So, I'm doing this! The Canadian Cancer Society is a worthy charity that is very dear to my heart. And I donate to it more than any other charity. Sometimes through walkathons, sometimes just because someone asks. This is the first time I've heard of this particular fundraiser, but it intrigued me so I signed up. So... here's my first update:
Sugar Free September, day 1! So far, so good. I didn't do a grocery shop prior to this morning, so I haven't really planned my meals out too well. But, I did manage to navigate the day without succumbing. I started out with scrambled eggs for breakfast and I took some roasted almonds and an orange to work for a mid-morning snack. Lunch was salad with chicken and homemade salad dressing (oil, vinegar, and mustard --- thanks for the idea, Kathleen, it was delicious). I hit that 3pm workday lull when I often pop over to the bakery or to 7-eleven to pick up a sweet "pick-me-up." Today I went across the street to the grocery store instead and picked up a bag of nectarines (I felt silly buying just one, so I bought 6, I guess I'll share the bounty with my kids). It did the trick. Supper was steak, potatoes, and onions. And tonight, my greatest discovery of the day... tucked in the back of the cupboard from another well-intentioned diet plan, those Ryvita rye crackers. They have NO added sugar. Why they barely have any ingredients at all. So, yeah, aside from the natural sugars in the fruit I ate, I consumed 0 grams of added sugar today!
Sugar Free September, day 1! So far, so good. I didn't do a grocery shop prior to this morning, so I haven't really planned my meals out too well. But, I did manage to navigate the day without succumbing. I started out with scrambled eggs for breakfast and I took some roasted almonds and an orange to work for a mid-morning snack. Lunch was salad with chicken and homemade salad dressing (oil, vinegar, and mustard --- thanks for the idea, Kathleen, it was delicious). I hit that 3pm workday lull when I often pop over to the bakery or to 7-eleven to pick up a sweet "pick-me-up." Today I went across the street to the grocery store instead and picked up a bag of nectarines (I felt silly buying just one, so I bought 6, I guess I'll share the bounty with my kids). It did the trick. Supper was steak, potatoes, and onions. And tonight, my greatest discovery of the day... tucked in the back of the cupboard from another well-intentioned diet plan, those Ryvita rye crackers. They have NO added sugar. Why they barely have any ingredients at all. So, yeah, aside from the natural sugars in the fruit I ate, I consumed 0 grams of added sugar today!
Thanks to my two recently departed neighbours 
for being donor numbers 1 and 2! You two are incredibly generous and I really appreciate the support.
for being donor numbers 1 and 2! You two are incredibly generous and I really appreciate the support.
Something I learned that I really knew all along but didn't actually consider; there isn't a single loaf of bread in the grocery store that doesn't have added sugar. I know... I looked! Yikes! In my pledge to go sugar free, I didn't actually anticipate going bread free, too. Who in their right mind would ever agree to that? If I "cheat," it's going to be because I really want a piece of toast! With peanut butter. OMG, toast and peanut butter! I miss you already! What was I thinking? So, there are definitely breads with less sugar than your typical cheap(ish) run of the mill whole wheat, so maybe a simple switch is what I need to do. They cost a lot more, though, and for the amount of bread this family goes through (oh no, are school lunches really on the horizon again???), I can't justify spending $6 a loaf. Maybe I'll hide the $6 loaf in the back of the freezer just for my own purposes. The other thing we learned, which surprised my children, was that there is almost the same amount of sugar, gram for gram, in their Dad's can of coke as there is in the same amount of their apple juice! Milk, on the other hand, has naturally occurring sugars, so I won't be making the kids give that up.
Thanks for coming along for the ride, on to day 2. No withdrawal symptoms yet...
https://www.sugarfreeseptember.ca/users/laura-freeman-2
