Back to (almost) no sugar diet!

Martin and I just decided we were feeling so much better off sugar than now that we are back and slipping back into old habits. So we decided to adjust the rules slightly, so we wouldn't feel as restrained especially in our normal social activities. 


Ruled out: Chocolate, sweets, ice cream, pastries, crackers and cookies, desserts, pies, squash (as in mix juice/concentrate crap), flour: meaning white bread, rice, pasta, syrup, all kind of marmalades and jellies, food with refined sugars, sweetened soy milk, sport drinks, sweetened coffee.

Still in: Fruit, fresh juice (make sure no added sugar!), raisins, nuts. Obviously all kind of veggies, cereals, whole wheat bread, rice and pasta, lactose such as milk and unsweetened yoghurt, eggs, coffee, tea, mate and honey, but only for cooking. Alcohol is ok too


Allowed in small amounts: Pastries such as desserts or fika is allowed once a week, pizza but only as a treat and so is white flour. Meaning, if someone invites you it's allright, but not ok to buy it yourself! Martin is allowed marmelade once a week too.

So, this starts on monday. We are to do a 3 month "challenge" with a monthly update session (every 21th). Seems like we are sort of organised this time, like we know what we are getting into and the aim is not to push ourselves as hard as possible but to create a sustainable relation to food. Yay for us and for treating your body the way it deserves!

Sugar free: Day 29

Second last day of no sugar. AWSOME.

It's been up and down. Hard, but not impossible. Knowing that the day would come when I could have it again and that it wasn't forever has helped me keep the spirits up. This last week I've actually not thought that much about it, which has been nice but also resulted in some accidental fails...

List of fails
1. Ice cream dinner (emo breakdown)
2. Giffel
3. One slice of white bread
4. Lingonberry jam that I thought was sugar free but that wasn't
5. Mum's home made müesli which contains syrup
6. The white bread on a falafel, it was impossible to eat only the content

And I am completely fine with this. Actually, this is sort of how I would like my life to be. (You see an attitude change here? Psychologists say behaviour change attitude). Maybe have a dessert or something nice now and then, but not every day and not feeling bad about it when I do. My skin has gotten a lot better, and I can eat heaps without gaining weight since your body can't take up fat if you don't eat sugar (that's how Atkins work too). And an occasional glass of wine or beer, even though I've managed very well without too.

So everyone, try this. I really mean it. It's so worth it!

Next 30 day challenge then? I have decided to go for Creative Writing: 30 min per day. I want to boost my poetry writing and work on a scene project I'm putting up for May. Woop!

Forgetting Fun

Ok, I need my blog again. I need to ventilate my heart, I need to empty that litter bin that some people use as a head, for proper thinking. Glitt is back.

So now what, was my thinking. The other day, I was studying and I figured I deserved a break to go do something else. And my mind answered my thought by "what else is there to do?" I guess that is a warning sign of being shit boring.

And yesterday, a friend was trying to teach me a game. I didn't even give it a proper try before I decided it was not worth while. WHY? When did I turn this boring? Asking myself that question, I have actively searched for something fun to do. And there is nothing that comes to my mind, that I think of as fun. I sure hope this is temporary and that I can do something about it fast.

What do I think is fun? I mean, I like running, because it makes me feel good, but funny? Not really. I write poetry of free will, but it is an urge to put words on a paper and I'm not sure that's too funny either. Watching comedies make me want to go and get my life sorted.

Ok, fun. Any input is good. Until then I will pause studying and read a book. It's not funny, but good.

Café review XI-XV

Here come some more café reviews. I think I write them mainly so that I can map how many of the cafés in Malmö I have been to, and make sure to try different ones.

Chez Madame: This café re-opened in a place which used to be called Old Bridge. This is one of the new hot spots in town; it is trendy, organic, healthy... But also very noisy, long tables and very crowded. I was actually a bit disappointed, since cosiness is very important to me at cafés. Not too comfy (I can ditch a café if their chairs look uncomfortable) and there is just no peace and quiet. But I was there at rush hour, so it might be nicer at some other time of the day.

Café Agnez: This place is a bit more expensive than others, buuut it is vegan, they have some raw food snacks (that are cheaper than in other places) and a backyard where you can sit even if it is cold since they have heating and blankets. it doesn't get windy because of the high buildings surrounding it, but that means there's not much sun either... Everything is home made and organic, which makes your stomach and conscience happy, but your wallet a little sad.

Kungsgatan: Prepare to fight for your table and have lots of trolleys around you. this is the favourite hangout for Swedish "latte-mammor", but they have all the reason to be here - it is gorgeous. Their sunday brunch is crowded but used to include waffles, they make their own bread, and the interior design is beautiful. Big windows, 19th century furniture in white, blue and gold... Sweet and classy but still not overpriced.

Glassfabriken: The alternative, vegan, "I'm so cool I fuck the system" hangout. But it is really nice actually, nice furniture and good food, only home made (vegan) pastries. Prices are all right too, but since it is run completely by volunteers, the staff is the slowest and crappiest ever. Don't order anything they have to prepare for you if you don't have a lot of time. It will be yummy, but prepare to spend a good amount of time waiting for them to even notice you are there.

Puls Espressobar: One early morning I walked around all of town to find a nice place to study. This place has amazing coffee and the owner was super-nice, and you can really tell he cares about the coffee. The interior is not too interesting, no wifi and no cool pastries but I got to be alone on the almost secret second floor. Not too pricey either.

Sugar free: Day 22

So just above three weeks have past and only one week left to go! It feels pretty amazing, it was so hard in the beginning and every day of no sugar was a great challenge. Now it is part of my everyday life to say no.

How long did it take me to get rid of the cravings? Well, I would say maybe five days to get rid of the worst, then maybe two weeks to not get random cravings regularly. I mean, I can still feel the desire to eat something, but the thought of it is not overwhelming. One very good thing to do is to sort all the sweet thinks out of reach. I have a little stock of hidden goods, but it's a bit complicated to reach them... I saw the importance of that today when I decided to have a little "giffel" (mini-cinnamon roll) just because I had bought them (to bribe others) and there were some left. It was good, but not that good. And no desire to have more than one, which I feel immensely relieved by.

I have gone through an emotionally pretty rough period, which means that I otherwise would have comforted myself with heap loads of chocolate. Now I know there is sugar free chocolate, but I think that would just make me eat heap loads of that so I ruled that out too. One evening I felt completely miserable and had ice cream for dinner. I actually didn't feel too bad about it, maybe my stomach wasn't too satisfied but I had no wish to go back to my prior diet.

Alcohol then. Yes, I miss having wine sometimes (had a dinner out where I really missed it) but as for the partying, I had a great night out and saved quite a lot of money. This has never really been an issue to me, but I will definitely drink more carefully after this challenge.

So, where do I see myself after this? I understand the people who decide to live like this always, but I choose not to. I will really try hard to keep my sugar intake restricted, maybe something like only weekends, or twice a week. I have done that earlier (2008) and it worked out fine. When it comes to my weight it really hasn't changed, which I interpret as I have more or less my ideal weight. I was happy with it before, and it is great if I can maintain it.

Today I had a weird mishmash of fruit, oats, hemp protein and tahini for breakfast, a few cups of coffee, a root vegetable/bean stew in coconut milk for lunch, some cereals with yoghurt in the afternoon, stir-fried veggies with whole grain pasta for dinner and topped up with some raspberries for dessert. Ok I would say.

Martin just wrote to me and asked me for new 30 day challenges. Now I would really like to do a vegan challenge, but I think I would need a week of normality to have the energy to do that. I have a new, very encouraging friend to help me out with motivation there, but I think that's a little over the top for Martin (you gotta be able to live somewhat normally, and I'm just saying this would require a lot of work, not that he wouldn't be able to). Another one I would really need is the no caffeine one, which I think would be all right since I could just replace everything with tea.

Other ideas...
Draw something everyday to boost creativity.
Write a poem every day.
Take a picture every day.
Write with my right hand (I am left handed) for 5 min every day.
Live only of dumpster dived food (hardcore...)
Practice yoga/tai chi/whatever every day.
Write emails or letters to friends you struggle to stay in touch with, for example 10 letters in 30 days (maybe hard to do as it requires some time).
Brush your teeth with your "wrong" hand.
Write down something you are happy about and something you could have done better/differently every day.
Keep a dream diary.

What do you think, Martin?

Sugar free: Day 6

This is what my breakfast smoothie looks like. Given its funky colour by the super food Spiroulina, an algae!

Food of today:

09:00 Breakfast	11:00 Fika	15:00 Lunch	20:30 Dinner	Other
Smoothie: Banana, apple, oat flakes, spiroulina, oat milk	Whole grain bun 2 cups of coffee	Tofu fried with sprouts, millet and salad	Buckwheat porridge and a hard bread sandwich with cream cheese	Mate Crisps

Café review V-X

So, I have been to quite a few cafés that I haven't reviewed yet, so here comes a little guide to some tops and lows...

Café Grannen (the neighbour): Kind of artsy place that I like because it has cheap coffee, only 15 sek. They have a pretty unpretentious breakfast buffet for 65 which is a good deal. Moreover, they have big tables suitable for studying/working, and they have free wifi. It is located not too far from where I live, but not in the centre, which means that it's generally not too crowded. A place to spend time!

Café Mocca has a good location and is not too crowded, since it is big but still not noisy. They have good opening hours (until 20:00) and their pastries look all right. My friend said their smoothie was really good, and apparently they also have wifi. Still, it's pretty impersonal and slightly boring.

Café Mys: Seriously, don't go here. They charge extra for your coffee refill (5 sek more, and it is 20 for the first), all their (4 different) pastries were pre-made delicato and pretty expensive. Also, the door doesn't shut properly so we had to get up about 10 times during the time we spent there to close it, as our feet got cold. They had reasonably comfortable chairs though, and as we sort of expressed that it was pricey and had to get up to close the door all the time, the owner refilled our cups for us. Thanks for that.

Espresso House at Davidhalls torg: Now I generally try to avoid this massive chain and they sometimes feel like a plague (there are 15 of them in Malmö!), but truth is, they make good coffee and pastries. They are a bit pricey (25 sek for a coffee) but they give you student discount and they refill your cup. This particular one is located slightly of the beaten track and I chose it because of their comfortable chairs to sit and read, but I was still distracted by all the families. And of course they have wifi.

Café Simpan (simrishamnsgatan): Ah. This is one original coffee shop. Everything is odd and funky, they make extremely good soy latte, home made sandwiches and carrot cake... Open until 01:00 three days per week and wifi, in the most popular hipster area of Malmö. Awesome? Yes. Too crowded? Pretty much always, which is a shame. If you are heading out at odd hours, try it!