"Oh my gosh, Nicole! These pies are sugar-free!" my mom screamed at me through the thick crowd at the farmer's market. It was nearly noon and the sun was bearing down on the back of my neck and causing my spine to sweat. It was bearable because I was so distracted by all the people and activities and dogs on leashes weaving their way through the packed sidewalks. My mom's words were music to my ears. I was busy staring at the baseball-sized radishes at the next booth when I heard her yell. I back-tracked and immediately feasted my eyes on the pies spread out over the table. "Pear sweetened," the ingredients label said. I asked the guy behind the table if that was correct. "We don't use any refined sugar. We use a natural sweetener that comes from our pears." There were so many flavors but I was obsessed with two in particular: rhubarb and rhubarb-strawberry. It didn't take me long to pick up the rhubarb strawberry pie. It felt like it weighed about 10 pounds. I carried my pie all throughout the market and after a while my arm started aching under the weight of it. Once we returned home, I dove into that pie...right into the belly of it. The crust just melted in my mouth and the strawberries tasted very fresh. It was almost too sweet, though. I didn't get the satisfaction that the tartness of rhubarb usually gives. But it was loaded with both strawberries and rhubarb and very tasty. Next time I visit the market, I am going to find out if they sell the sweetener. The farm is called, "Packer Orchards". They had a great selection of fresh-picked cherries and also miscellaneous baked goods (not all sugar-free!).
On a side note, at a different booth at the market, I saw giant cucumbers and even larger carrots. I bought a carrot that was bigger around than my arm. Organic? I don't think so!
3 comments:
Cool blog! Have you noticed any changes so far in the way you feel, look, etc since starting the year of no sugar?
Cool blog! Have you noticed any changes in the way you feel, look, etc., since beginning the year of no sugar?
Weirdly enough, I have not noticed much change at all since I cut out sugar entirely. It may be that because I have always been a health nut, I didn't eat a lot of sugar to begin with. I was really hoping to lose a little around my middle, but I guess the old adage is true: diet AND exercise. I wonder if all of my sugar alternatives sort of keep the glucose the same as before, and therefore I am still storing fat, just from different sources. It is hard to say.
One of the most evident changes has been my attitude about my willpower. I feel like I can do anything now that I've kicked sugar. I feel like giving myself a really hard goal now because I know nothing will be as hard as cutting out sugar, and yet I did that.
Oh, another change from being sugar-free is that I don't have ups and downs like people consuming sugar. This is most evident at parties where people are mingling, eating junk food, cake, sodas, etc. For a while there is a lot of energy going around, and then shortly after, I watch as the "quiet crash" takes over people one by one. I feel like my blood sugar levels don't peak and crash like they used to.
Lastly, I read once that mosquitoes will go for people who have sugar in their diet and ignore those who don't. This has somewhat been the case and I have done a lot of forest camping this summer. I usually get out with one bite or no bites and friends have left with several on each leg and their arms.
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