Welcome to day ten of the Sugar Free Challenge! Today is officially the last day of the challenge. I have had so much fun creating sample menus and helping you all with the challenge. A big thank you to everyone who joined! I hope you all had a great time learning (and eating!) sugar-free food. Maybe you found that it wasn’t as hard as you thought? Or perhaps you found you ate too much sugar before?
Here is today’s sample menu:
Breakfast: Mocha Oatmeal.
Lunch: Steak Salad. Sliced steak, spinach, cucumbers, red peppers, onions, olives, fresh strawberries all drizzled in balsamic vinegar and ground black pepper.
Dinner: Leanne’s Comforting Baked Mac n’ Cheese with Bacon. Goodness gracious everybody, this gluten-free, dairy-free mac n’ cheese tastes delicious! It really is comforting-nice and warm in my belly 😀
Dessert: Chocolate Almond Cookie Dough Bites.
Again, thank you all so much! I have had a wonderful time with this challenge. I hope you continue to eat at least low-sugar (if not sugar-free!). A word of warning: be careful going back to sugar this week and weekend. Don’t go over board because your body is not used to eating sugar these past ten days.
Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:
How was the sugar-free challenge???!!! Please tell me all your experiences and how your body feels! I would love to know!
Love that oats combo! Looks amazing!
Thanks for organising this challenge! It feels great having to go without sugar. By the 4th day, I wasn’t missing it at all. There were times when I wanted to have the peanut butter which had added sugar. I really need to get a blender to make some of your great creations and some sugar free peanut butter ASAP!
I love your recipes. They’re so easy to make and taste great.
I think I’ll still use agave nectar and stevia but definitely no more refined sugar. Hopefully, it won’t be lurking in unknown places because I plan to go without it for the rest of my life… and i’m only 14 😀
Thanks for joining! I am so glad you feel good and am ecstatic that you want to continue low-sugar forever-wow!
And for the pb: I get mine at costco. It is sooo good, organic, no added sugar, and inexpensive. Smucker’s Natural doesn’t contain any added sugar and it is sold at most grocery stores.
I did a post today about my thoughts on doing the challenge. Really glad I did it, but I think for me a little sugar is okay. I think that was the lesson I learned 🙂 Thanks so much for putting this together 🙂
Wow…I was sitting in Aruba when I was reading about it starting…and it feels like Ive been back home forever, and yet the challenge is just ending. 10 days though IS a long time! Congrats!!!!!!!
I’m so glad you chose to do this challenge.
Unfortunately I didn’t make it.
Tried my best though. 🙁
I’m definitely going to try to eat low sugar still! And try to eliminate it one or two days a week!
We’ll see!
I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did!! 🙂
Go sugar free challenge! I can’t wait to hear how everyone found the adventure. I’m glad you liked my mac n’ cheese recipe!
I loved reading along and enjoyed all of the recipes too! congrats on a fun challenge!
Feeling pretty good! I did have white flour accidentally (which for me is like having sugar), but other than that I felt great during the challenge. I’ll most likely only add something here or there, but I pretty much eat this way normally. Thanks for organizing a great challenge!
Yay! So glad you did well 😀 Thanks for joining!
so sorry I wimped out on this. I loved the idea but had a crazy couple of weeks not the time to think about anything “new’ though I eat little sugar anyway. Congrats to all who participated.
Hey, this was great! I have been sugar-free before, but I’m a 2nd grade teacher and there is so much sugar around me daily, I fell off the wagon. This was a perfect way to begin my summer vacation. I did find that I can overdo bananas and nut butters, so a bit of caution for me there. However, after the first couple of days I felt good and didn’t miss sugar. I’m not going back, though I might add a drop or two of stevia to my morning coffee.
I’m curious about your gluten-freeness. Is there a medical or specific health reason for it? I’ve looked into it. I don’t think I have an intolerance, so I’m not sure if there would be any benefit to giving up wheat. I don’t eat white flour (much) but rely on whole grains, especially Food For Life’s Ezekiel bread, maybe a little too much.
Glad you had a great week! And am so glad that you are thinking about continuing!
I used to get bad stomach cramps after I ate, so I gave up gluten and I have felt great since! Don’t think I am allergic or anything, but I don’t know-haven’t tested. I really do believe, though, that our bodies were not meant to eat gluten. It turns into “glue” in your gut, and it is hard to digest. However, I have heard that sprouted grains are better for you and some gluten-intolerant people can handle sprouted.
That went pretty fast.
I will definitely be somewhere in the middle but much much much less sugar than I used to eat!
thanks for the challenge!!!
I started a day early so yesterday was day 10 for me – I made it! There were a couple of days that I had some sugar that was hiding in things I never expected it to be in – but I learned to *always* read the labels because you never know. Even the Veggie Straws they were sampling last night at Costco have sugar in them – glad I skipped them! Overall I felt good – there were a couple of days that my blood sugar got too low when I was exercising a lot and I had to add in some extra fruit – again, another thing learned. 🙂 Best of all, I lost a couple of pounds without even trying! I hope to continue a reduced sugar diet from now on though I will occasionally splurge with real ice cream (even though banana soft-serve *is* the best! 🙂 Thanks for organizing this challenge!
Hi Christine!
So glad you did well on the challenge, and feel great! Thanks for joining!
DAY 10 DAY 10 DAY 10!
Yesss! With the exception of some VERY NECESSARY vanilla bean gelato after my hardest final, I made it! I have felt pretty darn good, too. The challenge helped/forced me to evaluate my sugar cravings. I think that sometimes they are legitiimate – like I have low blood sugar and my body basically just wants some carbs and other times they are simply emotional, like after a hard day at the internship I just want some sweet, creamy comfort in the form of froyo. Yaknow?
Sounds like the challenge was a HUGE success. Filled with glorious, delicious food 😀
Thank you SO much for organizing this challenge and for posting your sample menus for these entire 10 days. You are an amazing cook and I WISH I had enough patience and a bit of love for cooking to be able to create some of your recipes. I am talking about your desserts, mostly; which sound too complicated for ME to make! OR maybe I am just afraid that if I make something “desserty” (like that PB cake, or homemade PB cups, or those cookie-dogh bites), I am just going to consume them all!!! 😉 Moderation is what I need to work on more than anything…
Anyway, as far as sugar – I have been sugar free for over 7 months already, but was eating stevia. To be honest – dropping stevia was TOUGH! I am a bodybuilder and all the protein powders and even aminos that I need to use for building muscles contain sweeteners. I ONLY buy the ones with stevia in them since I cannot and don’t want to have any other sugars. I don’t eat and cannot actually eat fruit on a daily basis either. I TRIED to do BCAA and plain protein but gosh it was just disgusting! LOL So, 3 days of stevia free and I was back at it again. 🙁
Not 100% success but I won’t beat myself up for it. As long as I don’t feel any side effects having a little bit of stevia in my diet (I literally use 2 little packets a day MAX; mostly, just 1) – it’s all good, right?! 😉
Hey Margarita!
My recipes are not hard to make at all-or else I wouldn’t make them! You should try-they are super easy!
But I’m glad you learned what you needed. I understand completely what you mean about your stevia in protein powders. You have to do what you have to do!!!
Although I didn’t do the challenge, your recipes look wonderful and some of them will definitely be making an appearance in my tummy soon! 😉
Somehow I accidently commented my response to your post today on the post you put up yesterday. oops! feel free to delete it from yesterdays entry because here it is again:
I’m really glad I took part in this! I really enjoyed it, and I found that after the first little struggle (to located sugar free items) it wasn’t that hard. Once you have all the sugar free stuff (and don’t have to look through 10+ loaves of bread to find one that doesn’t contain sugar or sweeteners) its really not that bad to grab and go a healthy sugar free breakfast/lunch/snack. The most challenging part was probably the shopping and trying to find something sugar free while out at the mall/cafe. Other than that it was great!
I think you should have another sugar free challenge in the near future and perhaps this time challenge people to do it for a month (maybe a 30 day month haha).
I will defs try to keep my diet low sugar from now on, and not buy products with hidden sugars. Why buy PB with sugar when the one without is so much better!?!?! and better for you.
Also YOU WERE AMAZING throughout this whole challenge with your daily menu ideas and recipes and emails! You really kept me motivated!! I’ve tried a few of your recipes now and they are great. I will be doing a post either tonight or tomorrow on the sugar free challenge too if you want more detail about my experience with it.
Thanks for doing this, and for being so great and supportive!
Thanks for organizing the challenge Alex. Life is so much better without sugar 😀
I’m planning on staying “white sugar free” for as long as I can. Loving your recipes and ideas. I am adding back in fruit, honey and about to try stevia but trying to maintain a fairly “low” level of sweetness overall if I can. Limiting myself to 2 serves of fruit (or unsweetened juice or juice sweetened snacks) per day. Will see how that goes.
Have to admit I find it so much harder when I’m away from home (I’m also wheat free but not gluten free). Need to work on forward planning a little more I think. And need to work on low fat protein intake to maintain my blood sugar levels (once they drop, it’s so hard to pick them back up again).
Thanks for the challenge. I hope you do another one down the track.