Aschermittwoch ist alles vorbei (It's all over on Ash Wednesday)
Aschermittwoch marks the end of carnival season, a big party in the area I live in. We always celebrate carnival big, with lots of friends and nice costumes. And lots of sugar and alcohol, of course. The overly sugary food around carnival, following another very unhealthy time of year, christmas, causes the bad feeling we all know, the feeling of sugar weighing us down. It is no wonder that spring is a time for fasting. After Ash Wednesday, Lent officially starts. It is a very useful tradition, not only to prepare your body for spring, but to make you feel better after a time of sin ;-)
We should be aware that Lent is no invention of the church, fasting is a much older tradition.
Two years ago I decided to give up sugar for the time of Lent. I am not a Christian, but it is a good tradition, found in many religions and cultures, to give up something that you feel has power over you, maybe something you do exceedingly. It is a time of empowerment. of regaining control over aspects of your life and can be very spiritual in itself. Sugar fastening was quite hard from time to time two years ago and all that kept me going was the longing for chocolate on Easter Sunday.
This year proves to be a bit different. I have just started with the sugarfree time. but at least till now I do not miss my candy much. Two years ago, tomatoes and coffee with milk have helped me through the sugarfree weeks. In preparation I bought heaps of fresh and sundried tomatoes, so if I ever crave something sweet, I can just have some tomatoes. Banana with peanutsquish (without added sugar or salt) are a good snack if you feel like you need something sweet.
We have been quite good this year so far, when it comes to cooking. Mr. Schön and me we like to try all kinds of recipes and I have the ambition to eat more typical winter veggies, as long as they are still around. Brussel spouts, kale... Yesterday we tried a recipe with brussel sprout, fried in a pan, with pasta, mixed with parmesan and lemon peel and some cream. It was delicious! The other day, we made steak and guess who really wanted to have a piece of it. Or rather all of it...
Our food nowadays is loaded with sugar: ketchup, peanut butter, alcohol. juice, soda, you name it. I have no figures or number for you, but I guess that sugar addiction is the most common addiction there is in our times. Sweets are so present in our everyday life that everytime I almost ate something sweet during the last week, was when I was not paying attention to what I was drinking or eating. For example soft drinks on parties. While sugar used to be a rare good in the olden days, you can now find it almost everywhere- cake. joghurt, drinks, even salad, fast food, etc. If you are hooked on sugar like most of us are nowadays, maybe you want to give it up for a while as well.
Those tips might be helpful:
- give away all your sugary food, maybe take it to work, usually there are a few hungry people there.
- A.J. Jacobs writes in "Drop Dead Healthy" about how he wrote a cheque of I think 1000 $ to the American Nazi party, and if he failed to keep his hands off the mango slices he loved to eat, the money would go to those idiots. This is a good way to motivate you, even when the flesh is weak, it might help to make your spirit stronger, if in case you fail, something horrible happens.
- I just read about the suggestion to give up sugar step by step and to first write down a lot of sugary food you usually like to eat. Every evening, you mark the food you did not eat that day. I can imagine that seeing how the list grows you get motivated to eat better and better.
- Find the food you like to eat instead of candy. Sundried tomatoes work for me, plus everything containing milk, as milk has sugar in it as well.
- If you happen to eat a piece of cake or chocoate, don't stop the whole project. None of us is perfect and that's ok. Maybe you just really needed this piece right then. Keep up with the plan and don't think about the occasion.
- Reduce stress. It helps me big time that nowadays I work more from home, where I better control what to eat and when to eat. When in the office, often I do not take the break to eat in peace, ending up with really bad food choices. Try to avoid stress and eat early in the day, to not let you crave sugary food on an empty stomach.
- I am putting everything I eat into an app. It sounds like a lot of work. but the app is actually quick in finding all the ingredients, plus I always find time for it on the train or in the evening on the sofa. It motivates me big time to eat healthily and also to do some workout I can write down into the app. For this, I am using Lifesum, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
- A side effect of the sugar diet last time was my weight loss. It was not much for six weeks (six pounds) I think, but it was a nice side effect. Maybe I will have the same effect this year, but as it is the main goal to become empowered when it comes to food choices, it is not really important.
- If you do not want to give up sweet stuff, there are loads of sugarfree recipes online, for example check out pinterest for it. Natural sweeteners like dates or agave should be chosen over artificial sweeteners like aspartam, which I think is even worse than sugar.
- two years ago I wrote about a great recipe for Mousse au Chocolat. It was seriously better than the original sugarloaded thing. There are heaps of recipes on the internet, just check them out.
- We are in one boat: a lot of people use Lent to do sugarfasting and it is always easy if you share your battle with others. Find groups on facebook, pins on pinterest, etc. to make the time easier.
Bon Appetit!
 |
| Lisek didn't understand what "Cheese" was supposed to mean... |
We should be aware that Lent is no invention of the church, fasting is a much older tradition.
Two years ago I decided to give up sugar for the time of Lent. I am not a Christian, but it is a good tradition, found in many religions and cultures, to give up something that you feel has power over you, maybe something you do exceedingly. It is a time of empowerment. of regaining control over aspects of your life and can be very spiritual in itself. Sugar fastening was quite hard from time to time two years ago and all that kept me going was the longing for chocolate on Easter Sunday.
 |
| It's bye bye chocolate again! |
This year proves to be a bit different. I have just started with the sugarfree time. but at least till now I do not miss my candy much. Two years ago, tomatoes and coffee with milk have helped me through the sugarfree weeks. In preparation I bought heaps of fresh and sundried tomatoes, so if I ever crave something sweet, I can just have some tomatoes. Banana with peanutsquish (without added sugar or salt) are a good snack if you feel like you need something sweet.
We have been quite good this year so far, when it comes to cooking. Mr. Schön and me we like to try all kinds of recipes and I have the ambition to eat more typical winter veggies, as long as they are still around. Brussel spouts, kale... Yesterday we tried a recipe with brussel sprout, fried in a pan, with pasta, mixed with parmesan and lemon peel and some cream. It was delicious! The other day, we made steak and guess who really wanted to have a piece of it. Or rather all of it...
 |
| Lisek watching Mr. Schön's every step... |
Our food nowadays is loaded with sugar: ketchup, peanut butter, alcohol. juice, soda, you name it. I have no figures or number for you, but I guess that sugar addiction is the most common addiction there is in our times. Sweets are so present in our everyday life that everytime I almost ate something sweet during the last week, was when I was not paying attention to what I was drinking or eating. For example soft drinks on parties. While sugar used to be a rare good in the olden days, you can now find it almost everywhere- cake. joghurt, drinks, even salad, fast food, etc. If you are hooked on sugar like most of us are nowadays, maybe you want to give it up for a while as well.
Those tips might be helpful:
- give away all your sugary food, maybe take it to work, usually there are a few hungry people there.
- A.J. Jacobs writes in "Drop Dead Healthy" about how he wrote a cheque of I think 1000 $ to the American Nazi party, and if he failed to keep his hands off the mango slices he loved to eat, the money would go to those idiots. This is a good way to motivate you, even when the flesh is weak, it might help to make your spirit stronger, if in case you fail, something horrible happens.
- I just read about the suggestion to give up sugar step by step and to first write down a lot of sugary food you usually like to eat. Every evening, you mark the food you did not eat that day. I can imagine that seeing how the list grows you get motivated to eat better and better.
- Find the food you like to eat instead of candy. Sundried tomatoes work for me, plus everything containing milk, as milk has sugar in it as well.
- If you happen to eat a piece of cake or chocoate, don't stop the whole project. None of us is perfect and that's ok. Maybe you just really needed this piece right then. Keep up with the plan and don't think about the occasion.
- Reduce stress. It helps me big time that nowadays I work more from home, where I better control what to eat and when to eat. When in the office, often I do not take the break to eat in peace, ending up with really bad food choices. Try to avoid stress and eat early in the day, to not let you crave sugary food on an empty stomach.
- I am putting everything I eat into an app. It sounds like a lot of work. but the app is actually quick in finding all the ingredients, plus I always find time for it on the train or in the evening on the sofa. It motivates me big time to eat healthily and also to do some workout I can write down into the app. For this, I am using Lifesum, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
- A side effect of the sugar diet last time was my weight loss. It was not much for six weeks (six pounds) I think, but it was a nice side effect. Maybe I will have the same effect this year, but as it is the main goal to become empowered when it comes to food choices, it is not really important.
- If you do not want to give up sweet stuff, there are loads of sugarfree recipes online, for example check out pinterest for it. Natural sweeteners like dates or agave should be chosen over artificial sweeteners like aspartam, which I think is even worse than sugar.
- two years ago I wrote about a great recipe for Mousse au Chocolat. It was seriously better than the original sugarloaded thing. There are heaps of recipes on the internet, just check them out.
- We are in one boat: a lot of people use Lent to do sugarfasting and it is always easy if you share your battle with others. Find groups on facebook, pins on pinterest, etc. to make the time easier.
Bon Appetit!
 |
| Tonight's dinner. Yum! |
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