One Week, Without Sugar

Last week on Friday I decided to embark on a two week No Sugar journey. This is the post in which I explained what and why. Yesterday was one week from the start of the journey and I thought I write down a few thoughts in this digital diary, as I did with my coffee journey. It will help me remember what's I've been through as time passes.

I had one week basically to reflect on what I've been doing and why and trust me, it gives you a better understanding on why you do things.

The challenge started on the 12th, which was Friday. I'm not gonna lie, on the 13th, which was a Saturday, I was thinking of something sweet for several times, especially while watching tv. During the week i have no time to wast with watching tv, but weekends are a different thing. So I can say temptation was huge, but I had no urge to break my rules and eat any actually. The goal was clear and I have no intention to give up.

You know what's funny? After lunch, most of the people prefer to have something sweet. This is why the dessert has been invented. If you go to any decent restaurant, where the waiters know what they are doing, you are offered dessert after lunch or even dinner.

Let's do an exercise. Let's tell people that after lunch, they can only have salty dessert, not sweet. Would you want any? After having eaten stake, French fries and vegetable salad for example? I bet you would say NO as who would want another salty snack after eating salty. If you're not allowed to eat sweet after lunch, I bet you won't eat dessert anymore and this is how you avoid overeating, as having a bunch of sweets as dessert after a decent lunch can be considered a huge abuse of calories.

Not being allowed to eat sugar, my mind was trying to find something that is sweet, but has no sugar. Could have had candies with no sugar, but that would have been cheating in my eyes. The main idea is to get rid of craving after all, not substitute one bad habit with another.

This is why I decided not to eat fruits either. Three are some fruits that have low sugar level, but then again, the idea is to train your mind not to ask for sugar. Instead I tried to change how I eat and drink certain food and drinks.

Have you ever had cocoa without sugar? I have and not just now, but way before this challenge started. At first it seems strange, but after a few sips it's like having dark chocolate. It's very doable actually, so why sweeten it? This is why I prefer to buy pure cocoa and not the one with added sugar.

Those of you who say you can't have cocoa without sugar, should think about why you have cocoa in the first place.

Let's take a classic example.

People drink tea worldwide and the way they drink it differs quite a lot. Here, many take their tea with sugar/honey and lemon. That's how tea is served at the restaurant as well, unless it's a special tea, that is served with milk or extra flavor added. Obviously you get the sugar/honey and lemon separately and use it if you like. Now take away the sugar/lemon from the tea and see how many would still want it. I can guarantee you there won't be many left. Then comes the question, why are these people drinking tea? Not because of the tea flavor, but because it's sweet. Lucky me, when I started drinking tea, I went for lemon only and now I'm at the point where even a drop of honey makes me not like the tea.

I know people who started drinking coffee because in some places this highly addictive black liquid comes with a biscuit, or two. There comes the question again. What are you buying the coffee for? For the liquid itself, or because the extra that comes with it? Another question for coffee drinkers. Can you drink your coffee without sugar? I bet a good part will say "Hell NO". When I was still a coffee addict, I gradually reduced the amount of sugar in my coffee and could also drink it without sugar, to the shock of quite many, around me.

This is a mind game, just like with any other addiction, just played a bit differently, in my opinion.

Yesterday was one week already and I decided to make some changes. Starting from yesterday, I allowed myself to have one fruit per day. Yesterday I had an apple and today I had one banana. These are not fruits with the lowest sugar quantity, but it'll do for now. The funny thing is, I had my fruit two days in a row and didn't feel like having another. One was enough and felt good.

So far I'm very satisfied with the progress I made. I was able to say no to croissant, candies and ice cream, that I've been offered. One time I had a sore throat and my first instinct was to take those candies that have honey, but didn't, because it would have been cheating. There are six days left of my challenge and I want to finish it with a new mindset. I know I'm not going to eat the whole bakery after my challenge ends and will look at sugar with different eyes. So stay tuned for the thoughts I'm going to share after finishing my journey.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: