Are you a sugar addict? I am. In 2005 I vowed to quit sweets and have been blogging about it ever since. This website contains product reviews, personal journal entries, the weekly Sugar Challenge, and an ebook for people who want to Stop Being Sweet.

Nothing for Me, Thanks

July 30, 2010

How to Go to a Bakery and Order Nothing

Last night I went to Last Thursday with Gwenn and our friend Dave. Last Thursday is a monthly outdoor street festival here in Portland (see pictures). Dave wanted to stop at a one of his favorite bakeries and so we did.

Dave knows I’m off sugar, or at least he’s been told so in the past. Yet, he kept asking if I was going to get something, in a nice way. He’d be like, “You’re not getting anything? Did you look?” I simply said no thanks several times. Dave got a white chocolate thing and Gwenn got a chocolate thing.

Dave Dessert Gwenn Dessert

The good thing is that Gwenn got something otherwise Dave probably wouldn’t have gotten anything. That’s why you (unsweet person that you are) are no fun to go out with. When people want to get dessert and you don’t, they suddenly feel self-conscious and want to deprive themselves of their confectionary desires.

Don’t Look

I didn’t even look at the array of sweet delights that the bakery had on display inside their glass counters. That’s the first step to avoiding sweets. When you can’t see what you’re missing it’s a lot easier to not want it.

Ask the Server

What I did instead was ask the server at our table, “Do you have any sugar free desserts?” Doing this always produces a strange reaction on the server’s face, but they’re usually really sweet (pun intended) and say something like, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I’ll check.”

Asking if there’s any sugar-free dessert at a bakery is a bit like asking if there’s any alcohol-free beer at a bar. Most likely the answer is no. However, candy shops often have a sugar free section but the stuff is usually sweetened with Maltitol. Not good.

Anyhow, the server returned with the desserts and placed them on the table before she remembered to ask if they offer anything sans sugar. She made a display of asking another employee right in front of me and the other employee said no. I was not surprised.

Drink Water

I sat and observed as they ate their desserts. I drank water. It was hot outside. I also noticed that each and every table at the bakery had a huge jar of sugar on it. As if the desserts weren’t sweet enough, you might just feel the need to add a little more.

AddSugar

Keep in mind that I’ve been off sugar for about five years now. Had I been just starting I would have ordered something without sugar to eat. An appetizer, small salad or sandwich would have kept me busy and not made anyone feel odd nor would I feel left out.

Posted in My Personal Journal on July 30, 2010 : Comments (2)

Are Granola Bars Sweet?

July 26, 2010

Question

(from Twitter) Do you consider a chocolate chip granola bar to be sweet? Or any granola/power bar for that matter?

Answer:

Yes, I consider them sweet. Most individually wrapped and boxed granola bars are sugar-laden. They may or may not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup by they almost always have added sugars. I don’t eat any of the energy bars that you will find at most bicycle shops as they are basically candy bars—just with more nuts than a Snickers bar.

Here are the ingredients from Quaker chocolate chip granola bars:

Ingredients: Granola (Quaker Rolled Oats, Rolled Whole Wheat, Brown Sugar, Sunflower Oil, Fructose-Glucose, Dried Unsweetened Coconut, Honey, Sodium Bicarbonate, Natural Flavor, Modified Milk Ingredients), Glucose, Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Vanillin), Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt Extract, Salt), Glycerin, Sunflower Oil, Sugar, Sorbitol, Salt, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Molasses, Soy Lecithin, BHA (Preservative), Citric Acid, Sulphites.

CONTAINS: COCONUT, WHEAT, MILK, SOY, and SULPHITE ingredients.

That said, I will personally eat Larabars from time-to-time and also sometimes eat a form of “energy bar” (as they call it) that’s sold in the bulk food aisle at Fred Meyer supermarkets. These are some of my borderline replacement foods that I turn to when things get really stressful and I am “dying” for sweet junk food.

Make Your Own

Ultimately, it all depends on you. Some people can limit their sweets to higher quality, home made or hand made health food snacks and be very happy with that. Have a look at this recipe and make your own granola bars with alternative forms of sweeteners. There’s nothing like knowing you’re eating something you made. That way you know what’s inside it and what you’re putting inside of you!

PS - Look at this page on SugarStacks.com for a visual about how much sugar is in a Power Bar and a Cliff Bar.

Posted in Frequently Asked Questions on July 26, 2010 : Comments (0)

Weekly Sugar Challenge: Week of July 26, 2010

July 26, 2010

This week’s challenge is so easy and forgiving that it’s almost not a challenge!

Ice - Cream

This week’s challenge is to only eat ice cream as a sweet. No other sweets—just ice cream. Cake, cookies, candy and snacks of all kinds are out. Only eat ice cream.

If your ice cream contains candy or cookies (cookies and cream, etc.) then fine. You’re in.

This sounds easy and it should be for many readers considering it’s summer in North America. However, cutting out sweets is not easy. Say no to everything but ice cream.

Good luck!

Posted on July 26, 2010 : Comments (0)

Being Unsweet is a Lifestyle (Be a Superhero)

July 24, 2010

lifestyle
noun
the way in which a person or group lives

Changing your lifestyle isn’t easy. Your lifestyle is part of you. You relate to it. It forms your identity.

Part of your lifestyle is an activity that defines your lifestyle. Changing that activity obviously changes your life.

When you stop being sweet, you have to change your lifestyle as well as change the activity that represents your lifestyle.

For instance: a smoker who still identifies as a smoker is going to have a hard time not smoking. A former smoker who changes their identity to a non-smoker might slip up once or twice as they make the transition, but they’re more likely to remain off cigarettes because they’ve changed their lifestyle identity as well as their lifestyle activity.

SleepyHero The same goes for sugar. If you still identify as that person who is a sweet-toothed, weak-in-the-knees-around-chocolate consumer, then getting off the stuff will be nearly impossible. In fact, it might even feed into your whole self mythology about how powerless you are around this magical substance. It’s like you’re super-wo/man and sugar is your kryptonite.

If that’s the case, look at what the super hero accomplishes when s/he stays away from the stuff. Imagine how lame the story would be if Superwoman and Superman sat around the kryptonite acting all lethargic while muttering, “This is so much better than dealing with responsibility.”

SuperSugarCrisp As a super unsweet person, our responsibility is to pursue our full potential and avoid the evil substances that weaken us and turn our amazing story into a miserable bore.

Keep in mind, the evil powers out there will try to disguise your kryptonite (sugar) as something delicious. Don’t fall for it! Avoid it at all costs!

Change your lifestyle. Stay super instead of sweet and super things will happen.

Posted in Tips, Tricks, Info & News on July 24, 2010 : Comments (2)