Fasting 2017 - No Sugar, No Alcohol, No Meat

Green Smoothies are great for breakfast

For the last few years I have used lent, starting after carnival here in the Rhineland, to give up sugar for those few weeks. The reason was that I was getting the feeling that sugar had such a power over me that I couldn't resist it, whether it was in the form of chocolate, cake or ice-cream. I wanted to proof myself that I am stronger than sugar if I want to.
(You can read about my sugar-fasting experience 2016 here.) This year Mr. Schön decided to join and as he likes to do stuff extreme, sugar was not enough for him, he also wants to quit meat and give up alcohol and coffee as well. I agreed, as actually meat and alcohol is not so difficult for me and why not? Coffee is another story. I don't need it or miss it, but I actually think coffee is good for you, so I might drink have one once in a while.

The carrot cake we made for carnival. I just love cake!

Fasting seems to be a new thing. During the last weeks I have always had groups on facebook with people that supported each other through the sugarless times, which helped. But I asked my friends whether anyone else uses this - originally religiously motivated - time to quit some bad habits or foods. The response was quite overwhelming! A lot of people responded in that they quit alcohol for a few weeks, most people don't touch any sweets and one of them even has the plan not to buy anything that isn't really neccessary and to get rid of useless stuff in her apartment. That is actually a plan we have had for a while, as there is just so much junk in our flat. We own guitars no one plays anymore, lamps that we don't use, etc. Some of the stuff is great and could make somebody really happy. We will sell the stuff online and I vow to make a list about all the objects today.

Bye Bye cocktails. For now...

It has only been five days, but so far we have been really good. We are food-planning now and buy all the wonderful produce for the whole week. That way we spend much less money - no going out for dinner - and the motivation for cooking is much bigger, if you know what to cook and recipe and ingredients are already there in front of you.
We recently watched a tv documentary about how nutrition can be used to treat various conditions. From rheumatic problems to migraine they can improve the suffering by eating the right diet. I am convinced that "You are what you eat" is truer than many would admit, by eating the right food we can already improve our conditions so much.
This morning we used one of the shows recipes to make a cashew milk with cinnamon, which was really good and apparently helps improve high blood pressure and migraines both.

I will keep you posted about what we are eating, which recipes we recommend and how our sugar-, meat- and alcohol-free life progresses. At the moment I am still in this "high-time" where you just feel so good about yourself for doing it and imagining that your jeans get more loose everyday. But I know from the last two years that there will come a time when the fasting thing is less new and less sexy and I will crave sugary food. Next week I will have a fairly stressful week at work, so let's see how that goes...

Green Smoothies are also easier to get "to go" which is just awesome!