We’re one month in, I guess it’s time for an update: it’s not easy. There are way more things that contain sugar than you would expect. You wanted a wiener schnitzel? Sorry, there’s sugar in the bread-coating. Kroepoek? Sorry, sugar. Ham? Sorry, sugar. Sometimes you’re lucky and you can find a brand that doesn’t contain come kind of sugar, but you have to search and be careful.

The good news is, I completely quit soda and energy drinks. I haven’t touched a coke, ice tea or any other sweet drink in a month. Usually I drink at least two cans of soda at work. No more. It’s completely replaced by water. Also gone are the cookies and other sweets at the office. I always had a stash of cookies, chocolate or candy, often very close to my desk. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to reach for something to eat while I’m thinking, so I was eating cookies all day long. Those cookies have been replaced by fruit. I still eat a lot of it, and I should probably reduce the amount a bit, but heck, fruit is healthy.

I also changed my breakfast habits. I usually ate very little at home and I often stopped at a local bakery to get a croissant. No more. Since early this month, I’m trying to have a daily juice with a yogurt. Very often, it’s a fruit juice, containing oranges, apples, pears, pomegranate,… A couple of times, I’ve also tried a vegetable juice, like the very green “popey power” with spinach. I like the vegetable juices so far, my girlfriend a bit less.

It’s not all sunshine and roses though. Like I said before too many things contain sugar. And I don’t want to miss out when we’re having friends over or when we are visiting our parents. The occasional piece of delicious, homemade cake can’t be avoided. Or the pancakes we just had with all our friends. I don’t want to be the killjoy.

One thing I’m still struggling with is bread. Not the bread itself, it’s easy to bake bread at home if you don’t trust the bakery with sugar. No, it’s what you put on your slices of bread. I can only have so many slices with cheese or delicatessen, as far as they don’t contain any sugar. But Nutella? No. Honey? No. Jam? No. What do you think? What do you eat with bread that doesn’t contain sugar?

Onto the next month with even less sugar!