Week 1

So we are five days into our no sugar challange and in all honesty, it's like a whole new world. Addimitetly, we continued to find sugar in so many forms that it seemed hard to ban the whole thing all together. Some E-nummers contain sugar in many forms, as we've learned, and not consuming refined sugars so far has been hard not by withdrawl but rather because of the fact that we were never really sure wether or not something did or didn't contain sugar. Now that we've done most of our shopping, we know what products to buy, so what to have a for dinner should become less of a task.

I'll admit that the first two days, I just wanted to put something sugary in my mouth all the time. I could eat and eat and eat and never be satisfied. I wasn't hungry, I was just looking for something. Even in my dreams sugar haunted me for the first few days, as I dreamed about sugary delights and how they tasted. Dreams so realistic, that I actually asked my flatmate if he really found sugar free cream or... did I just dream that?

Now five days into the challange, I dare say that I am over my cravings. I am neither eating constantly nor unsatisfied with what I am eating. I found a whole new world of natural sugars to substitute the sugars in my food. Orange juice and fruit smoothies are my new poison (Still, with moderation!).

Making food has been insteresting so far, as we are much more conscious about the actual content of our food. Finding that one brand of something contains a rediculous amount of added sugars, while the other contains none at all, has been a revelation. If there is one thing that I will continue to do after the challange for sure, it would be checking food lables more closely and opting for the brand with the least added nonsense. We are eating a lot more whole foods, and finding interesting replacements for the foods that we are used to eating. Who knew that all natural spaghetti sauce could be so delicious?

We have made a whole selection of dishes I would have never otherwise made if it wasn't for the challange. Today, for instance, I made a homemade ratatouille served with pasta for lunch which contained only whole foods and was absolutely delicious. It was naturally sweet and literally contianed nothing but vegetables. (Wheras, in the past, in all honesty, some form of processed something would have slipped in there)

For tonight, my flatmate has prepared dough to make our own pita bread, so that we can make homemade kebabs with a homemade yoghurt sauce, again, all natural!
And we are planning to make our own mayonaise at some point as well.

In all honesty, I have been a bit cranky and irritable the past few days, (appologies to all witnesses of this fact) but I feel my mood improving and I am starting to feel energetic. I am excited to see where this goes next!