can I change them?

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• Food Journal - Ally in Breaking Sugar Addiction I'm on a personal quest of sorts. Three months ago I made the realization that I am a sugar addict and decided to commit to breaking my addiction. Following Dr. Kathleen DesMaison's plan for sugar addiction, I started off including protein and a complex carb at breakfast. After creating......
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I've been jotting down breakfast and lunch, but that's as far as I get.

I take my journal (which is just an inexpensive notebook) with me to work and keep it at my desk. It's within easy access, so journaling what I eat and how I feel during work hours is pretty effortless.

Once at home, however, I stop with the journaling. I get busy with taking care of things at home and spending time with my husband. And, quite simply, I just don't make my food journal a priority.

This week I want to work on journaling dinner. Who would have thought recording food and how I feel at the time to be difficult, but it's more of a challenge than it seems!

Photo credit: ppreacher

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• Breaking the Sugar Addiction - Step 3 If you've just arrived, or you'd like a review, check out my posts about sugar addiction and the solution to sugar addiction. I'm following the 7 steps outlined in Potatoes, Not Prozac. I feel it's time for me to officially start the next step in breaking the sugar addiction, and......
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• Breaking the Sugar Addiction - Step 2 If you've just arrived, or you'd like a review, check out my posts about sugar addiction and the solution to sugar addiction. I'm following the 7 steps outlined in Potatoes, Not Prozac. Step 2 is keeping a food journal. In this journal you write: The times you eat/drink What you eat/drink......

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I'll be honest, the idea of keeping a food journal never appealed to me. Why do I want to put for the effort to write down everything I eat! What's the point? I'd probably feel guilty looking back on everything I shouldn't have eaten!

Well, I'm changing my view. I plan on using a food journal to look for associations between what I eat and how I feel. It's not a record of what I should and shouldn't be eating. I will intentionally avoid counting calories or writing "bad," "you messed up," or something similar next to foods I feel I shouldn't be eating.

I want my food journal to be used for gaining insight on the relationship between food and how it affects me as objectively as possible. If I can do this then I may be able to see trends in what, how much, and how often I eat. I may be able to pick out specific foods that affect me in a negative and positive way.

So, I've got my notebook and pen and plan carrying it with me to work. I'll let you know how it goes!

• Can You Really Be Addicted to Sugar? I love sugar. You probably already know that! :) I'm also trying to overcome my sweet tooth. Why? Because I eat way too many sweets, it's not what I'd call a healthy diet, it messes with my emotions, and it sure makes keeping a fit and lean figure a big......
• Beating the Sugar Addiction - Steps 4-7 The steps I summarize here are discussed in more detail in Potatoes, Not Prozac.  If you feel you have a strong attachment to sugar that is keeping you from living freely and healthy, you may want to give this book a read. Click on the following links if you wish to......
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• Noticing Habits - Discoveries From My Food Journal Since I've been keeping a food journal I've noticed a couple of things. First, I seem to crave something sweet after I eat, but it can't be just any sweet. If I try to eat what I'm not craving - say a banana when I really want a big, chewy......

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For the next 3 days keep a journal of everything you eat – everything, even little bites. Write down what the food or drink was, the amount, the time, and even if you felt hungry or not. Don't worry about measuring out everything; that simply isn't feasible for most of us. Just make an educated guess. Did the food fill the plate or bowl? Was it the size of a baseball? Did you take 4 large handfuls? Etc...

And why just 3 days? Because it's very doable, especially if keeping a journal is hard for you to master. The purpose is to make it easier for you.

Be as objective as possible when journaling. Pretend you are observing a participant in a research study and not yourself. That might help keep you honest as well as not feeling guilty!

At the end of the 3 days review what you wrote. What do you see?

How much refined food did you eat?
How much protein did you eat?
How about complex carbs?
Fats?
Did you eat at the same time every day, or did you tend to graze constantly?
What did you drink? How much of that was water?
How often did you eat when you weren’t hungry?
Did you snack a lot?
Did you eat most of your food in the morning or late at night?
Did you go without food for 6 hours or more (sleep is the exception)?

The answers to these questions will help give you some insight into your eating habits. They may open your eyes to something you had not realized. Maybe you’ll have an “ah-ha” moment.

How can your answers help you improve your eating?
Maybe you can cut out a snack, reduce the amount of refined foods and/or fats, add more protein, drink more water, eat more vegetables, or eat at specific times of the day instead of constantly snacking or skipping meals.

Now make only one change to improve your eating habits. It’s easier to adjust to a small change rather than altering your entire diet at one time. Live with this change until it feels like a habit.

Then make another improvement, and keep doing it until that one feels like a habit. Make another improvement, and so on and so forth…you get the picture. The key is to make healthier changes one step at a time so you will adjust to them more smoothly.

After a while, you will have made incredible, healthier changes in the way you eat, that and that can increase your health and give you the upper hand in the battle against body fat!

One study doesn't necessarily mean that's it. As with all research studies, it's important to do more than one in order to come to most accurate and reliable conclusions. Go back to journaling every once in awhile, and if you can journal everyday, even better! You may find it rather interesting because, after all, you're writing about an interesting subject: you!

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