Day 2. What does sugar-free mean to you?
If you’re doing the Anti-Candida Diet, sugar-free might mean no tropical fruit, but stevia is just fine, thanks.
If you’re following Alex’s rules, dates are a go. But, stevia is out.
Eryn suggests no stevia, no fruit juice, and no dried fruit. Whoa.
So me? Where am I at in all of this? Well, I’m in the no syrups, no honey, no refined or unrefined “sugars” camp. I’m also trying to limit dried fruits and concentrated fruit juices. But, I’m not limiting whole fruits.
Which is good, because today has been a wee bit less than well-rounded, nutrition-wise. Some days are like that.
Here’s what I ate today. Tell me you did better than this, okay?
Breakfast: Fruit and nut bowl with apples, coconut, pecans, flax seed and unsweetened almond milk.
Morning snack: 1 red grapefruit
Lunch (put together from what was available at a work-sponsored meal): Salad with spring greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots and steamed cauliflower & green beans plus a banana for dessert.
Lunch completely lacked protein, so afternoon snack was a handful of cashews and a handful of roasted chickpeas.
Dinner – here’s where I sort of failed. I didn’t get home until 7:45, and then had to put the kiddo to bed. So, dinner was another fruit and nut bowl – this time with a banana, raisins, peanuts, almond milk and a drizzle of peanut butter.
I feel all right – no major cravings, but I ate a lot of fruit today. Probably a bit too much fruit. Oops.
The Mommy Bowl 
I know, I’m crazy….I should have clarified that I meant no concentrated fruit juice. I keep store bought organic lemon and lime juice (not from concentrate) around all the time and have been using that. I have actually been eating this no-sugar way for a while now(with the exception of cheating with dried fruit several times 🙂 But for these 10 days, I am abstaining from it all. I feel like I’m making up for the fact that I used to bake for a living and eat a white flour biscuit, taste test brownies, snack on some cream cheese danishes, and even more (and yes, this was usually just by lunchtime 🙂
I figured you meant no concentrated fruit juices. I don’t think I could go without lemon and lime juice – I use them in too many savory dishes. I eat primarily pretty low-sugar to begin with as well, so, to really cut back on sugar, cutting back on fruit is the way I’ll have to go as well. Didn’t do so hot with that today, but it was a weird one in which I didn’t have quite the control over my own meal prep as normal.
Sounds like an incredibly healthy day to me, whether or not you had a wee bit more fruit than usual. I know someone who used to eat 90% of her calories from fruit (on purpose)–felt it was the healthiest food to eat! Me, I miss those tropical fruits. . . 😉
I know you miss those tropical fruits! I would miss them, too. But, I do think I’m going to try to cut back on the fruit a bit for this challenge (yesterday not withstanding). 🙂
People have so many definitions of sugar-free, but I believe whole fruits are good….but…..no more of the other junk!
Yep, no junk is a given. I just need to figure out exactly how much fruit I still want to have and how much to limit it. No fruit for breakfast today – maybe I’ll make it a fruit-free day.
I’m in your camp on what sugar-free means to me … I just haven’t made it there yet 🙂
I’m working on it…. Always working on it. 🙂