In 2015 I got challenged: eating 100% all sugar free. So no sugar at all, not even fructose. Main idea was to find out how hooked I was on sugar. I didn’t think this challenge would be a tough one, because if it comes to taste I prefer both sour and salt over sweet. So I accepted and without much preparation Matthias (my husband) and I started this challenge together.
What to eat on 100% all sugar free diet?
Every day we started with a glass of water with pink Himalayan salt and a multivitamin Omnium. The rest of the day we could drink as much water, tea, coffee or coconut water and eat some nuts (Brazil (in Dutch: paranoot), cashew, almonds and hazelnuts) as snack. But not all teabags or coconut water are allowed, so you really have to read the nutrition facts labels first. And at that moment our poor preparation became a huge burden in this challenge. You don’t want to read nutrition facts labels in a grocery store feeling hungry and moody and finding out almost every product contains any form of sugar….
So during this challenge we had to find out what we were allowed to eat. I began researching various bloggers’ journeys to their sugar free lifestyle, but it turned out the majority was allowed fructose. Understandable, as a 10 days all sugar free challenge is a totally different approach than a sugar free lifestyle. We ended up reading the Facebook-post of the personal trainer of Matthias. He had done this challenge before and was the one inspiring my husband to do this challenge as well. One big difference though besides being a personal trainer, he is a top athlete (several Ironman’s, including Hawaii 2015) and he knows much more on nutrition and it’s impact on your body.
Next to some nuts, we found out we could eat: eggs, salmon, arugula (in Dutch: rucola), homemade mayonaise, mushrooms, parsley, sesame seeds, trout, cod and olives. Not much unfortunately…