30 Day Challenges

I'm joining Kate of The Suddenly Kate Show in her 30 days of lists challenge and I'm going to impose a second challenge on myself of no refined sugar for 30 days. I will try and reduce any honey or maple syrup I might normally have as well. 

Therefore, my first list will be 10 foods I'm giving up for 30 days:

1. Chocolate

This will be difficult. DH says I'm a chocoholic. I don't think it's quite that bad, but I do tend to have chocolate almost every day. Some of my favourite dairy-free chocolate comes from Chocolate Decadence. They're a fantastic shop that's grown a lot since a dear friend found them online. They have a brick and mortar store as well as an online shop now. 

2. Starbucks Green Tea Latte 

I normally have it unsweetened, but the soy milk they use has sugar added, so none of these either. Plus it's a good reason to discontinue Starbucks altogether. I still don't get the allure, but I have been buying these off and on for years. It's not every day, more like weekly or monthly, but I can easily make an excuse to stop and get one. 

3. Newman cookies

I love most varieties and most don't have dairy so I can eat them, they're so good. The Minty-Os are my absolute favourite. A close second would be the dark chocolate chip orange cookies and the double chocolate mint cookies. 

4. Baked goods from the local health food store 

They make a vegan chocolate mint cookie that is amazing and normally a weekly treat (or more!) There's also a great vegan chocolate chip cookie and they have vegan cupcakes... cupcakes! 

5. Bread/Bagels

I try and avoid bread anyway, but I work quite near a great bagel shop and when I don't have time for breakfast I'll grab a bagel there. This probably won't be as big a challenge as the others so far. 

6. Breakfast cereal

As far as I can tell breakfast cereal always has sugar added. I will have to come up with something since I can't eat oatmeal since I had DD. Breakfast cereal is something I had almost every morning and replacing it will be one of the most difficult parts of this challenge. 

7. Liz Lovely cookies

These cookies are AMAZING! I will say I don't have them often since they're a little expensive, but they are so worth it. They're gluten free and dairy free and melt in your mouth delicious. She recently came up with cookie truffles that I would like to try, but that won't be this month. My favourite kind would be triple chocolate mint that has a chocolate mint cookie, chocolate chips and chocolate drizzled on top. It's one of the few very chocolately treats that doesn't feel too rich when you're finished. 

One of the best things about these cookies is they come 2 to a pack so you can share with someone, or not. :)

8. Ice Cream

Summer hit us with a bang and we didn't get much spring, so giving up ice cream for 30 days will be hard. Especially the one I linked to, So Delicious Coconut Milk Turtle Trails. It reminds me of my favourite ice cream growing up, Tin Roof Sundae. I have no idea why it's called that. It consists of vanilla ice cream, caramel swirl and chocolate covered candied pecans... so delicious! :)

9. Mints

I work with the public, so I'm going to say up front I don't know if this one is possible. I can't do sugar-free mints since they tend to include sorbitol and I don't react well to that. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know, but I don't know if I'll be able to pull this one off. 

10. Fruit Popsicles

You can easily convince yourself these are "healthy" since they have fruit, and they don't contain high fructose corn syrup, but they are still pretty full of sugar. It's hot here, and it would be nice to have these on the really warm days, but I can wait until it's really scorching in July. 

For breakfast today I had scrambled egg whites, my tea had half as much maple syrup as usual, and lunch was hummus, snap peas and veggie chips (no added sugar). I'm not sure what supper will be, but so far so good. 

Thanks, and happy stitching,

Tiffstitch