Week 4, Day 7

"Breakfast":
1 large cup of Yogi Tea Chocolate with a dash of soy milk

Lunch:
1 glass of prosecco
pork loin filled with dried plums wrapped in bacon [S]
pole beans with butter and salt
Schupfnudeln (a sort of dumpling made with potatoes, not really pasta)

Afternoon:
1 whisky sour [S]
1 piece of tiramisu made with apple sauce instead of (most of) the mascarpone [S]

Evening:
2 more (small) pieces of pork loin [S]
1 slice of bread
some mustard [S]

So, why in the world did I consume so much stuff containing sugar today?
Well, I thought someone's birthday would be a great time to do some experimentation within this experiment. I just wanted to see what sort of effect it would have on me, whether I would notice any change in my constitution.
The result?
I did. And it was/is terrible. Really. As soon as I ate the tiramisu, I developed this lingering kind of fuzzy headache that gradually seeps into the background and just hangs there as a light layer of *duh* over everything you think or do. Then, about 30mins later, I suddenly felt sick. Right now, many many hours later, I still feel worse than I've felt in a long time. Still slightly fuzzy in the head, still a queasy feeling in my stomach. I think the message is quite clear. This is *just* what I wanted to get rid of.
Well, guess now I know.
And it's really rather shocking to be able to observe what sort of state I lived in before doing this without even properly realising anymore. Ew.

By the way, the topic of this week was "Face the demons", but I think I already did that a little earlier. The only demons I'm facing now are some sorrow and regret, both for what I've been doing to myself, and for the fact that some of the things I really love to eat are now pretty much off my list. Apple sauce *sniff* I will always love you. :,,,,(

Week 4, Day 6

Breakfast:
2 slices of bread with some vegan bean spread
1 tiny slice of bread with cheese

Lunch:
salmon steak seared in peanut oil
steamed vegetables with some butter, sprinkled with parmesan
soba noodles with sesame oil

Afternoon:
1 large cup of vanilla chai made with soy-rice milk

Evening:
4 mixed cereal crackers with peanut butter
large cup of Yogi Tea Chocolate

Week 4, Day 5

Breakfast:
4 mixed cereal crackers with peanut butter
1 cup of Yogi Tea Chocolate

Midday:
1 cup of herbal tea

Late lunch:
1 kebab (lamb)

"Dinner":
several small sandwiches with butter, cheese, salami, bell pepper etc
1 can of Guinness
1 bottle Gösser
some crisps

I have to admit I have no idea whether any of the things I consumed under 'dinner' contained sugar or not. I'm really not sure how I should handle invitations to other people's places in the future. Bring my own snacks? Eat beforehand and consume nothing while there? Eat only a tiny little bit? I'll have to think about that.
By the way, the two portions of beer, which would normally don't do evil things to me, did result in me feeling sort of odd Saturday morning. I really think I need to be careful with that as well.

Week 4, Day 4

Late breakfast:
some goat cheese
1 avocado
some mixed cereal crackers

Snack:
Some salty snacks before dinner because I was reaaaally hungry

Dinner:
Gnocchi with red pesto and parmesan
Some rocket with macadamia nut oil
[VERY tasty]

I still don't know what to pack for uni. Mmpf. I can't really go on being hungry during the day and then eating massive portions for dinner. :P

Also, I don't remember what I had on Wednesday. What I usually do is to switch on my computer when I get home and do stuff on there on and off. The past week, what I do when I get home is to simply plop down on the sofa and grab the next book in the "One Piece" manga series, and read until I go to bed. I have some catching up to do. I'll write more about "One Piece" (and maybe some other Japanese stuff) in other posts, the important thing to know right now is - I have some catching up to do. Oh yes.

Week 4, Day 2

Breakfast:
Porridge made with oat milk, cocoa powder and coconut chips [which tasted almost like chocolate pudding, yay!]

Lunch:
Noodles with pork and veggies [I have to admit, I have no idea whether there was any sugar in the sauce...I just think that, since there was so little sauce anyway, it couldn't have been much. And if there was any, I will accept that gladly for the chance to have lunch with a friend.]

Evening:
More coconut chips

Late evening:
2 slices of bread with grilled cheese, a handfull of radishes

Week 4, Day 1

Breakfast:
1 slice of bread (S) with peanut butter [the bread where I discovered, just as I bit into it, that it had some sugar content]

Midmorning:
1 cup of herbal tea
Coconut chips (I just discovered these - hooray for sugarfree snacks!)

Lunch:
Gyros

Afternoon:
Veggie juice

Evening:
some parmesan

Late evening:
some Finn Crips multigrain
some goat cheese
some cashew butter
large cup of Vata tea

Week 3, Day 6 and 7

I didn't turn on my computer this weekend and didn't take any notes, so I have no perfect list of what I had these couple of days. I know two things which weren't quite ideal - drinking a glass of Guinness Saturday evening (wine is okay I think but dark, sweet beer I suppose isn't...), and, something I only realised this morning, the bread I had frozen for emergency Sunday "We used up all our bread but need more"-situations contained sugar, but since I just took it out of the freezer I forgot to check the label. :P
Anyway, the rest was fine - scrambled eggs with salmon and onions twice, mixed cereal crackers and nut butters, lots of tea, goat cheese and veggies, that sort of thing. As I said, no exact list, but I know there was no sugar hidden anywhere else.

I also cleaned out the fridge, so there's only good sugarless stuff in there now. :)

Week 3, Day 5

Breakfast:
3 small slices of bread with onion spread
1 large cup of Vata tea

Lunch:
Chicken kebab

Evening:
2 glasses of white wine
some peanut snacks
and if something else, I sadly don't quite remember, since I'm finishing this post on Monday. Maybe some peanut butter?

I think there might have been traces of sugar in the peanut snacks...dextrose, which is, however, not what I'm mainly trying to avoid.

Week 3, Day 4

"Breakfast" (more like lunch):
1 large cup of Earl Grey
1 avocado
some goat cheese
3 corn crackers

Afternoon:
1 pack vegetable juice (500ml, mixed veggies) - I buy this one regularly, and it's great for taking to class

Evening:
Spelt 'risotto' with some added parmesan
The last bit of the mixed greens salad
1 large cup ginger tea

I wasn't really hungry today, but still, this may have been a little too little. Need to find something I can suitably pack for uni (and which doesn't need too much preparation).

The headache yesterday just wouldn't go away. Almost as bad as a migraine. Then I went to my local sauna, and then drank another load of water afterwards, and...today it's gone. Phew. It had been bugging me for several days. Nothing is as good as when pain suddenly disappears. :)

Week 3, Day 3

"Breakfast":
1 glass of oatmilk
1 cup of Sweet Chai tea

Lunch:
1 croissant with ham, cheese, eggs, lettuce

Dinner:
More mixed greens salad with added cherry tomatoe, macadamia nut oil and herbs
2 slices of bread with grilled cheese
1 small slice of bread with onion spread

Late evening:
1 cup of Vata tea
1 teaspoon cashew butter and one peanut butter as a treat


I am drinking lots of water these days. Some sort of detox headache seems to have set in, and I'm really trying to get over it without any painkillers. I had to take those yesterday, for other reasons, but I'm not going to take any for this headache, annoying as it may be. It should be over within the week, anyway.

Week 3, Day 2

Breakfast:
2 slices of bread with onion spread
1 large cup of Ayurvedic Vata tea

Lunch:
1 cup of yogurt with a dash of cinnamon, some cocoa powder and some shredded coconut
3 mixed cereals crackers with peanut butter

Dinner:
Coconut-based curry with turkey, brown rice and mixed salad (with some macadamia oil and herbs)

Spent the day at home, resting, knitting, reading. Really needed a break.

Week 3, Day 1

This week I give up ALL sugar, yay!

Breakfast:
1 cup of mate tea
1 slice of bread with grilled cheese
(I almost didn't eat anything, forced myself, exams on empty stomachs are no good)

Noontime:
1 cup of coffee with oat milk
(I had fantasies of visiting my favourite coffee shop, but choosing between normal milk [lactose], lactose-free milk [fructose] and soy milk [whatever sugar they add to that] sort of made that impossible. I know that this programme is mainly about avoiding fructose, but since I'm also lactose intolerant, there's nothing to do.]

Lunch:
ciabatta with goat cheese, watercress, grilled bell pepper, red pesto

Afternoon:
Some peanut butter

Evening:
1 glass of mango smoothie (S)
1 big bowl of salad (field salad, radishes, orang bell pepper) with lemon juice and poppy seed oil,some pieces of feta wrapped in bacon and baked until crispy/soft

I need to explain that glass of smoothie, which was not planned and not intended. Love will be my eternal downfall. ;) The story goes like this: I had my exam, which I was really anxious about and spent the past week and more reading like a maniac for. In the evening, my boyfriend comes home and says: "One day I'll finally bring you real flowers*, but..." and pulls a container of Innocent mango smoothie from his bag. Which I love. All of them, but mango especially. And I look at him with big eyes, unsure what to say, and he remembers that I'm not supposed to drink it, and is completely crestfallen. So I say: "You know what, I'll have one glass. And I'll completely refrain from sugar from tomorrow onwards. And also..." *smooch*

Life is sweet.


*We have this joke going on that I never get flowers but other things instead. It started one day when we were not yet living together and shopping at IKEA, and I was buying some energy saving lightbulbs...and at the checkout, he paid for them despite me complaining and said "For all the flowers I never get you." I then explained that I'm not really the flowers-expecting kind of girl (and I think they're sometimes just used as an excuse for something better, like something you really need, or an apology), and that his idea was genius. So him getting me my favourite kind of smoothie? A thousand times better than any bunch of greens could ever be, never mind the timing. ;)

Week 2, Day 7

(Late) Breakfast:
1 cup of organic yogurt with 1 teaspoon cashew butter
1 large cup of Yogi Tea Black Chai with some oat milk

Lunch:
1 handful of cocktail tomatoes
1 large spring onion
half a cucumber
1 tin of sardines in tomato sauce (S) [I forgot to check when I bought them...sugar in the sauce, of course...]
3 corn crackers

Afternoon:
crisps
2 teaspoons of peanut butter and 1 teaspoon cashew butter (sudden sugar craving :P)

Evening:
2 slices of bread with butter and honey (S) [as a sort of goodbye, because next week I quit completely; and also as a sort of test]
1 glass of oat milk
1 large cup of herbal tea with a dash of cinnamon

I must admit, I was worried. The last few days haven't been too good emotionally. I've slept badly, hardly. Thankfully I remembered today that this might be a side effect of doing this - feeling bad for a while. Lots of things coming up which I haven't thought about for ages. Suddenly crying because I miss my grandmothers. All sorts of regrets, worse than usual. Crazy amounts of anxiety, just when I want to go to sleep.
I thought I was going a little crazy over my exam, and thought that quite weird, it doesn't usually happen. I think I can now safely say that it's withdrawal. And yes, that does make it a little better. Not much, but it does.
Nevertheless, I hope I get over this soon. :P

Week 2, Day 6

(Late) Breakfast:
1 large cup of herbal tea
2 small slices of bread with ham and grilled cheese

Afternoon:
All sorts of snacks - salted almonds, crisps, pretzels

Dinner:
2 small slices of bread with ham and grilled cheese
1 large cup of green tea with pomegranate flavour

We had visitors for the afternoon, hence the snacks - and I was tired, and reading like a madwoman for the rest of the day, hence the lack of cooking and vegetables. Will make up for this tomorrow.

Week 2, Day 5

Breakfast:
1 cup of organic yoghurt

"Snack":
1 glass of oat milk

Lunch:
1 croissant with ham, cheese, egg and salad
(one of my go-to-things to eat when I'm at work)

Afternoon:
1 large cup of Caro coffee with half the cup made up of oat milk - tasted tasteless, so I added one small amount of the coconut sugar I'd made around Christmas...which also didn't help (S)
1 teaspoon cashew butter (it really is something of a little treat, every time)

Evening:
2 slices of bread with ham and grilled cheese (prepared by my boyfriend, not healthy, but yummm)
some radishes (which I added to make it seem more healthy, at least)

Reading update

As previously mentioned, I'm trying to read more, a lot more, than last year. I'm currently deep into a list of books I need to read for an exam, and need to finish 2 1/4 books until Monday, so that should be...easy?

Anyway, what I've read since I finished with Tiffany Aching:

The English Patient
Return to Harken House
12 balls of yarn for Granny Owl (my own translation; a tiny children's book which I won't really count, but it was about a knitting owl <3)

And I'm now on the last 100 pages of Midnight's Children. I currently feel a little behind my goal of one book per week, but if I manage to read those other 2 books (Things fall apart and Disgrace), I'll be way ahead again. Fingers crossed!

Edit: And - Midnight's Children finished. Phew! What a book! Wish I could take a break now to digest it properly...

Edit 2: It seems I entirely forgot 'The God of Small Things'. I finished that just before Midnight's Children.

Week 2, Day 4

Breakfast:
Some corn crackers (5-6)
some cheese
some radishes (5-6)
a cup of herbal tea

Midday snack:
I cup of yoghurt with one teaspoon cashew butter and one teaspoon linseeds mixed in

Late afternoon:
The remaining pasta from yesterday, with some fresh rocket mixed in, plus parmesan

Evening:
3 rice crackers with peanut butter
2 cups of tea (one was some unlabelled fruit-flavoured black tea, the other was anise-fennel-araway tea)
1 spoon cashew butter because it's so good