It has been quite the journey. I'm still taking classes on nutrition and adjusting my diet as I go along. I have joined groups and communities for a short time to learn more and to glean information about real life experiences from real people, not paid people on commercial ads. I admit I have really learned a lot but there seems to be so much more needed yet.
The first thing I gave up was any and all carbonated beverages. That was a bit hard to do. I really liked my Pepsi's and giving up Root Beer was a big deal: it meant no more root beer floats. This also included carbonated water, soda water, flavored water, and so forth. That left me wondering how to replace those beverages on a daily basis.
I turned to what I thought would be a healthier choice, fruit juice. As time went on I learned that fruit juice is not really healthy as it is devoid of the fiber found in the fruit and it often has added stuff that is not good for you, like sweeteners. Yes, it is a better choice than Coke or Mountain Dew but it isn't the best choice and I was shooting for the moon. I wanted to do the best thing.
The best thing can be a matter of opinion and who's sponsoring the advice.
The next thing to go was table sugar. No more sugar bowl on the table, in other words. No sugar in the coffee, no sugar in the tea, no sugar on the cereal. Not even sugar on oatmeal.
Somehow giving up the sugar wasn't that hard for me. I thought. I was mistaken. Table sugar was not hard. Snickers bars, donuts, chocolate cake; now those were a different story.
Just FYI, this is an ongoing issue in my world. I made a deal with myself. I told myself that if i wanted something sweet and indulgent then I would have to make it myself, in my own kitchen, and make it a 'healthier' version. I look back on that now and <sigh> want to kick myself in the 'sit-down'. But I still try to stick to that.
I have sugar in the pantry. So I could go ahead and use that but I resist. The sugar is mostly there to make hummingbird nectar for the hummingbird feeder.
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