No Sweets For The Sweet

It's An Unsweet Life

Cycle 1

Day 71

Diary of a JJ Virgin Diet Follower

Hey Diary,

Living an unsweet life is really growing on me and fast becoming my newly adopted lifestyle. What I'm trying to say is stay away from anything, and I'm saying anything that has anything that even looks like sugar(period). Sugar and artificial sweeteners are lurking in so many unsuspecting places. Yep, there is sugar and unnatural sweeteners hidden in some of the most unimaginable places. 

 

Just read the label.  Sometimes its boldly written on the front label and sometimes its written I very small print, hardly noticeable. Sugar and artificial sweetener can easily sabotage my weight loss progress, causing me to gain weight and making label read a necessity.  

For instance, the frozen berries (I use in my smoothies) must be organic and unsweetened with no sugar added. One day, while doing my smoothie shopping, I picked up a package of blueberries, flipping the package over, I read the ingredients, "Blueberries, Sugar".  Clearly, the packaging told me that sugar had been added to the frozen blueberries. However, I was looking to buy some unsweetened, with no sugar added frozen berries for my smoothies, only to find sugar added sweetened berries. Soo... note to self, check the label and make certain that the product has not been sweetened enhanced and that absolutely no sugar's been added. 

Really, if want to sweeten up my smoothie, I'd just add a little Stevia. But, I rarely use Stevia in my smoothies because most of the organic berries are sweet enough for me.

 

I enjoy a good balsamic vinegar drizzled on my salads. And before my JJ Virgin Diet journey, I formerly enjoyed dipping a freshly baked piece of French bread in to some oil and vinegar- but no more. I really don't miss the taste either. There is a some controversy over traditional balsamic vinegar and shelf vinegar and the sugar content. However, I use a really good balsamic vinegar of Modena, a Product of Italy and it contains 1 gram of sugar(nutritional facts). It's great for making JJ Virgin's Everyday Vinaigrette on page 263 of The Virgin Diet book. It is delicious!

 

When grocery and online shopping I'm always on the look out for words like sugar, sweetener, or flavor enhancers. There are many other sugary names too, but I only want the unsweetened products, and no sugar, or no sugar added foods. Having no sugar and artificial sweeteners in my diet will accelerate the weight loss process, so I'm all in. Time consuming as it might be, I make a point checking and rechecking the nutritional and supplemental facts,  and the ingredients. Sometimes it takes a magnifying glass to look real close. The information is there.