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!

Sugar free: Day 5

No more night mares but I am unfortunately getting a cold. My second this year! What have I done? So I take Kan jang, a natural medicine, make tea from fresh ginger and press lemon into it, and eat raw garlic. Its not so bad since I can't taste the garlic. Have spent some time in a café studying, will be doing much of that this week so should try to write some reviews. Today my flatmate had a chocolate cookie while at the café and I didn't get a craving. Yes, I think I have it under control. Tomorrow will be another test though, as it is Fettisdagen!

Today's food:

09:00 Breakfast	15:00 Lunch	19:30 Dinner	Other
Smoothie: Banana, pear, spiroulina, oat milk hard bread with cheese	Millet salad with blue cheese, avocado, fresh spinach, tomato and sprouts	Omelette with mushrooms and salad Fruit salad	Tea (fresh ginger) 2 cups of coffee

There is a lot of cheese in my diet right now, which is only because I managed to dumpster dive a lot of cheese last week...

Sugar free: Day 4

Lunch!

Tonight I dreamt that I accidentally ate sugar, which reminds me of when I became a vegetarian and used to have night mares about eating meat. But, then I went to a café (in real life, that is) and sat next to families having cup cakes, mud cake, etc etc. And I felt that yes it would have been nice, but I can do without it. Yes! Sugar cravings definitely going away, which feels awesome. But I still don't think I would want to live my entire life like this. There is something so nice and social about most foods and especially alcohol. I'm so glad I can still have coffee, but maybe that should be another 30 day challenge...

Food of today:

10:00 Breakfast	14:00 Lunch	19:30 Dinner	Other
Smoothie: Banana, orange, oat flakes, spiroulina, oat milk hard bread with cream cheese	pasta with tofu, tomatoes and fresh spinach bread with cream cheese	Buckwheat porridge and a cheese sandwich Fruit salad	Tea 2 cups of coffee A mandarin

Sugar free: Day 3

Lunch! Sorry for the crappy picture, Iphone camera in my kitchen...

Definitely less sugar cravings already. Went to yoga class today, since I had gained ½ kilo in those two days. Guess it's just natural variation, and I'm not worried at all about it.

Food of today:

10:00 Breakfast	14:00 Lunch	17:00 Snack	18:30 Dinner	Other
Smoothie: Banana, orange, oat flakes, spiroulina, oat milk yoghurt and müesli	Mashed potatoes with brussel sprouts, beans and carrot	Fruit salad	Buckwheat porridge and a hard bread sandwich with cream cheese	tea, some glasses of water

Sugar free: Day 2

How do I feel then? Cravings? Oh yes, but I can handle them. They make me understand that I need this detox, that I want to find a balance between an occasional treat and the every day sugar overdose. I so hope I can find that.

Food intake of today then:

7:30 Breakfast	12:30 Lunch	16:00 Snack	18:30 Dinner	32:00 Nearly midnight snack
Smoothie: Banana, apple, oat flakes, spiroulina, oat milk whole grain bread with cream cheese	Bulgur with tofu, beans and sprouts	Some avocado and bean sprouts	Mashed potatoes with brussel sprouts and a cheese sandwich (yes, whole grain)	Müesli with yoghurt

Doing fine! No coffee today either, which was good for me.

Sugar free: Day 1

Stumbled out of bed early this morning and got my body onto the scale. For a dietary experiment, controlling my weight seems like a good idea. I am very happy about the digits on the display, but I would like for my body to have a little more muscles and a little less fat. Let's see where this month will take me.

So, my food intake of today has looked like this:

7:30 Breakfast	12:30 Lunch	16:00 Snack	18:30 Dinner	Other
Smoothie: Banana, kiwi, oat flakes, spiroulina, oat milk Knäckebröd with cream cheese and tomato black coffee	Veggie stew with coconut milk	Whole grain bread with mozzarella cheese and tomato Walnuts	Bulgur with panfried vegetables (broccoli, zuccini...) in soy sauce	two apples, ½ litre of water, more coffee and tea

So far, so good, I would say. I have had some slight sugar cravings, but I'm pretty sure they arise because I know I'm not allowed to. I need to stock up on berries! (after defrosting the freezer...) I saw another Ted Talk the other day about keeping your goals to yourself, since talking about them apparently made you less likely to fulfil them. In this case I think they are wrong! Another Ted Talk was more into the same thinking as I am, that sharing the updates of his challenge gives him supportive pier pressure. Let's do that!

And how is Martin doing? Check out HERE

Countdown - last day of sugar

My idea was to eat as much sugar and unhealthy crap as possible today, to disgust me into doing this internal cleansing. It's been both tasty and yucky, I would say. Chocolate müsli, white bread and pasta, sweetened soy milk, pastries, sweets, crisps... yeah. It could possibly have been a little worse, but I definitely feel like I need what is coming. I should to remember to drink more water too during this.

How are you doing Martin?

30 Day Challenge: Sugar free diet

So, inspired by a TED talk by Matt Cutts about trying something new for 30 days, Martin (Cornish traveling friend) have decided to cut out sugar for 30 days. We both really need it. I mean, really.

So, we are to start on the 16th of February to end the 16th of March. Right now we are in the build up period: say goodbye to all the good stuff, meaning we just shared a Terry's chocolate orange for dinner. Great. (I'm going running tomorrow morning). And to put pressure on myself, I am going to blog about it so that someone reading my blog will come and kick me on the shin if I break the rules.

We still need to clear out the rules though. Martin has spent some time today researching sugar free diats, to see what is considered sugar and what's not.

Ruled out: Chocolate, sweets, alcohol, 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, all kinds of food with refined sugars (sweet chili sauce for example), 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.

Wish us good luck because we so need it! And I hope our day 31 will not look like Matt's.

February holidays

February has two big holidays in Sweden - valentine's day and the fat tuesday ('fettisdagen'). It is celebrated 47 days before Easter, which means 21 of February this year. The fat Tuesday means that you get to eat a pastry called 'semla'. However, due to rape of old traditions, it is now served all month. It's a sweet bun with an almond paste in it, and lots of whipped cream. The top of the bun is cut off, it is filled and is then given a "hat" when the top is put back on and powdered with icing sugar. Yeah, calories! There is also an online contest (found here) on who can eat the most of these during this month. Another fun (tragic) fact is that a Swedish king, Adolf Fredrik, died after having like 14 of those...


The other day, Valentine's day, is celebrated as everywhere else, the American way. This year I will celebrate slightly different by a Free Hugs-campain at Stortorget in Malmö. Feel free to join us, the event can be found on Couchsurfing! Last year I forgot about it, since I was working on a farm in Bolivia with no connection to the rest of the world... But if someone feels like giving me a gift this year to prove they love me, this is what I would like -->

TED talks

Ted talks is note just one guy, but randomly brilliant people from all over the world who hold speeches for 3-20 minutes about... anything. The slogan is "Ideas worth spreading" which results in a lot of science, but also generally cool projects, some economics, just good stuff.

So I found this smashing guy today talking about The happy secret to better work - his name is Shawn Achor, watch it HERE. Its really funny and his sister Amy is a unicorn.

Another super-inspiring woman is Karen Tse who holds an amazing speech about how to stop torture. Watch that HERE.

And last but not least, Sarah Kay is a spoken word poet who reads a jaws-dropping poem called "If I should have a daughter". Please watch it HERE.

Enjoy my dear ones, and please give me your favourites too.