What are the challenges of going sweetener free?

I am now nearly halfway through my no sweetener challenge. It may seem like this challenge has been simple for me, but that is far from the truth. Some aspects of the challenge have been particularly difficult.

The hardest part of the challenge for me has been making many foods from scratch. There are basic pantry items that I generally purchase, but now need to make from scratch since the store bought version almost always has some sort of added sweetener. Foods like bread, pasta sauce (I subbed tomato sauce which doesn't contain sugar, but unfortunately doesn't make a good ziti either), duck sauce and barbeque sauce (I subbed soy sauce, olive oil and spices depending on what I needed it for) are totally off limits. I needed to think out of the box or get my hands (and the kitchen) dirty to make a good sweetener free version of the food I wanted.

You also need to think outside the box. There are some foods that either were too time consuming to make from scratch or it just wasn't possible to make this food item without sugar. In those cases, I needed to substitute something else for the sweetener or not eat that product for a week. Instead of dessert (you can't make that without any sort of sweetener. Trust me I checked into it) I had fruit, a natural Larabar and a baked sweet potato. Those foods gave me the sweetness I wanted without any added sweetener. I usually dip my chicken in ketchup, this time I used mustard. It tasted different, but still good. Maple syrup was a no no for my waffles, so I dipped them in natural peanut butter and plain yogurt with blended strawberries.

It was also challenging not to eat what everyone else is eating. The family is eating chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies, they are off limits to me! I can't have a bowl of cereal with milk (many contain added sweetener) while everyone else is.

Another thing that bothered me was that I couldn't taste foods I was preparing that contained sweetener. I was whipping up my favorite chocolate cupcakes and cookies and I couldn't even lick the bowl! I sort of made up for that my saving some cookie dough and cupcakes for me to taste when my challenge is over.