First Sugar-Free Week was Bittersweet

In our attempt to start eating healthier, my husband and I have decided to reduce bad sugars from our diets. We've substituted our sugar intake with honey. So instead of putting 1 teaspoon of sugar in our tea/coffee, we put half/one teaspoon of honey. It's not easy because we both have really bad sweet tooths. However, we are doing our best to keep at it. I admit, our first week was not completely "sugar-free" but we certainly did reduce our junk food consumption. Instead of having dessert after our meal(s), we have fruits. Also, I baked my first sugar-free treat this week. I made carrot muffins and substituted it with 1/4 cup of honey, as opposed to the 1/2 cup of sugar that the recipe requires. The baking rule is: if you replace sugar with honey, use half the amount of honey. Honey has such a distinct flavour that it can overpower the other flavours in the dessert.

We've agreed upon still allowing ourselves to eat dessert once a week, so I've given myself the weekends as my "cheat day" or "dessert day." On the contrary, we need to remind ourselves that instead of having 2 large slices of cake, we can only to have 1 small slice. It does take a lot of self control and sometimes it can be really tempting to reach for the bowl of ice cream, instead of a piece of fruit.

Our largest junk food purchase is when we do a Bulk Barn haul, which usually includes chocolate almonds, chocolate raisins and banana chips. Those usually finish within the week. Also, when ice cream is on sale, we tend to stock up with 2-3 containers of them. Now we have a whole lot of ice cream in our freezer that will take a lot longer to finish than originally planned!

Carrot muffins baked with honey.