Oh boy, this was a toughie!

For the last year or so I’ve been firmly on the real-foods bandwagon, so I have very little trouble avoiding things like soda, adding sugar to my yogurt, and eating processed foods with lots of added sugar.  I’ve cut way down on these things already - but cutting everything out was certainly not easy.

I started out my day with my usual meal - oat bran with blueberries, banana, and organic almond butter.  Even though I used to think oats tasted gross without sugar, I’ve come to appreciate the natural sweetness of the oats, and adding fruit definitely helps.  This one was a no-brainer - it’s my usual breakfast.  It got more difficult after that!

Lunch was much more difficult - pressed for time, I didn’t pack anything in the morning, and I had to find a way to have a non-sweetened lunch at the work cafeteria.  I ended up settling on sushi - since not much of the food in the cafeteria has labels, it was the easiest choice.  My afternoon snack was much simpler: greek yogurt with pumpkin and cinnamon, which I’d brought to work the day before.  Super delicious, and no added sugar!

Dinner ended up being pretty simple, too - frozen peas and corn with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella.  But it was dessert where everything went downhill, since it’s the one last stand of sugar in my diet.  I’m used to having a bit of ice cream or a cookie, but today I stuck with a fruit smoothie.  I definitely craved more sugar for dessert, though - this is something I’ll have to work on!

Overall, the challenge pointed out to me how much added sweetener I’m still eating, even though I try to make real-food choices every day.  I’m happy we had this challenge - I think it will make real changes in my diet!

Keri

Way Past Ramen