Just a spoonful of sugar

So this sugar problem of ours has been eating at me for sometime--both at an individual level, and as a parent. I may look fit on the outside, but inside I feel like crap.

Richard pushed us towards a magnificent idea, a visual demonstration of our sugar intake. The next day, we would calculate the amount of sugar in the foods we ate and measure it out, teaspoon by teaspoon.

We have been rather simple in our endeavor. We don't count fruit sugar. If the food we eat has a label, we measure. If we home baked something, we did the math as accurately as we can. We learned approximately 4 grams of sugar is a teaspoon. And we were absolutely clueless as to how many teaspoons we would accumulate by the end of our day.

I must say, doing this is similar to keeping a food diary (which I find short-lived and kind of boring), but the part I like is that I become acutely aware of what I'm about to put into my body. I feel somehow more in control, more empowered. And what woman doesn't want to feel that way?

I had a cereal breakfast, a simple healthy lunch, lots of water and no snacks. Well, I would've had a Reeses cup, but Richard had eaten the rest of them so graciously "saving me the trouble of having to scoop out those teaspoons of sugar." I made tacos for dinner and lime bars for dessert. But that wasn't my downfall. You see, our dinner guests brought over brownies. A lot of brownies. And they were delicious. I am salivating just writing about them again.

So how did our first day measure up?

Richard: 50tsp., 200g (left)

Diana: 39tsp., 156g (right)

But, I realized today that I forgot to measure in servings of canned peaches (in a heavy syrup and additional sugar added to the ingredient list.) Seriously!??!

It appears this is going to be a long, educational journey.