Food Challenge Week 13: Nothing Artificial

This should be an easy challenge this week.  We have already really eliminated everything artificial.  I did buy a couple of things yesterday, not realizing what the challenge was this week, that I may have to put away.  We eat very few processed items but I did buy Cheerios this week (much to Lainey's delight) and I think they have a trace of some kind of preservative in them.  I guess she will be disappointed when the box is gone tomorrow.

I wanted to talk more about eliminating sweeteners/sugars.  We spent 3 weeks basically eliminating all sweeteners.  Only 2 weeks were required but I felt like this is an area that I have been pretty slacking on in the past and wanted to really get an idea of how our diets would have to change.

I was pleasantly surprised to find it fairly easy.  The hardest thing to give up was baking.  I love to bake.  Baked goods taste good and it is a fun activity with the kids.  I was probably baking once a week so we always had some type of dessert available.  I didn't miss the desserts as much as I thought I would although this week my kids have been asking to make cookies and have been pretending to go to the grocery store for chocolate chips.  Ha!

There are lots of things that I found we get used to adding sugar too that don't need it.  I think post-challenge I am going to limit baking to once a month.  I will continue to buy items with no added sugar.  My favorite discovery during the sugar elimination challenge was home made yogurt!  It is awesome and so easy to make!  The kids thought it was fantastic and ate it plain with a few blueberries mixed in.  I think my days of store-bought yogurt are a thing of the past.

Did anyone else join us in our sugar/sweetener free week??  If not, I again challenge you to try it!  It is quite eye opening and I think you feel a lot better too.