"Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby"

Well, I seem to have survived the first week and, with the exception of my splenda-sweetened lattes, one sprite, and a tiny Easter cookie a classmate brought to class (sabotage!), I've stuck to my rules for the week. I tried to find balance this week by cutting out added sugar. My diet was not all natural and whole foods. I gave into the craving for Taco Bell once, but, with the help of friends, resisted the urge to buy a cookie or supplement my meal with sweet tea. Things seemed to work much better when I was prepared. Having a tupperware full of celery sticks helped when I felt like I just had to munch on something and cooking food I could eat for breakfast the night before cut down on my desire to pick up a muffin on the way to work or class.

Today, the roommate and I got so desperate for something other than water to drink that we experimented by making Kool-Aid without sugar. For those of you who are wondering (um, NONE OF YOU. Who wants that??) Kool-Aid is gross. I mean, with sugar it’s gross, but without, I just don’t know what it is. It makes me realize how bad for you something must really be if it’s unbearable without sugar. I was not a kid who grew up with Kool-Aid and it's not something I drink now, so I didn't really need a lesson on how bad for you Kool-Aid is, but here it is none the less.

We also set out to find some of the things Sarah Wilson mentions in her book as substitutes she uses when she feels like she just has to have chocolate. We ended up with cacao nibs and a 100% cacao bar. Cacao nibs are basically pieces of cacao beans that have been hulled out and crushed up a bit. They're the first step in making chocolate. And they're terrible. Like, really awful. Like, eating coffee grounds. I'm not sure what she does with them because the impression I got from her book was that she just ate them. I'm not sure how because they're awful. Cacao nibs smell like chocolate and a tiny hint of the sweet stuff you love is there, but they're bitter and sour. Not at all what I was looking for. I'll have to look through her book and website to see if there are some recipes that make cacao nibs bearable.

While at Whole Foods, we tortured ourselves by looking through the ice cream in a vain attempt to find anything without sugar. I'm sure that this will change as time goes on, but at the moment, grocery shopping is an unpleasant activity. This sucks because I've always enjoyed grocery shopping and cooking. I really enjoy meal planning and finding new ingredients. Frankly, I really enjoy food. Right now, having to check all of the labels for anything that I might like to eat and finding out that sugar has been added to EVERYTHING is depressing. And people, I'm not someone who lived off of processed foods before. I didn't eat things that come out of a box or frozen meals. Sugar is in everything!

Regardless, I haven’t given up yet. I’ll be re-reading the second chapter of the book today in an effort to begin the next week on the right foot. Here’s to cutting down on cravings one day at a time!