Dinner at A Tavola.

Nested along Darlinghurst's bustling Victoria Street, Atavola is an Italian restaurant known for their handmade pasta.

Walking past the array of restaurants along the street, I almost walked passed the restaurant. With its understated exterior, its beauty shines within the food, staff and ambiance. Atavola has two levels and offers guests the option to sit at individual tables or a communal one. The front section of restaurant consists of a long singular table where customers sit beside or facing each other. The room has a casual atmosphere with décor and hung pasta to add to the aesthetics of the room. Not having been in the back room, I believe there are individual tables in the back section of the restaurant. Only open during dinner time, we were seated in the upper level. Fitting around eight four seater tables, the dimmed lighting, candles, wooden floors and simplistic setting, its understated design creates an intimate and homely ambiance.

Escorted by the matre'd to our table, we were welcomed by a lovely server. Prior to dining at Atavola, I was aware there were two menus available, the six dish spuntini which has three entrées, mains and desserts and a consiligi menu, a changing list according to what is made fresh daily. The server not only walked us through each dish but was also more than happy to recommend dishes and wine pairings according to what suited our palette.

Our dinner consisted of platters, an array of pasta and antipasti mains, dessert and perfectly paired Italian wine. I'll list all the dishes we ordered below. Arriving at around 8 o'clock we were the last diners to leave the upstairs dining area at around half past eleven, with the exception of a few diners remaining downstairs.

Overall, the dining experience at Atavola was pleasant. There were no overwhelming theatrics or extravagant décor. It's quaint and understated atmosphere was perfect for the evening. The prices are are reasonable, dishes are not over priced (as you will see in the menu below). This restaurant is great for dates or a relaxed yet sophisticated dinner with family and friends; where homely charm meets fine dining.

Dishes (in order of appearance) 
- Salumi misti, pizza rustica
- Tagliata di Manzo con Potate e Olive 
- Mezzelune con ripleno di Piselli 
- Papparelle al Ragu
- Gran Affogato
- Fromaggi 

Tips and Tricks: 

- Book in advance!
- Order different mains and share between people if you want to try different mains.
- Eating there on a Friday, it was busy but still relatively quiet.

Buonanotte, Arrivederci!

Yours Truly,

Julialala

IQS 8 Week Program- Week 1-3: Restaurants & Eating Out

It's been three weeks into the program and it's been an interesting challenge.

When starting the program, I knew the greatest challenge I would face during the eight weeks was eating out. By some weird coincidence, I have eaten out a lot more than I normally would.

Thai
The day after starting the program, I had a birthday dinner to attend at a Thai restaurant. In Sarah's book, she mentions to generally stay away from Thai food, and more so during the 8 weeks as most foods are cooked in palm sugar and contain sugar in their sauces. My go to dish to order is Pad Thai or Pad See Ew, but that wasn't on the menu for me. When I was thinking about attending the dinner I had thought, should I eat beforehand in case I can't eat there. Slightly worried, I searched online for any tips and dish recommendations for healthier alternatives. Some had suggested peanut based dishes or to opt for a salad instead, with a game plan I was more confident about what to order. I arrived to find out all the dishes were pre-ordered; game plan out the window. Amongst the array of dishes ordered, I chose the steamed fish and avoided the skin and sauce. I also had the side salads and skipped the dressing as well as having a little of the vegetable stir fry. Starting off as quite a daunting experience, it was a good awakening to see what challenges I had in store for the next few weeks. 

Italian 
My next experience wasn't a week later, but the next day. I found myself at an Italian cafe/restaurant at a food court. Coming from the gym, I was hungry. I ordered a burger with Sourdough bread and asked for the relish to be removed. As requested, they removed the relish from the burger and put it in a separate container. I just removed the tomato from my burger and I was ready to dig in!

Breakfast - Paper Plane Cafe 
Going to cafes aren't so bad, especially during breakfast. Depending on where you go, some can be more forgiving and offer more 'niche' or 'hippie' choices as some might refer to it, whilst some may not. I ate at Paper Plane located in Parramatta and the choices offered were relatively good in terms of healthy options. Instead of ordering the classic bacon, eggs and the works, I opted for a Veggie plate instead. I did find that there was balsamic on the rocket, so I had to skip it.

Top juice
Usually after a workout, I love getting my Protein Shake 4 at Top Juice. The smoothie contains avocado, almond, whey protein, milk and ice. Although this is my absolute favourite, there are a few tweaks I make to suit my diet better. This is how my order usually sounds "Can I please have a large Protein Shake 4 with no honey, soy milk (as some chains don't carry almond milk) and extra ice" - which usually results with a smirk from the person serving me. No offence taken as I myself find it a little funny. 

Eating at food courts - LeWrap 
Food courts are known as one of the unhealthiest places to eat, and probably 98% of the time that is the case, but when you find something that doesn't induce a heart attack, it feels great! When I find myself starving at a food court, I usually search for a LeWrap. I used to order the Classic Beef wrap which has beef, tomato, lettuce, onion and sauce of your choice. Since starting the program I've had LeWrap twice. The first time I had it, I ordered my usual Classic Beef wrap without tomato and sauce, it wasn't the most flavoursome wrap and was I left slightly underwhelmed. The second time I ate LeWrap, I looked at the ingredients for the Italian Beef Wrap and saw that it had beef, roasted pumpkin, tomato, onion, lettuce and pesto. There was no sauce option as it was replaced by the pesto. After ordering it without the tomato, I love it! I can't believe I have never tried the Italian wrap before, it so flavoursome without sacrificing any of the dressing or sauce, I think I'm going to try and recreate this at home! 

Italian Restaurant 
More recently, I was at another birthday dinner but this time it was at Bondi Pizza. Everything was pre-ordered again but I didn't want to eat just side salads so I ordered something for myself. There was soo much food but all the pizzas, pastas ordered and ribs either had tomato or a marinade. I stared at the menu thinking about what to order for a while. Looking through the salads, every single one contained either a creamy sauce or balsamic as well tomato which would leave a very depressing salad for me to eat. After searching I found something! I settled on the Pumpkin & Sage Ravioli which had ravioli filled roasted pumpkin and fresh sage, tossed in butter and sage sauce, with pine nuts and sun dried tomato (which I asked to be taken out).

Tips & Tricks 
- Go for wholemeal or sour dough alternatives for bread, burgers, sandwiches if possible.
- Be weary of dressings, marinades and sauces in salads, burgers, sandwiches, meats, dishes containing soup or sauce as well as pizza bases. If you're unsure or want to make sure, it never hurts to ask.

Hope this post not only informs you about some of the hidden sugars we can come across but ways to overcome these challenges when eating out.

Yours Truly, 

Julialala

I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program!

Starting this month I will be starting the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program! As you know I've been following a sugar free lifestyle for just over two years now however when I initially made the choice to cut sugar, (the more correct term I should say is fructose), I didn't follow the 8 week program. Quitting fructose was a gradual process for me. From a diet consisting of refined sugar, replacing this with honey, to further replacing this with a fructose free sweetener Rice Malt Syrup. The transition to a fructose free diet has been a learning experience and still is to this day.

As I've mentioned before, I'm going to do a post on my IQS journey, where I will be going into detail on the transformation of my diet, lifestyle and habits.

For me personally, it's about completely cleansing the system, returning to a baseline condition where I can work with a 'blank' canvas. There are small tweaks to my diet which I still want to achieve. My focus during the 8 weeks is to be more aware of hidden sugars in condiments. A weakness for me are condiments, more specifically tomato sauce hehe. No really. As I've been thinking about doing the program for a few weeks, I've cut out tomato sauce, BBQ and in general, sauces from meals for the past three weeks or so. I have also cut out Rice Malt Syrup and fruit in preparation for the program. Sarah advises to completely get rid of all sweeteners or sources of fructose during the eight weeks, so you are able to achieve a baseline state then start introducing what you want back into your diet after the program. As I have mostly cut fructose out, I'll just be fine tuning my diet to rid the system completely or as close to a fructose free system.

You are able to sign up to the 8 week program through the IQS website for $150 where you will have access to weekly recipes, shopping lists and experts who can help you throughout the program. I however, will be doing this independently for a number of reasons. My main reason is that I'm just fine tuning my diet to reach a blank canvas as I've mentioned, I won't be starting from scratch. I believe that the transition into quitting sugar is not only a physical transformation from how your body will react to changes and what you're eating every day but mostly a psychological transformation. Signing up to the IQS programs enables you to have access to experts who are able to assist you with your psychological and emotional transition.That is not to say that you can't do the program on your own as there are many people including myself who have done it, but there is assistance if you need it.

However, I will be using Sarah Wilson's books and blog for guidance. From tips, reminders, recipes or any questions I might have, I'll be referring to them to help me along the way. There have been countless occasions where I've had a question about something that I thought was a silly question or said "I don't think IQS would have covered that" and low and behold, I quick search on Google or quick whiz through her book has landed me on her blog or page answering that exact question.

If you are new to quitting sugar, want guidance and have the budget to sign up to the program, I think you should consider it. As I've mentioned, its not essential but if you're the type of person that needs structure and that extra push, by all means I encourage you to sign up. The registration has closed for this round which starts this October, however there will be one soon. I'll keep you posted!

Week 1:

The program mentions that for people who are new to removing sugar, should do so over the course of eight weeks, gradually substituting elements of your diet with healthier alternatives until you remove it completely e.g. replacing sugar with honey then a fructose free substitute like Rice Malt Syrup. As the three weeks are focused on changing and cutting elements of your diet, aimed at people who are new to the program, I'll be skipping over the first three weeks will be starting from Week 4 but doing it for the complete eight weeks.

I must say I'm quite excited about this. I think the challenge for me will be eating out and cutting out fruit and being more aware of sauces, marinades, condiments and fruit including tomatoes which can be found in burgers, salads etc. I will be referring to the the 'I Quit Sugar' books quite often and will be using some recipes (photos and prices down below) so grab a copy if you're interested to try the program with me! 

Sorry for the lengthy entry. I'll try to post every week or fortnight, giving tips, tricks, recipes I used and my personal experience during the 8 weeks. Even if you aren't interested in doing the program, cutting out some of your sugar intake is a great start!

You can get Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar books from major book stores, health food stores, department stores, online book suppliers and even some retail stores like Lorna Jane. Prices vary between stores.Prices below are according to Dymocks. I bought her new book today (middle) which came out two days ago, I can't wait to try it out!

Left: 8 Week Program $34.99 (This book contains the program, out of the three buy this one)
Middle: Simplicious $27.99
Right: Recipes $34.99

Yours Truly, 

Julialala