simply steinberger

Addiction. A scary word. Often a word that gets thrown around flagrantly with light hearted undertones. Whatever your experiences are with addictions, you know that once you've kicked an addiction the withdrawals and fiending are not far behind. Lurking in the shadows, serving as a punishment for your strong will to quit.

Ok... Enough, drama queen.



I am on a sugar and dairy strike. I was addicted! What?! I really was.

The dairy thing, bad news because I'm allergic, but would pop a lactaid and down a glass of milk coupled with a grilled cheese sandwich... No bueno. Sugar, on the other hand, and I have had a wonderful relationship throughout my 23 years on this earth. I have been a faithful and loyal consumer of all things that included sugar as an ingredient. In fact, as a child my parents would find me in the middle of the night with a face covered in sugar due to robbing the sugar bowl. My love for sweets started at a very young age. Ok, so every kid loves sweets. No need to alert the media. But into my adulthood, consuming entire boxes of donuts as a meal in the middle of the day and no where near "my time of the month" was not uncommon. I created a habit of "rewarding" myself upon completion of each meal with a cookie or brownie. Nightly I rewarded myself with the completion of the day with a bowl of ice cream (a double whamie-no-no, sweets and lactose). I classically conditioned myself to complete something (I'm being vague with the word "something" because I would literally wake up in the morning and think to reward myself with something sweet) and it would be followed by a sweet snack/meal. NOT OK. This probably sounds like I was depressed, I wasn't. I just have no self control. Not when it comes to sweet ingestables. And especially not if my metabolism is so darn fast that I didn't visually reap the consequences of my lack of self control.


SO, I've been without both dairy and sugar since Saturday. The headaches are enough to resort back to my unhealthy but delicious ways. But I won't! I want to create a healthy lifestyle for myself and my home and my future family.

I made some power muffins the other day and they sure are powerful! After tweeking the recipe several times, I think I've got it down.

Ingredients
1 ripened banana
2 tsp olive oil
1 organic brown egg
1/4 cup non-packed brown sugar
1/2 cup freshly ground flax seed
1/4 whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats (the whole grain kind, looks like horse food)
1/2 tsp baking soda

This recipe is the base, from here you can add whatever you want. I added in some dried cranberries and some dried apricots. Nuts, dark chocolate chips, any dried fruit all would be great. They are a great way to start out your day!I'm crossing my fingers that I can keep this up!