My Shake

Although I am not normally a creature of habit, my breakfast shake has been the exception. I have been drinking the same shake for breakfast for the past 5 years. I never do anything like that. There is no other food I could eat every day for breakfast as often as I have my shake. There are maybe 20 days out of the entire year I don't have my shake.

My shake "habit" started back 5 years ago when I decided to try living in "The Zone". The Zone is the brain child of Dr. Barry Sears. The Zone is the 40-30-30 way of living. Where each meal (or snack) you eat is made up of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. It really was a great way to eat. I did loose weight, but more importantly it made me more alert and I wasn't hungry or craving any food. Some of the drawbacks of it were making sure you ate as often as you were supposed to and the complications of figuring out how to make everything 40-30-30.

Sadly, I didn't last long eating like that. It really was just to complicated. What did stick though was the shake.

In "The Zone" the shake was made up of milk, peanut butter, protein powder, cocoa powder, instant coffee and fructose. I know, more like a dessert shake then a breakfast shake. But it was the only shake I found that had chocolate and coffee in it, how could I pass that up for breakfast? Actually each ingredient in the shake is full of nutritional benefits, but I won't get into that here.

Well, fast forward a few years. After discovering I was allergic to a whole list of things, including peanuts, I pulled the peanut butter out of my shake and replaced it with Sun Butter. I know at first I could taste the difference, but considering I haven't had even a smidgen of peanut butter in almost 2 1/2 year, I can't tell the difference now. In fact, Sun Butter to me tastes the same as I remember peanut butter tasting.

OK, on with the shake. Fast forward again on to January of this year. We decided to forge ahead with the Belly Fat Cure. The problem I ran into with my shake was it didn't really fit. I wasn't supposed to use fructose and I wasn't supposed to be using milk.

I decided to try out my different options. I am highly allergic to nuts, so I can't do the Almond Milk that Jorge Cruise recommends. I can't even do soy milk, because I am also allergic to soy and most other legumes. So I decided I would try Coconut milk. I tried So Delicious Coconut milk and I am still not sure if I got a bad batch, but it just didn't taste good at all. Clearly it must be a great product, other people use it and it is still on the shelves, so they must be selling it.

So then I started making my own coconut milk, it wasn't too time consuming, but enough so to make me dread making it every other day.

It worked better, but it still wasn't the best. It was watery and it didn't leave me as full as long as my original shake.

So eventually I went back to milk. So I was then making a shake with milk and with fructose (I had a jar full of fructose and I couldn't just waste it).

The amazing thing is I have still been loosing about a pound a week in weight and MOST importantly, I have NOT been craving sugar. Which is the biggest thing for me.

Well, this week I finally ran out of fructose. So I was ready to try my shake without fructose. The first 4 days I used Purvia and Truvia. I love both of them, but they do have a slight after taste (as do most sugar substitutes). So this morning I decided to try Xylitol. I looked up how much I should use and it said to use it just as I would sugar. So into my shake it went.....and it was GREAT! It was perfect! It was just as it should be, with no aftertaste.

It was so nice.

So from now on it will be xylitol in my shake.

I don't think I'll ever get away from the milk, I really don't have any other options. At this point in my life, the benefits of the milk outweigh the risks. It is a cup full of vitamins that I get without having to swallow a pill.

So, onto the recipe!

1 1/2 cups of milk (or some milk substitute)
1 Tablespoon of Sun Butter (or some nut butter)
1 rounded teaspoon instant coffee
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/8 cup of protein powder
3/4 Tablespoon of Xylitol
2 cubes of ice

Place all of this in a blender and blend. Enjoy with a straw!

One last note. I buy plain whey protein powder from Vitamin Cottage (the one they sell in the bulk bag). I don't like the flavored stuff. I have never bought it. It is up to you to decide what works for you.

My Weekly Menu Rotation

Here is the 4 week dinner menu plan that I created and try to follow as best as I can!

Some notes about the menu. I have Sandwich night in there every week because Basketball in the winter caused chaos in our lives and I needed a portable meal to take to the rec center. Hence Sandwich night. You can see I've already started adding other things to that night. My menu is in a constant stat of change and depending on the season new things can be added and others taken away. Well...as the weeks go I'll add recipes and other changes that I make!

Week 1

Mon- Italian Chicken and Pasta
Tues-Roast with Rice and Green Beans
Wed-Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Thur-Sandwich Night
Fri-Tacos
Sat-Out
Sun-Calzones

Week 2

Mon-Bennie Wennies or Hot Dogs
Tues-Out
Wed-Hamburgers or Sloppy Joes
Thurs- Teryaki Chicken and Rice or Biscuit Sandwiches
Fri-Burritos
Sat-Sandwich Night
Sun-Fajitas or Philly Cheese Steak

Week 3

Mon-Spaghetti
Tues-Out
Wed-Stuffed Potatoes
Thurs-Sandwich night
Fri-Ham and Rice
Sat-Tacos or Taco Salad
Sun-Pizza

Week 4

Mon-Tostadas
Tues-Out
Wed-Roast and Mashed Tatos
Thur-Sandwich Night
Fri-Chicken and rice
Sat-Fish/Fish Sticks
Sun-Buffalo Wings

What I am doing

Don't ask me why, but I have decided to set up a blog for our families attempt at keeping as much sugar out of our diets as possible. We started by following the Fat Belly Cure. It was exactly what I was looking for. It takes sugar out of our diet, lowers the number of carbs we take in, encourages us to take in more fiber and most importantly, it is something my husband was more then happy to do!

I will use the blog to post mostly about the food we eat and the recipes I have managed to create that contain no or at least a lot less sugar.